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Show HN: Rowan, an open-source SAST scanner for AI apps (code, models, MCP)"

Hedgerow-dev released Rowan, an open-source static application security testing (SAST) scanner for AI and ML projects, installable via `pipx install "rowan-sast[js-crossfile]"` on Python 3.10+. Rowan scans source code and model files for injection, unsafe deserialization, SSRF, leaked secrets, risky agent tools and unsafe model loading, and ships a rule catalog of 590 rules across 48 YAML files (400 regex rules and 190 Opengrep taint rules). The tool is in alpha, never runs the scanned code or calls an LLM, and its only network calls are dependency lookups to OSV.

read3 min views3 publishedOct 3, 2026
Show HN: Rowan, an open-source SAST scanner for AI apps (code, models, MCP)"
Image: Michielbdejong (auto-discovered)

Find security issues in your code and AI/ML projects, with evidence you can review.

Rowan reads your project's source code and model files and reports likely vulnerabilities: injection, unsafe deserialization, SSRF, leaked secrets, risky agent tools, unsafe model and more. It never runs your code.

Alpha. Treat every finding as a lead to check, not a confirmed bug. A clean report does not prove a project is secure.

You need Python 3.10+ and pipx, which installs command-line tools into their own environment (on macOS: brew install pipx, then pipx ensurepath and open a new terminal).

1. Install Rowan:

pipx install "rowan-sast[js-crossfile]"

Already use uv? uv tool install "rowan-sast[js-crossfile]" works too. A plain pip install fails on Homebrew Python by design; see getting started for a virtual-environment install.

2. Install the scan engine (Opengrep) and check it:

rowan install-engine
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
rowan self-test

self-test should print [OK] three times.

3. Scan a project:

rowan scan /path/to/your-project

Windows, troubleshooting and more detail: getting started.

Paste this into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or any agent that can run terminal commands, with your project open:

Install Rowan and scan this project for security issues.
1. Install it in its own folder (not inside this project) by following
   https://github.com/hedgerow-dev/rowan/blob/main/docs/getting-started.md
2. Run `rowan self-test`. If the engine is not [OK], stop and tell me.
3. Run: rowan scan <this project's absolute path> --no-project-config
   --no-sca --audit -f json -o <a folder outside this project>/rowan-report.json
4. If summary.degraded is true, tell me the scan is incomplete and why.
5. List the High and Critical findings with file:line links. For each one,
   say whether you checked the code or it is still just a lead.
6. Do not change any code in this project.

--no-sca keeps this first scan offline. Drop it to also check your dependencies for known CVEs (this sends package names and versions to OSV).

rowan scan PATH                                  # readable report
rowan scan PATH --audit                          # include low-severity findings
rowan scan PATH -f json -o report.json           # save a report (also: html, sarif)
rowan scan PATH --ci --severity high             # CI: exit 1 on high/critical findings
rowan scan PATH --write-baseline base.json       # record today's findings...
rowan scan PATH --ci --baseline base.json        # ...then report only new ones

With --ci, exit code 0 means no findings, 1 means findings, and 2 means the scan was incomplete. Reports can contain source code and secrets: review them before sharing.

Area Coverage
Source code Injection, unsafe deserialization, path traversal, SSRF, XSS, secrets
AI/ML apps Model , agent tools, LLM output handling, prompt files, MCP config
Dataflow Within-file through Opengrep; cross-file for Python and JS/TS, limited for Go
Dependencies Known CVEs, reachability hints, CycloneDX SBOM and OpenVEX output
Model files Pickle, PyTorch, GGUF, SafeTensors, Keras, ONNX, TensorFlow, numpy, joblib (via Hayward )

Python and JS/TS get the deepest analysis. Java, Kotlin and C# get within-file dataflow. Ruby, PHP and Rust get limited pattern checks. The report lists what it could not analyze.

The rule catalog has 590 rules across 48 YAML files. That is 400 regex rules and 190 taint rules (Opengrep). See the rule catalog.

rowan scan never calls an LLM or uploads your code. Its only network calls are dependency lookups (OSV and FIRST EPSS), which --no-sca turns off. The experimental rowan hunt command does send code to the LLM you configure: see the usage guide.

MIT. Opengrep is a separate LGPL-2.1 engine and is not bundled.

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