APD Gauntlet

Multi-agent security architecture review for technical plans and running systems. You give it a tech plan plus whatever supporting artifacts you have (PRD, source code, IaC, diagrams, threat models, ADRs); nine specialist agents — orchestrated by Claude Code — review it through nine independent security lenses; a synthesizer dedups across lenses, surfaces contradictions, and emits an advisory report with an interactive HTML view.

The output is structured advisory input for an architect — not a gate. It doesn't approve or block changes; it makes the human review better-informed and harder to bypass.

New here? Start with the Quickstart — install in a minute, then drive a review by simply chatting with Claude (includes example prompts).

1. What it does

The review is organized around the APD framework — three tiers, nine goals:

Trustworthiness  →  Confidentiality · Integrity · Availability
Scalability      →  Distributed · Resilient · Ephemeral
Auditability     →  Authenticity · Non-Repudiation · Immutability

Each run produces:

• An advisory report (40-synthesis/advisory-report.md) and a self-contained interactive HTML report with tabs for Start-here, Overview, Findings, Capabilities, Coverage, Threat model, Attack paths, Architecture, and Annexes.
• Findings and capabilities, each severity-calibrated against an explicit domain rubric and mapped to NIST 800-53r5 and MITRE ATT&CK by default — plus CWE, OWASP Top 10 / API / LLM, MITRE ATLAS, OWASP MASVS/MASWE, and D3FEND when the run declares them.
• Derived cross-framework views the synthesizer computes for free: a CAPEC bridge (corroborating each finding's CWE ↔ ATT&CK technique), an ATT&CK detection overlay (the telemetry needed to detect each exposed technique), and a compliance crosswalk projecting NIST 800-53r5 coverage into the HIPAA Security Rule and NIST CSF 2.0 (opt-in via the run's projections: setting).

Optional, when you supply the inputs:

• Threat-model evaluation — coverage / contradiction / silence against a supplied TM (Threat Dragon, MS TMT, STRIDE, LINDDUN, MAESTRO, attack trees).
• Code reconnaissance (accuracy/quality boost) — grounds findings in real call-graph behavior instead of design-doc intent, via the DeusData codebase-memory-mcp (CBM) graph. The apd-code-recon agent queries an indexed codebase with the mcp__codebase-memory-mcp__* tools — search_graph, trace_path, get_code_snippet, query_graph, get_architecture, search_code — and emits a code-evidence index the nine lens agents cite (across one or many repositories). This is the single biggest lever on finding accuracy when source is available.
• Attack-path analysis — a BloodHound-style asset graph from declared crown jewels + attacker positions, with a D3FEND defensive overlay on bottleneck edges.
• Domain packs — calibrate severity and lens context for your domain. Six ship today: pbm, api-security, identity-security, security-tooling, agentic-ai, mobile-applications.

2. How to run it

Prerequisites: Python ≥ 3.10, Claude Code (with agent + skill support), and a tech plan (plus any optional artifacts) for the change you want reviewed.

1 — Get the repo and install the CLI. Running the gauntlet happens from a clone of this repo (the workflow runner, agents, and skills live here):

git clone https://github.com/illusconsulting/apd-gauntlet.git && cd apd-gauntlet
python3 -m venv .venv && . .venv/bin/activate
pip install apd-gauntlet      # installs the apd-gauntlet CLI + bundled schemas/domains/taxonomies
apd-gauntlet --version        # confirms the CLI is on your PATH

Install the Claude Code plugin (optional — loads agents and skills automatically):

/plugin marketplace add illusconsulting/apd-gauntlet
/plugin install apd-gauntlet@apd-security

The apd-gauntlet PyPI package (step above) must be on your PATH first — the plugin ships agents and skills; the workflow runner shells out to the CLI for deterministic passes. Once installed, the gauntlet runs via /apd-gauntlet:run (foreground, interactive — same discipline as the natural-language invocation).

Optional: code_recon via codebase-memory-mcp (CBM)

codebase-memory-mcp is an optional external MCP server. With code_recon: auto (the default) the gauntlet degrades gracefully to prose-only analysis when CBM is absent; code_recon: enabled requires it and hard-fails if unreachable. See the code-grounding note below and the full guide.

2 — (Optional) See a finished report first. A complete synthetic example ships in the repo — validate it and open its HTML, no Claude Code session required:

apd-gauntlet validate examples/apd-20260601-claim-event-bus/expected/        # prints "Clean."
open examples/apd-20260601-claim-event-bus/expected/40-synthesis/report-html/index.html

3 — Scaffold your run. Point --inputs at a folder of your artifacts and pick a domain pack:

apd-gauntlet init-run apd-$(date +%Y%m%d)-my-feature \
  --inputs ~/path/to/artifacts/ \
  --domain pbm \
  --taxonomies cwe,mitre_attack,d3fend        # optional; add owasp_api_top10, mitre_atlas, …

This creates runs/apd-YYYYMMDD-my-feature/ (gitignored, so a real report is never committed by accident) and copies your artifacts into inputs/.

