Compliance Checker

Policy-based compliance assessment for OpenClaw skills. Define security policies, assess skills against them, track violations, and generate compliance repor...

Security Scan

The skill is internally coherent: a local, Python-based compliance tool that reads installed skills, runs local scanners/verifiers if available, and stores results under ~/.openclaw/compliance.

Purpose & Capability

Name/description match the actual behavior: the script inspects skill files under ~/.openclaw/skills, applies policy checks, and stores assessments locally. Only python3 is required, which is proportionate to the stated purpose.

Instruction Scope

Runtime instructions are limited to creating policies, checking skill code, invoking local scanner/verifier scripts, and writing JSON under ~/.openclaw/compliance. Two minor notes: pattern checks are simple substring searches across code+SKILL.md (which can yield false positives if docs mention flagged terms), and the SKILL.md refers to 'arc-skill-scanner'/'arc-trust-verifier' while checker.py looks for 'skill-scanner'/'trust-verifier' script paths (naming mismatch may require the scanner/verifier to be installed under expected names).

Install Mechanism

No install spec or remote downloads; the skill is instruction-only with an included Python script. Nothing is fetched from external URLs or written to system locations beyond the user's home directory.

Credentials

The skill requests no environment variables or credentials and only reads files from ~/.openclaw/skills and writes to ~/.openclaw/compliance, which is appropriate for a local compliance tool.

Persistence & Privilege

always is false; the skill does not request permanent/global privileges or modify other skills' configs. It stores its own policy/assessment artifacts under its own directory.

Assessment

This appears to be a local compliance utility and is coherent with its description. Before installing, review scripts/checker.py (already included) to confirm naming/paths for your scanner and trust-verifier; expect it to read all skill files under ~/.openclaw/skills and to create JSON records in ~/.openclaw/compliance. If you rely on external 'arc-skill-scanner' or 'arc-trust-verifier', ensure those tools are installed where checker.py expects them (or adjust paths). Note that pattern checks are simple substring matches and may flag documentation or benign code; review flagged findings manually before acting. Finally, because the tool invokes other local scanner/verifier scripts, validate those tools separately (they will run via subprocess and could broaden the trust surface).

Assess OpenClaw skills against defined security policies. Track compliance posture across your skill inventory with framework-mapped findings and remediation tracking.

Why This Exists

Security scanners find vulnerabilities. Trust verifiers check provenance. But neither answers: "Does this skill meet our security policy?" Compliance Checker bridges the gap — define what "compliant" means for your environment, then assess every skill against those rules.

Quick Start

Define a policy

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py policy create --name "production" --description "Production deployment requirements"

Add rules to the policy

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py policy add-rule --policy "production" \
  --rule "no-critical-findings" \
  --description "No CRITICAL findings from skill scanner" \
  --severity critical

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py policy add-rule --policy "production" \
  --rule "trust-verified" \
  --description "Must have VERIFIED or TRUSTED trust level" \
  --severity high

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py policy add-rule --policy "production" \
  --rule "no-network-calls" \
  --description "No unauthorized network calls in scripts" \
  --severity high

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py policy add-rule --policy "production" \
  --rule "no-shell-exec" \
  --description "No shell=True or subprocess calls" \
  --severity medium

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py policy add-rule --policy "production" \
  --rule "has-checksum" \
  --description "Must have SHA-256 checksums for all scripts" \
  --severity medium

Assess a skill against a policy

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py assess --skill "arc-budget-tracker" --policy "production"

Assess all installed skills

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py assess-all --policy "production"

View compliance status

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py status --policy "production"

Generate compliance report

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py report --policy "production" --format json
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py report --policy "production" --format text

Built-in Rules

The following rules are available out of the box:

Rule	What it checks	Framework mapping
no-critical-findings	No CRITICAL findings from scanner	CIS Control 16, OWASP A06
no-high-findings	No HIGH findings from scanner	CIS Control 16, OWASP A06
trust-verified	Trust level is VERIFIED or TRUSTED	CIS Control 2
no-network-calls	No unauthorized network requests	CIS Control 9, OWASP A10
no-shell-exec	No shell execution patterns	CIS Control 2, OWASP A03
no-eval-exec	No eval/exec patterns	OWASP A03
has-checksum	SHA-256 checksums for all files	CIS Control 2
no-env-access	No environment variable access	CIS Control 3
no-data-exfil	No data exfiltration patterns	CIS Control 3, CIS Control 13
version-pinned	All dependencies version-pinned	CIS Control 2

Compliance Status

Each skill-policy assessment produces one of:

• COMPLIANT — Passes all rules in the policy
• NON-COMPLIANT — Fails one or more rules
• EXEMPTED — Has approved exemptions for all failures
• UNKNOWN — Not yet assessed

Exemptions

Sometimes a skill legitimately needs to violate a rule (e.g., a network monitoring skill needs network access). Record exemptions with justification:

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py exempt --skill "arc-skill-scanner" \
  --rule "no-network-calls" \
  --reason "Scanner needs network access to check URLs against blocklists" \
  --approved-by "arc"

Remediation Tracking

When a skill fails compliance, track the fix:

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py remediate --skill "some-skill" \
  --rule "no-shell-exec" \
  --action "Replaced subprocess.call with safer alternative" \
  --status fixed

Storage

Compliance data is stored in ~/.openclaw/compliance/:

• policies/ — Policy definitions (JSON)
• assessments/ — Assessment results per skill (JSON)
• exemptions/ — Approved exemptions (JSON)
• remediations/ — Remediation tracking (JSON)

Integration

Compliance Checker reads output from:

• arc-skill-scanner — vulnerability findings
• arc-trust-verifier — trust levels and attestations

Run a full pipeline:

# Scan → verify trust → assess compliance
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py pipeline --skill "some-skill" --policy "production"