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safe-chain

1.5.15 open-source

Aikido Safe Chain blocks malware in npm and PyPI packages on developer laptops and CI/CD by intercepting downloads through a local proxy.

Summary

safe-chain is an open-source command-line tool that intercepts npm and PyPI package installs to block malware before it lands on a developer's machine, and it costs nothing to run. It wraps common package manager commands (npm, yarn, pnpm, bun, pip, poetry, uv, and others) and blocks known-malicious packages and anything published in the last 48 hours, without a token or shared build data. It's aimed at application developers and the teams securing CI/CD pipelines against supply-chain attacks, rather than at security analysts reviewing findings after the fact. For organisations wanting centralized policy and coverage beyond npm and PyPI, the same vendor offers a separate device-protection product built on top of it. First committed in 2025, safe-chain has seen over a thousand commits and 17 releases in the past year, with the last one 38 days ago.

Aikido Safe Chain blocks malware in npm and PyPI packages on developer laptops and CI/CD by intercepting downloads through a local proxy.

How safe-chain helps

Is the package I'm about to add safe to install, or does it need a closer look first?

checks the package name and version against the malicious-package feed and blocks the install before it reaches disk if it matches

Could this install slip a newly-published malicious package past me before anyone's had a chance to flag it?

blocks anything published in the last 48 hours regardless of whether it has been reported yet, so brand-new packages can't land during that window

Is my CI/CD pipeline exposed to the same supply-chain risk as a developer's laptop?

wraps the same package manager commands in both places, so installs are checked the same way in a pipeline as on a workstation without needing a token or shared account

Which package managers in my stack are actually covered by this protection?

intercepts npm, yarn, pnpm, bun, and their runners, plus pip, poetry, uv, pipx and pdm, so mixed-toolchain projects get the same check regardless of which command a developer or script reaches for

Do I need to share build data or credentials for installs to get checked?

runs the check locally against the malicious-package feed without a token or any build data leaving the machine

Do I need a separate product to get this protection outside of npm and PyPI?

on its own it only covers npm and PyPI; broader ecosystem and centralized policy across a fleet comes from a separate product built on top of it

all 7 features, with the evidence for each →

Languages

Not documented

Features

7 capabilities

Built from safe-chain's releases, docs, README and our own runs. “Seen” marks the month we first spotted a release the vendor didn't date. Group names and tags are our labels.

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What safe-chain offers you

  • Command-line interface4
  • CI/CD pipeline integration1
All capabilities 7 capabilities
Malware Validation Enforcement shipped Blocks package installation when malware is detected and enforces configurable minimum age delays before installation. 9 releases · 2 other sources · first seen Sep 2025

Also counts toward: Command-line interface

release 9 total

  • Add minimum package age checks for pypi 1.4.6 · Mar 2026 · source · release history
  • Enforce minimum package age for direct npm downloads (e.g. yarn lockfiles) 1.4.6 · Mar 2026 · source · release history
  • Allows minimum_package_age setting to accept 0, disabling the age filter 1.2.3 · Dec 2025 · source · release history
  • New --safe-chain-skip-minimum-package-age flag to bypass the 24-hour validation delay for specific installs 1.1.8 · Nov 2025 · source · release history
  • Adds a lightweight proxy server that intercepts and blocks downloads of packages containing malware, enabling full dependency tree protection for all package managers. 1.1.0 · Oct 2025 · source · release history
  • safe-chain now exits with code 1 and blocks package installation when scanning fails, instead of continuing execution. 1.0.24 · Sep 2025 · source · release history

example

  • Configure safe-chain to enforce a minimum age for npm packages in yarn lockfiles during dependency scanning. safe-chain scan --npm-min-age=7d 1.4.6 · Mar 2026 · source
  • Override the default block behavior to allow installation even if malware is detected. safe-chain install --safe-chain-malware-action=prompt 1.0.21 · Sep 2025 · source
Installation and Lifecycle Management shipped Supports installation via PIPX, local directory customization, and system-wide uninstallation scripts. 5 releases · 3 other sources · first seen Dec 2025

release

  • Add install script shasum verification in readme.md examples 1.5.15 · Aug 2026 · source · release history
  • Enables installation via PIPX using standard Python package indexing 1.3.3 · Dec 2025 · source · release history
  • Added pre-flight check to skip installation if safe-chain is already present and the version matches 1.3.2 · Dec 2025 · source · release history
  • The installer is now distributed as a release artifact to enable secure version pinning 1.3.2 · Dec 2025 · source · release history
  • Adds system-wide uninstall scripts to clean up safe-chain shims and related files 1.2.3 · Dec 2025 · source · release history

example

  • Configure safe-chain to install files into a specific location rather than the system default. safe-chain --install-dir /custom/path/to/install 1.5.0 · Apr 2026 · source
  • Install safe-chain globally using PIPX for isolated, system-wide access without sudo. pipx install safe-chain 1.3.3 · Dec 2025 · source
  • Remove safe-chain from the system using the new uninstall scripts ./scripts/uninstall.sh 1.2.3 · Dec 2025 · source
CI/CD Integration shipped Provides setup commands and environment variable support for GitHub Actions, Azure Pipelines, Circle CI, and MDM-managed Windows environments. 5 releases · 2 other sources · first seen Sep 2025

