Quick Start

After installing and authenticating, here are some common first steps.

Browse Frameworks

List all available compliance frameworks:

pretorin frameworks list

Get details on a specific control:

pretorin frameworks control nist-800-53-r5 ac-02

Set Up Context

Set your active system and framework for platform operations:

# Interactive selection
pretorin context set

# Or explicit
pretorin context set --system "My Application" --framework fedramp-moderate

Setting context also runs source verification automatically; pass --no-verify to skip it.

Verify Your Sources

Before producing evidence, bind the host-local resolvers for the source kinds your scope recommends and probe them:

# Bind sensible defaults for this machine, then verify
pretorin preflight init

# Re-probe every bound resolver later
pretorin preflight verify

# See the current verdict without probing
pretorin preflight show

See Preflight for the full resolver model.

Create Evidence

Create a local evidence file. --description, --artifact-content (alias --artifact), and --type are all required; --name defaults to a summary of the description.

pretorin evidence create ac-02 fedramp-moderate \
  --description "Role-based access control in Azure AD" \
  --type configuration \
  --name "RBAC Configuration" \
  --artifact "- Verified RBAC role bindings in Azure AD
- Reviewed conditional access policies"

The artifact body is written to the file verbatim, so use real newlines (a multi-line quoted string, as above). A "\n" inside double quotes is passed through literally by the shell and lands in the evidence file as the two characters \n.

Push evidence to the platform:

pretorin evidence push

Run an Agent Task

Use the default Codex harness for compliance analysis, or select OpenCode once for both interactive runs and Campaigns:

pretorin agent run "Assess AC-02 implementation gaps for my system"

# Optional shared selection, including a lower-cost demo reasoning profile
pretorin agent configure --agent opencode \
  --model openai/gpt-5.6-terra --reasoning-effort low
pretorin agent run "Assess AC-02 implementation gaps for my system"

You can also pass --reasoning-effort low|medium|high directly to agent run. When no explicit or saved value exists, the provider/harness default is used.

Or use a predefined skill:

pretorin agent run --skill gap-analysis "Analyze my system compliance gaps"

Connect Your AI Tool

If you use Claude Code, Codex CLI, or another MCP-compatible AI tool:

# Install the skill (teaches your agent how to use Pretorin tools)
pretorin skill install

# Add the MCP server (Claude Code example)
claude mcp add --transport stdio pretorin -- pretorin mcp-serve

# Then ask your AI agent about compliance
# "What controls are in the Access Control family for FedRAMP Moderate?"

Check install status with pretorin skill status. See the MCP Setup Guides for other tools.

Run a Recipe

Recipes are markdown-plus-scripts playbooks that the calling agent invokes through MCP for evidence capture, baseline scanning, and other procedures:

# List available recipes (built-in + user + project)
pretorin recipe list

# Show one recipe's manifest and prose body
pretorin recipe show inspec-baseline

# Scaffold a new recipe in ~/.pretorin/recipes/<id>/
pretorin recipe new my-first-recipe

See Authoring Recipes for the full guide.

Browse STIGs and CCIs

Look up STIG benchmarks, rules, and CCI traceability:

# List available STIG benchmarks
pretorin stig list

# View STIG benchmark details
pretorin stig show <stig_id>

# Trace a control's full CCI + STIG chain
pretorin cci chain <control-id>

Run the Demo Walkthrough

An interactive demo script is included in the repository:

bash tools/demo-walkthrough.sh