Skip to main content
Symbiotic Code comes with a set of security tools that the agent uses automatically to produce secure code. How often they run depends on the security mode: in Permissive mode they only run when you ask for them. The agent is only instructed to run these tools automatically when it can edit files (for example build, not plan or ask). You can still ask any agent that has access to them to run a scan.

​
Guardrails

Guardrails are your organization’s and repository’s security requirements. When they are available, they are added to the agent’s instructions so that all suggested implementations follow your company’s standards and best practices:
  • Organization guardrails are defined in your Symbiotic Security organization and apply to all projects.
  • Repository guardrails are matched to the project using its git remote URL.
Guardrails are loaded at startup and refreshed every 5 minutes. To generate guardrails for the current project, run /generate-guardrails. The Symbiotic CLI analyzes the repository and the result is saved for future sessions of this project. Guardrails generated locally take precedence over repository guardrails from your organization.

​
Security checkpoint

The securitycheck tool is a prompt-based security review: the agent reviews the files it created or edited against each of the OWASP Top 10 (2025) categories and reports whether each check passed. If risks are identified, the agent adjusts the implementation. It runs after the security scan, so its review can use the scan findings. In Balanced mode, it only runs when the change touches a security-relevant area. In Strict mode, it runs on every feature implementation.

​
Security scan

The securityscan tool runs a deterministic security scan with the Symbiotic CLI:
  • Code scan (SAST) for application source code
  • Infrastructure scan for infrastructure as code (Terraform, CloudFormation, Kubernetes, Dockerfiles, Ansible…)
The agent runs one scan per type on the files it modified, then handles the findings according to the security mode. For example in Balanced mode, it fixes critical and high severity issues in code it just wrote, and asks you before fixing medium or low severity issues or issues in existing code. In Strict mode, it delegates low-confidence findings to the triage subagent to identify false positives. The scanner requires a Symbiotic API key: log in with the Symbiotic provider, or set the SYMBIOTIC_API_KEY environment variable. The Symbiotic CLI is downloaded and updated automatically. Files with no security-relevant code (documentation, images, fonts, archives, plain text…) are skipped.

​
Ignore a false positive

To ignore a finding in future scans, add a comment on the line above it with the rule ID and a reason:
The agent may add these comments itself when it is sure a finding is a false positive, so review them in your diffs.

​
Enforcement

Outside of Permissive mode, if the agent modified files but didn’t run securityscan and securitycheck, it is asked to run them before finishing. If it still ends its turn without a scan, a code scan runs automatically on the modified files and an error is shown if critical or high severity issues are found.

​
Commands

​
Permissions

The security tools follow tool permissions with the securityscan, securitycheck and generateguardrails keys. They are allowed by default.