Also counts toward: CI/CD pipeline integration, Command-line interface

release

  • Propagates command-not-found errors from wrapped commands within the shell integration 1.4.3 · Feb 2026 · source · release history
  • Supports Windows platforms via the install-safe-shain.sh script in environments like git bash or cygwin 1.4.3 · Feb 2026 · source · release history
  • Adds pre-install execution policy verification in PowerShell to ensure safe-chain can run on Windows 1.4.3 · Feb 2026 · source · release history
  • Adds circleci to the list of supported continuous integration platforms via new CI_PROVIDER=circleci environment variable 1.3.3 · Dec 2025 · source · release history
  • Adds the safe-chain setup-ci command to configure GitHub Actions and Azure Pipelines for wrapping npm commands. 1.0.24 · Sep 2025 · source · release history

example

  • Install MDM-specific components during the silent setup of safe-chain on Windows. safe-chain install -is-mdm 1.5.8 · Jun 2026 · source
  • Run safe-chain in a Circle CI pipeline by setting the provider environment variable. export CI_PROVIDER=circleci safe-chain scan 1.3.3 · Dec 2025 · source
Package Manager Interception Support shipped Intercepts and scans package downloads for npm, PyPI, bun, PDM, Poetry, and Rush to enforce security policies. 6 releases · 1 other source · first seen Sep 2025

Also counts toward: Command-line interface

release

  • PDM added as a supported Python package manager alongside pip and poetry 1.5.4 · Jun 2026 · source · release history
  • Adds rush subcommand and configuration to enable safe-chain in Rush-managed monorepos 1.5.3 · May 2026 · source · release history
  • Allows configuring python custom registries through environment variable SAFE_CHAIN_PYTHON_REGISTRIES 1.3.4 · Jan 2026 · source · release history
  • safe-chain setup --include-python enables pip/pip3 interception and PyPI malware list scanning 1.1.8 · Nov 2025 · source · release history
  • Adds bun install and bunx command protection via the same malware detection engine used for other package managers. 1.1.0 · Oct 2025 · source · release history
  • Changes default behavior to block package installation and exit with code 1 when scanning fails (previously it ran the command). 1.0.24 · Sep 2025 · source · release history

example

  • Configure safe-chain to enforce a minimum age for PyPI packages during dependency scanning. safe-chain scan --pypi-min-age=7d 1.4.6 · Mar 2026 · source
Logging and Debugging Control shipped Offers configurable log levels, silent mode for CI environments, verbose output options, and file-based persistence. 5 releases · 1 other source · first seen Oct 2025

release

example

  • Suppress noisy logging during unattended CI/CD runs safe-chain --silent scan --target ./my-app 1.1.6 · Oct 2025 · source
Custom Registry and Proxy Configuration shipped Allows configuration of private npm registries, custom Python registries, and operation as a standard HTTP proxy for dependency resolution. 3 releases · first seen Oct 2025

release

  • Allows configuring python custom registries through environment variable SAFE_CHAIN_PYTHON_REGISTRIES 1.3.4 · Jan 2026 · source · release history
  • Supports configuring custom or private npm registries for dependency resolution 1.3.3 · Dec 2025 · source · release history
  • Enables safe-chain to act as a regular HTTP proxy, allowing it to forward requests to local registries instead of only intercepting them. 1.1.5 · Oct 2025 · source · release history
Status Verification and Diagnostics shipped Provides commands to check installed versions, verify active interception status, and inspect proxy health. 1 release · 2 other sources · first seen Oct 2025

Also counts toward: Command-line interface

release

  • Adds --version flag (shorthand -v) to display the safe-chain version. 1.1.5 · Oct 2025 · source · release history

example

  • Check which version of the proxy is currently installed in CI logs or debug output. safe-chain --version 1.1.5 · Oct 2025 · source
  • Check installed Safe Chain version safe-chain --version

Lines in monospace are the tool's own words: help text parsed from its source, or an endpoint from its API document. Under release, a line is our summary of a dated release. Under docs, it is quoted from the tool's own documentation or website. Each links back to the source it came from.

