GoThreatScope

Go Reference Go Report Card GitHub stars MCP Badge

GoThreatScope is a modular, educational security toolchain written in Go.
It generates a lightweight SBOM, checks dependencies against osv.dev for vulnerabilities and known malicious packages, scans for hardcoded secrets (using Gitleaks when available, or a builtin fallback), and records metrics for each run (using pipedream).

This tool also acts as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, allowing IDEs such as Cursor or Visual Studio Code to query its results using natural language.
For example, you can ask:

"Analyze my project and show me which dependencies look risky."

The MCP interface exposes tools and resources so other systems or LLMs can retrieve structured SBOMs, vulnerability reports, and secret findings directly from the local filesystem.

Overview

GoThreatScope performs an high-level security inspection of a project directory and organizes the results for both human and automated analysis.

It combines several capabilities into a single workflow:

• SBOM generation: creates a simple inventory of project dependencies.
• Vulnerability and malware detection: checks each dependency against osv.dev to identify known vulnerabilities and malicious packages.
• Secrets detection: searches for API keys, passwords, and private tokens using Gitleaks or a simple builtin fallback scanner.
• Metrics collection: stores structured metrics for every run, allowing comparison between scans (configured with pipedream).

Each module works independently or as part of the analyze pipeline.
All results are stored locally under gothreatscope_store/ and reused when no changes are detected.

Architecture

GoThreatScope is organized into clear, modular packages.
Each package handles a specific security function or integration point, making the tool easy to extend or reuse in other projects.

GoThreatScope
│
├── cmd/gothreatscope/         # CLI entrypoint and MCP server mode
│   └── main.go                # CLI commands and MCP wiring
│
├── pkg/
│   ├── sbom/                  # SBOM generation logic
│   ├── vuln/                  # OSV-based vulnerability and malware detection
│   ├── secrets/               # Gitleaks and builtin secret scanner
│   ├── analysis/              # Full pipeline and storage/diff logic
│   ├── metrics/               # Local and remote metrics sender
│   └── mcp/                   # MCP tools and resources implementation
│
└── gothreatscope_store/       # Automatically generated per-project store
    └── <project_id>/
        ├── latest/
        │   ├── sbom.json
        │   ├── vuln.json
        │   ├── secrets.json
        │   ├── metrics.json
        │   └── bundle.json
        └── history/<run_id>/

Each project scanned by GoThreatScope receives its own identifier, derived from the SHA-256 hash of its absolute path. All results are written into that project’s folder under gothreatscope_store/, and new files are only created when differences are detected compared to the previous run.

How It Works

GoThreatScope operates through independent modules that can run individually or together as part of a complete analysis pipeline.

1. Project identification

Every scanned project is assigned a unique identifier derived from the SHA-256 hash of its absolute path.
This ensures consistent tracking across runs without revealing directory names.

2. Persistent storage

Scan results are stored under the gothreatscope_store/ directory, grouped by project ID.
Each module writes its own JSON artifact inside a latest/ folder, and keeps a short history of past results.

gothreatscope_store/
└── a93bf44e3e9c/
    ├── latest/
    │   ├── sbom.json
    │   ├── vuln.json
    │   ├── secrets.json
    │   └── metrics.json
    └── history/20251007T215959Z/

3. Change detection

Before saving, GoThreatScope compares digests (hashes) of the new results with those from the previous run. If there are no changes, the stored files remain untouched, avoiding redundant writes and unnecessary history entries.

4. Metrics and telemetry

Each scan produces a metrics.json file summarizing timing, findings, and environment details. Metrics are always stored locally and can optionally be sent to a remote endpoint defined by the GOTHREATSCOPE_METRICS_URL variable.

5. MCP integration

When running in --mcp mode, GoThreatScope exposes its analysis capabilities as tools that can be invoked directly by LLMs or IDEs. Results are returned as structured JSON with file:// URIs pointing to saved artifacts, allowing the calling system to read or display them without rerunning scans.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Go 1.21 or newer
• (Optional) Gitleaks v8+ for extended secret detection

Installation from source

go install github.com/anotherik/gothreatscope/cmd/gothreatscope@latest

After installation, the binary gothreatscope will be available in your $GOBIN path.

Local Build

# Navigate to the project directory
cd /path/to/GoThreatScope

# Build the binary
go build -o ./bin/gothreatscope ./cmd/gothreatscope

# Make it executable
chmod +x ./bin/gothreatscope

Docker / Podman

You can run GoThreatScope in a container using the provided Dockerfile.

Build image metadata from your local Git state:

# Docker
docker build -t gothreatscope:latest \
  --build-arg VERSION=0.0.0 \
  --build-arg COMMIT=$(git rev-parse --short HEAD) \
  --build-arg DATE=$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ) .