For code-grounded reviews (strongly recommended when you have the source — it's the biggest accuracy lever): index the codebase into the DeusData codebase-memory-mcp (CBM) so the apd-code-recon agent can trace real call paths rather than infer from prose.

1. Install and run codebase-memory-mcp and register it in your Claude Code config so its mcp__codebase-memory-mcp__* tools (index_repository, index_status, list_projects, get_architecture, search_graph, trace_path, get_code_snippet, query_graph, search_code) are reachable from the agent runtime.
2. Index each repo under review into a CBM project (e.g. ask Claude Code to index_repository; confirm with list_projects / index_status).
3. Enable it in .apd-run.yaml:

code_recon: auto             # default — runs if CBM is reachable, skips with a note otherwise
# code_recon: enabled        # hard-fail if CBM is unreachable
cbm_project: <project-name>  # the indexed CBM project (or repos: [{cbm_project: …}] for multi-repo systems)

The agent emits 00-context/code-evidence-index.yaml (cited by every lens) and a code-architecture brief. Full guide: docs/running-the-gauntlet.md.

4 — Run the gauntlet in Claude Code. From the repo root, in a live session, drive the runner against your run directory:

Run the apd-gauntlet workflow on runs/apd-YYYYMMDD-my-feature/

Run it in the foreground — the nine specialists run as subagents of your live session. Don't run it in the background or headlessly, which can interrupt the dispatches and leave an empty run directory. See docs/running-the-gauntlet.md for the full operator guide (preflight, code recon, threat-model and attack-path passes).

The runner builds the domain skill, runs intake, dispatches the nine lens agents by tier, then synthesizes and runs a report-completeness audit that blocks rather than ships a degraded report. It finishes in ~10–30 minutes depending on artifact volume.

5 — View the report. Validate and open it exactly like step 2:

apd-gauntlet validate runs/apd-YYYYMMDD-my-feature/
open runs/apd-YYYYMMDD-my-feature/40-synthesis/report-html/index.html
# Or serve over HTTP (recommended; some browsers block file:// for graph rendering):
#   cd runs/apd-YYYYMMDD-my-feature/40-synthesis/report-html && python3 -m http.server 8080

3. Example prompts & commands

In a Claude Code session (natural language — the apd-gauntlet skill picks it up):

• Run the apd-gauntlet workflow on runs/apd-20260612-home-assistant/
• Scaffold a gauntlet run for the artifacts in ./inputs against the api-security and mobile-applications packs, then run it
• Run the gauntlet on runs/apd-…/ with code recon enabled and my supplied threat model
• Rebuild the HTML report for runs/apd-…/

Code-grounding with CBM — prepare the codebase-memory-mcp graph before a code-recon run (the mcp__codebase-memory-mcp__* tools, called from a Claude Code session):

• Index the repo at ./payments-service into codebase-memory-mcp → index_repository
• List the indexed CBM projects and their index status → list_projects · index_status
• Show the architecture of the payments-service project → get_architecture
• Trace the call path from handle_request to the audit logger; show the snippet → search_graph · trace_path · get_code_snippet
• …then run the gauntlet with code_recon: enabled and cbm_project: payments-service in .apd-run.yaml.

From your terminal (the apd-gauntlet CLI — every command supports --help):

# Scaffold · validate · report
apd-gauntlet init-run <id> --inputs DIR --domain pbm [--taxonomies cwe,mitre_attack,d3fend]
apd-gauntlet validate <run-dir>                 # schema + semantic + cross-file checks
apd-gauntlet build-report <run-dir>             # (re)generate the HTML report
apd-gauntlet summarize <run-dir>                # finding / capability statistics

# Optional passes
apd-gauntlet parse-threat-model <file>          # normalize a supplied threat model
apd-gauntlet analyze-attack-paths <run-dir>     # asset graph + enumerated paths + D3FEND overlay

# Domain packs
apd-gauntlet build-domain-skill <pack>          # assemble the apd-domain skill from a pack
apd-gauntlet validate-domain <pack>             # lint a pack for completeness

# Refresh cached reference data (quarterly, or when a taxonomy publishes a new edition)
apd-gauntlet refresh-mitre        # ATT&CK techniques + mitigations + detection overlay
apd-gauntlet refresh-cwe          # CWE
apd-gauntlet refresh-capec        # CAPEC (CWE ↔ ATT&CK bridge)
apd-gauntlet refresh-d3fend / refresh-atlas / refresh-mas / refresh-owasp
apd-gauntlet refresh-crosswalks --csf2-json <export> --hipaa-json <export>   # HIPAA + CSF 2.0