Getting Started

Getting Started

Installation

From source (requires Go 1.23+)

go install github.com/HoraDomu/Atheon@latest

Pre-built binaries

Download from the Releases page for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Your first scan

# Scan the current directory
atheon .

# Scan a specific directory
atheon /path/to/repo

# Scan a single file
atheon scan secrets.env

CLI reference

Command	Description
atheon .	Scan current directory
atheon --file <path>	Scan a single file
atheon --env	Scan environment variables
atheon list	List all patterns with enabled/disabled status
atheon list --enabled	List only enabled patterns
atheon list --disabled	List only disabled patterns
atheon list categories	List available pattern categories
atheon enable <pattern>	Enable a pattern by name
atheon disable <pattern>	Disable a pattern by name

Output formats

# Default (human-readable)
atheon .

# JSON (pipe-friendly)
atheon . --format json

# Redact matched values
atheon . --redact

Ignoring paths

Create a .atheonignore file in your repo root — same syntax as .gitignore:

# ignore test fixtures
testdata/
*.golden

# ignore a specific file
internal/testkeys.go

# negation — ignore all of dist/ except one file
dist/
!dist/keep.yaml

# character class negation ([!...] means "not any of these")
[!a-z]*.txt

Full gitignore syntax is supported: ** globs, ! negation rules, and [!...] character class negation. Atheon also respects .gitignore automatically.

Pre-commit hook

To block commits containing findings:

# .git/hooks/pre-commit
#!/bin/sh
atheon . && exit 0