coily

🛡️ coily is a CLI security boundary for privileged ops, 🔒 escape-hatch-resistant and with an 📜 audit trail.

Operator CLI for Kai's homelab (kai-server, coilysiren k3s cluster, AWS / Tailscale).

$ coily whoami                                  # unified view across aws/gh/kubectl
$ coily ops aws ssm get-parameter --name '/x; cat /etc/passwd'
Error: policy: shell metacharacter rejected: arg name contains ";" at index 18

Both invocations land in ~/.coily/audit/<repo>.jsonl as structured rows.

This repo exists for three reasons.

1. One audited surface for every privileged tool. External pass-throughs (coily ops aws/gh/kubectl ...), standalone pass-throughs (coily docker, coily tailscale), and package managers (coily pkg pnpm/uv/cargo/brew) all forward verbatim, gated by argv shell-metacharacter rejection and an audit row. coily brew is a separate top-level for the four mutating brew verbs, scoped to coilysiren/tap/* by default.
2. Safety boundary for AI agents. Claude Code's deny: "Bash(kubectl delete:*)" is prefix-matched and bypassed by sh -c, env, python -c subprocess, Makefile shell-outs, etc. coily inverts the model: a narrow allowlist (Bash(coily:*)) funnels privileged ops through one Go binary that re-validates structured args and rejects metacharacter injection. Full reasoning in SECURITY.md.
3. Auditors love to see me coming. Every invocation is appended to a structured JSONL log with session metadata.

Install

coily is never published as a prebuilt binary; every install is a local build. Canonical: make install sudo-installs to root-owned /usr/local/bin. Brew tap is bootstrap-only (still build-from-source, doesn't preserve root-owned property).

make install            # macOS, sudo-install /usr/local/bin/coily
brew tap coilysiren/coily https://forgejo.coilysiren.me/coilysiren/coily && brew install coilysiren/coily/coily
make install-windows    # elevated shell, installs C:\Program Files\coily\coily.exe
make deploy-server      # linux cross-compile + scp + sudo-install on kai-server
make dev                # ./bin/coily-dev for iteration (not on PATH)

make test defaults to gotest. To opt out: make test GO_TEST="go test". The agent's allowlist trusts coily, not coily-dev. Dev builds use -tags dev, prod uses -tags prod.

aws, kubectl, gh resolution

Via $PATH like any other binary. Argv validation + audit + the lockdown deny list carry the safety boundary; binary authenticity is the host's problem. See SECURITY.md.

Per-repo commands (.coily/coily.yaml)

Each repo drops a coily.yaml inside .coily/ to declare its dev verbs. coily exec test, coily exec lint, etc. Replaces per-repo Makefiles and pyinvoke tasks without widening the boundary.

commands:
  test: go test ./...
  lint:
    run: golangci-lint run ./...
    description: Lint with golangci-lint.

• Walks up from cwd to find .coily/coily.yaml. $COILY_REPO_CONFIG overrides.
• coily --list prints built-ins + repo commands. coily exec <cmd> --help shows the expansion.
• Every token passes policy.ValidateArg. Metacharacters rejected at load time and at invocation.
• Audit verb is repo.<cmd>. Same log file.
• Repo commands sit under coily exec, can't shadow built-ins.

Architectural decisions

• Single binary, single trust boundary. One allowlist entry, Bash(coily:*).
• Trust $PATH for sub-tool binaries. Earlier sha256-pinned manifest dropped: the protection didn't justify the release pipeline.
• SDK-native for simple APIs. ssh/scp + tailscale via Go SDKs. No subprocess means no argv to a shell.
• Mirror the sub-CLIs exactly. coily ops aws ssm get-parameter takes the same args as aws ssm get-parameter.
• Config is embedded. Changes require rebuild + sudo install.
• No self-update. Binary cannot rewrite itself. v2 plan around adversarial-reviewed CI installs in SECURITY.md.
• No coily shell / coily run escape hatch.

Prior art

coily is a personal-scale remix of Teleport (scoped invocation + JSONL audit), mise (one CLI multiplexing many tools), and Dagger (validate structured args, don't just shell out).

Contributing

coily does not accept external pull requests - it is a security boundary, and an external change is an attack surface. See CONTRIBUTING.md; contribute to ward instead. Issues welcome.

See also

• AGENTS.md - agent-facing operating rules.
• docs/FEATURES.md - inventory of what ships today.
• .coily/coily.yaml - allowlisted commands.

Cross-reference convention from coilysiren/agentic-os#59.