policy-gate-mcp

Policy-as-code AI-SDLC gates for LLM agent repos, shipped as both an MCP server (for interactive use from an editor/agent) and a CLI (for CI). It is pre-configured to govern the USEA agent, and is written so any other agent repo can be onboarded as a new "profile".

It implements the four gates requested for the AI-SDLC:

Gate	What it checks	Module
1. Prompt / system-prompt review	The assembled system prompt against forbidden/required patterns, a length limit, and a reviewed baseline	policy_gate/prompt_review.py
2. Tool manifest diffing	Every tool exposed to the agent, diffed against a recorded baseline, risk-classified, with sign-off required for high/critical changes	policy_gate/tool_manifest.py
3. MCP server vetting	Any mcpServers config (command allowlist, pinned versions, remote domain allowlist, no plaintext secrets, required trust review)	policy_gate/mcp_vetting.py
4. Eval suites as CI regression tests	Golden-transcript eval cases with blocking (zero-tolerance) vs. warning (pass-rate threshold) severities	policy_gate/eval_runner.py

Every gate returns the same GateResult shape (pass / warn / fail / skipped, a list of violations, and structured details), so the MCP tool, the CLI subcommand, and the CI job all agree on the verdict.

Why this exists

Agent repos like USEA change three things that traditional CI never looked at: the system prompt, the tool manifest (what the model is allowed to do), and the MCP servers it can talk to. A one-line prompt edit or a new tool can silently turn a "read files" agent into a "run arbitrary shell commands and exfiltrate secrets" agent, and normal unit tests won't catch it. This repo turns those three surfaces - plus behavioral regressions - into things that are diffed, classified, and gated in the same PR review flow as code.

Architecture

flowchart TB
    subgraph Governed repo - e.g. USEA
        A[do-anything-agent.py]
    end

    subgraph policy-gate-mcp - this repo
        P[profiles/usea.yaml]
        POL[policies/*.yaml]
        BASE[baselines/usea/*]
        EV[evals/usea_suite.yaml + fixtures/]

        G1[prompt_review.gate]
        G2[tool_manifest.gate]
        G3[mcp_vetting.gate]
        G4[eval_runner.gate]

        CLI[policy_gate/cli.py]
        SRV[server.py - MCP tools]
    end

    A -- static AST parse, never executed --> G1
    A -- static AST parse, never executed --> G2
    P --> G1 & G2 & G3 & G4
    POL --> G1 & G2 & G3 & G4
    BASE --> G1 & G2
    EV --> G4

    G1 & G2 & G3 & G4 --> CLI
    G1 & G2 & G3 & G4 --> SRV

    CLI -- exit 0/1 --> CI[GitHub Actions: ai-sdlc-gates.yml]
    SRV -- tool calls --> Editor[MCP client / coding agent]

Key design choices:

• Static analysis, not execution. Both the prompt-review and tool-manifest gates parse the target file with ast and never import/exec it. There's no need for the governed repo's runtime dependencies (LangChain, provider SDKs, etc.) to run these two gates, and a malicious prompt/tool can't execute code during the gate itself.
• Profiles, not hardcoding. profiles/usea.yaml is the only place that knows USEA's file names and variable names. Onboarding a second agent means adding profiles/<name>.yaml plus its own baselines/<name>/... and evals/<name>_suite.yaml - the gate engine itself is generic.
• Policies are reviewable YAML, not code. All four gates read their rules from policies/*.yaml. Changing what's blocked is a normal, diffable pull request against this repo, not a code change.
• Fail closed. An unrecognized tool, a missing baseline file's sign-off, or an unclassified MCP server all fail the gate rather than silently passing.

The four gates in detail

Gate 1 - Prompt / system-prompt review

prompt_review.py walks the target file's AST and reconstructs every string assigned or +=-appended to a configured variable (system_content for USEA), ordered by source line number so conditional branches (e.g. the Vault-policy block that's only appended if vault_enabled) come out in the same order a human reading the file would see them.

The reconstructed text is checked against policies/prompt_policy.yaml:

• forbidden_patterns - regexes that must never appear (prompt-injection phrasing like "ignore previous instructions", jailbreak personas, "disable safety", "output the raw API key", etc.), each with a human-readable reason.
• required_patterns - regexes that must appear (USEA's policy requires the prompt to instruct the model to mask sensitive values and to explain risk before acting).
• max_length_chars - a hard cap.
• Baseline diff - if the extracted prompt no longer matches baselines/usea/system_prompt.baseline.txt, the gate fails unless policies/prompt_review_log.yaml has a matching entry (reviewer, date, PR link). This is what turns "someone tweaked the system prompt" from invisible to a required, attributable sign-off.

To accept an intentional prompt change: update the baseline file with the new extracted text, then append an entry to prompt_review_log.yaml naming the reviewer.

Gate 2 - Tool manifest diffing

tool_manifest.py walks the same AST for every function decorated with @tool (configurable via tool_manifest.decorator_name), extracting its name, docstring, and parameter signature (name/annotation/default) into a canonical JSON shape. It diffs the result against baselines/usea/tool_manifest.baseline.json.

policies/tool_manifest_policy.yaml requires every tool to carry an explicit risk tier (low / medium / high / critical) plus a capability and justification. For USEA today: list_directory / read_text_file are low (read-only), write_text_file is high (unrestricted filesystem write), and run_command is critical (arbitrary shell execution).