Score card

  1. Shipping velocity releases a month, last 12 months
  2. Documentation quality release-notes rubric, 0–100
  3. Breaking-change discipline how rarely a release breaks users, and notice given
  4. Maintenance risk quiet time against its own cadence, maintainers
  5. Innovation & surface new capabilities, API and MCP surface

Five scores for safe-chain, each built from the releases, notes and API history this site tracks — and, on Researcher and Business, where it stands among every measured tool in its category and how that has moved.

Score cards are part of every paid plan.

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Each score is 0–100 on a published rubric, derived from data this site already shows. A dimension we cannot measure says so — it is never scored 0 and never enters a rank.

How this is scored
  • Shipping velocity — releases a month over the last 12 months, on a log scale where 16 a month scores 100. Needs 3 releases in the window.
  • Documentation quality — the release-notes rubric published on the analytics page, unchanged.
  • Breaking-change discipline — the share of releases carrying a breaking change (none scores 100, half or more scores 0). Only projects that label breaking changes are measured: a clean record cannot be told from an unlabelled one.
  • Maintenance risk — quiet time measured against the tool's own release cadence (quiet longer than 90 days and three typical gaps scores 0), plus the number of active maintainers and whether contributors are growing, where known. Higher is lower risk.
  • Innovation & surface — new capabilities in the feature ledger this year, API and MCP operations added, and the share of commits that are features: the mean of whichever we hold.
  • Community health (open-source tools only) — each is a direction, not a size: contributors this year against last, the bus factor now against a year ago, and issues closed per issue opened, where steady scores 50, doubled 100 and halved 0; plus the median time to a maintainer's first reply (an hour scores about 100, a month or more 0). A commercial card has no repository and carries none of the four.
  • Documented delivery (commercial tools) — when a vendor's documented new capabilities have slowed against its own baseline, that counts against the overall standing as heavily as two low dimensions. Steady delivery, or too little history to judge, leaves the standing alone; it is never a sixth score.
  • Open-source tools are scored on repository signals; commercial tools on their published changelog. Ranks compare tools within one category and one profile and need at least five measured peers; the overall standing needs three ranked dimensions. Best-in-breed or consolidator is a shape, not a quality, and is never scored.

Release-note detail over time

See how much detail safe-chain puts in its release notes, quarter by quarter, and compare it with tracked tools in the same category. This history uses up to ten retained, reviewed notes per tool; sparse or blank older quarters may reflect that limit.

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Commercials

pricing & packaging history · Aikido Security vendor page

30 readings of Aikido Security's pricing page since Mar 2023, with 13 relaunches of its plan lineup and 15 changes to what its plans include — each one dated, compared with the reading before it, and explained for someone buying the tool.

Pricing and packaging history is included with Researcher and Business. See how every vendor we track sells, and how that has changed over time, using data we don't publish anywhere else.

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Website history

aikido.dev, every change

Aikido Security's home, pricing and product pages and 40 more pages as they looked each month from December 2022 to October 2026: 122 renders, 19 changes of tagline or palette. Step through them, play them, or put any two months side by side.

Website history is included with Researcher and Business.

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Releases

Show

18 entries

  1. August 20261
  2. June 20262
  3. May 20261
  4. April 20261
  5. March 20261
  6. February 20261
  7. January 20262
  8. December 20253
  9. November 20251
  10. October 20253
  11. September 20252
    Show

    18 entries

    Project health

    Issue, contributor and maintainer activity in AikidoSec/safe-chain, 2023-10 – 2026-09, as of 2026-09-25. Twelve-month figures first; the trend lines run the whole window.

    1. Contributors 26 +22 vs prior 12 months
    2. Maintainers 3 +2 joined · −0 left, last 12 months
    3. Bus factor 2 committers behind half the commits
    4. Community-filed 88% of issues opened, last 12 months
    5. Median time to close 7.8 days first maintainer reply 24 hours
    6. Open backlog 79 of 198 issues ever filed
    1. Issues opened / month 1 · 0 communitymaintainers
    2. Open backlog 79
    3. Contributors / month 5
    4. Commits / month 33
    5. Stars 1,762
    Issue themes, last 12 months
    • bugs 45%
    • features 5%
    • other 50%

    Counts from the project's public repository and git history; no individuals are identified. Maintainers are the committers covering 80% of the last year's commits. how we measure this

    Libraries its release ships

    What its latest release locks, checked against known advisories.

    None of its release's images build from a lockfile we can read.

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