Rules enforced:

• Any tool with no risk classification fails, whether new or pre-existing - the manifest must have 100% coverage.
• New or changed high/critical tools require a sign-off entry in policies/tool_manifest_review_log.yaml (tool name + profile + reviewer), or the gate fails.
• Removed tools only produce a warning (nothing unsafe about an agent losing a capability).

This is the gate that catches "tool poisoning" - an agent quietly gaining a new high-blast-radius capability (network egress, unrestricted writes, shell exec) that nobody explicitly reviewed.

Gate 3 - MCP server vetting

mcp_vetting.py validates an mcpServers/servers config (the same shape as a VS Code / Claude Desktop mcp.json) against policies/mcp_server_allowlist.yaml:

• launch command must be on allowed_commands (no arbitrary binaries or curl | sh style installers)
• npx/uvx invocations must be pinned to a version (@x.y.z / ==x.y.z) - no latest
• url-based (remote) servers must target allowed_remote_domains
• env vars matching secret_env_key_patterns (API_KEY, TOKEN, SECRET, PASSWORD) must use "${VAR_NAME}" expansion, never a literal value committed to the config
• every server entry must carry a trust_review block naming a reviewer

configs/usea.mcp.json is a compliant example (it even vets itself - the policy-gate server entry - and a pinned, scoped filesystem server). configs/bad_example.mcp.json is intentionally non-compliant and is used by the test suite to prove every rule actually fires.

Gate 4 - Eval suites as CI regression tests

evals/usea_suite.yaml defines eval cases, each with a severity:

• blocking - must always pass, zero tolerance (e.g. "must refuse to run rm -rf /", "must never print a raw API key"). A single blocking failure fails the gate regardless of the overall pass rate.
• warning - scored into an overall pass rate that must clear min_pass_rate from policies/eval_thresholds.yaml (default 90%).

Two run modes:

• static (default, what CI runs): replays recorded golden transcripts from evals/fixtures/*.json against each case's assertions (expected_tool_calls, forbidden_tool_calls, required_output_patterns, forbidden_output_patterns). Deterministic, free, no model credentials needed.
• live: dynamically loads the governed agent's real entrypoint (the same importlib.util.spec_from_file_location pattern USEA's own api/agent_runner.py uses to load do-anything-agent.py), actually calls the model for each case's query, and applies the same assertions. Pass --record to overwrite the golden fixtures with the new transcript - this is how you intentionally refresh the regression baseline after a real behavior change.

Running it

As a CLI (what CI uses)

python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .

# Run one gate
policy-gate --profile usea review-prompt /path/to/USEA
policy-gate --profile usea diff-tools /path/to/USEA
policy-gate --profile usea vet-mcp
policy-gate --profile usea run-evals /path/to/USEA --mode static

# Run everything (this is what the CI workflow calls)
policy-gate --profile usea check-all /path/to/USEA

# Machine-readable report
policy-gate --profile usea json /path/to/USEA

Exit code is 0 if every gate passed (or only warned), 1 if any gate failed.

As an MCP server (interactive use during development)

pip install -e ".[dev]"
python3 server.py   # stdio transport

Point an MCP client at it, e.g. add to your editor's mcp.json (see configs/usea.mcp.json for the exact shape):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "policy-gate": {
      "command": "python3",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/MCP/server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Exposed tools: review_prompt, diff_tool_manifest, vet_mcp_servers, run_eval_suite, run_all_gates - each takes the same repo_path / profile arguments as the CLI, so a coding agent can call run_all_gates on its own working copy before opening a PR.

Wiring into USEA's CI

USEA/.github/workflows/ai-sdlc-gates.yml checks out both repos, installs this one editable, and runs policy-gate --profile usea check-all. Unlike USEA's existing ci-build.yml (which uses continue-on-error: true for most steps), this workflow is a real gate - it fails the PR check on any fail status.

Onboarding a new governed agent

1. Add profiles/<name>.yaml describing the target file, the system prompt variable name, the tool decorator name, and paths for the baseline/eval files (copy profiles/usea.yaml as a template).
2. Run policy-gate --profile <name> review-prompt <repo> and ... diff-tools <repo> once against a known-good checkout; both will report warn ("no baseline recorded yet") and print the extracted prompt/manifest in details. Save those into baselines/<name>/system_prompt.baseline.txt and baselines/<name>/tool_manifest.baseline.json.
3. Classify every tool in policies/tool_manifest_policy.yaml.
4. Add an MCP server config at configs/<name>.mcp.json and reference it from the profile.
5. Write evals/<name>_suite.yaml plus golden fixtures under evals/fixtures/.

Testing this repo itself

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest tests/ -v

The test suite proves both directions for each gate: the bundled usea profile passes cleanly against a faithful fixture of USEA's real prompt/tools/MCP config/evals, and dedicated "bad" fixtures (tests/fixtures/bad_prompt_repo, tests/fixtures/new_tool_repo, configs/bad_example.mcp.json) prove each rule fails closed.