# Podman
podman build -t gothreatscope:latest \
  --build-arg VERSION=0.0.0 \
  --build-arg COMMIT=$(git rev-parse --short HEAD) \
  --build-arg DATE=$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ) .

Run a full analysis against the current repository:

# Docker
docker run --rm -v "$PWD":/workspace gothreatscope:latest analyze --path /workspace

# Podman
podman run --rm -v "$PWD":/workspace gothreatscope:latest analyze --path /workspace

Start MCP mode on stdio:

# Docker
docker run --rm -i -v "$PWD":/workspace gothreatscope:latest --mcp

# Podman
podman run --rm -i -v "$PWD":/workspace gothreatscope:latest --mcp

The runtime image includes HTTPS CA certificates and runs as a non-root user. If gitleaks is not present in the container, GoThreatScope automatically uses the builtin secret scanner.

Optional environment variables

Variable	Description	Default
GOTHREATSCOPE_METRICS_URL	Remote endpoint for telemetry collection	Built-in demo URL
GTS_KEEP_HISTORY	Number of history snapshots to keep per project	1
GTS_DISABLE_METRICS	Disable remote metrics (store metrics locally only)	unset
GTS_MCP_MODE	Enables MCP mode (reduces verbose output)	1
GTS_QUIET	Reduces output verbosity	1
GTS_DEBUG	To enable debug logging	0

If Gitleaks is not installed, GoThreatScope automatically uses its internal secret-scanning engine.

CLI Usage

GoThreatScope can be used directly from the command line to perform individual scans or run the full analysis pipeline.

# Generate a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM)
gothreatscope sbom --path ./project

# Check dependencies for vulnerabilities and malicious packages
gothreatscope vuln --path ./project

# Scan for hardcoded secrets
gothreatscope secrets --path ./project [--engine auto|gitleaks|builtin]

# Run the complete pipeline (SBOM + Vulnerabilities + Secrets)
gothreatscope analyze --path ./project

# Display version and global help
gothreatscope --version
gothreatscope --help

Each command stores its results under gothreatscope_store/<project_id>/latest/ and updates them only if new findings are detected. This makes it easy to keep long-term records of project scans without unnecessary reprocessing.

MCP Server Mode

GoThreatScope can also run as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, allowing IDEs or LLMs to interact with its analysis results through structured JSON responses.

What is MCP?

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a standard that allows AI assistants to securely connect to data sources and tools. GoThreatScope implements an MCP server that exposes security analysis tools to IDEs like Cursor.

To start the server:

gothreatscope --mcp

When running in MCP mode, GoThreatScope exposes several tools and resources that can be invoked programmatically or through compatible editors such as Cursor or VS Code (with MCP support).

Available MCP Tools

GoThreatScope exposes the following tools via the Model Context Protocol (MCP).
These tools are automatically registered and described in tools.json.

Tool	Description
analyzeRepo	Runs the full pipeline (SBOM → Vulnerabilities → Secrets).
scanRepoSBOM	Generates an SBOM and returns its file URI.
vulnCheck	Checks for vulnerabilities and malicious packages using OSV.dev.
secretScan	Scans for secrets (using Gitleaks or the built-in engine).

Exposed MCP Resources

Once a scan is completed, GoThreatScope also exposes resources that can be accessed by compatible MCP clients (e.g., Cursor, VS Code). These resources allow the MCP clients to fetch structured analysis outputs like:

• SBOMs — stored as sbom.json
• Vulnerability reports — stored as vuln.json
• Secrets findings — stored as secrets.json
• Metrics — stored as metrics.json

Resources are automatically listed through the MCP protocol methods:

• resources/list lists all stored artifacts across scanned projects.
• resources/read retrieves the content of a specific file via a file:// URI (e.g., local artifact path).

Example MCP output

{
  "uri": "file:///home/user/gothreatscope_store/a93bf44e3e9c/latest/vuln.json",
  "changed": true,
  "counts": { "vulns": 5 },
  "note": "Vulnerability report updated (change detected)"
}

Using these endpoints, IDEs or connected LLMs can request analysis results, open the corresponding JSON artifacts, or cross-reference findings without rerunning the scans.

Example Integration (Cursor)

GoThreatScope can be used directly inside Cursor or any IDE that supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Once installed, configure Cursor to recognize GoThreatScope as an MCP server:

Option A: Global Configuration Add to your Cursor settings (File → Preferences → Settings → Extensions → MCP):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gothreatscope": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/gothreatscope",
      "args": ["--mcp"],
      "env": {
        "GTS_MCP_MODE": "1"
      }
    }
  }
}

Option B: Workspace Configuration Create a .cursor/mcp.json file in your workspace root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gothreatscope": {
      "command": "./gothreatscope",
      "args": ["--mcp"],
      "env": {
        "GTS_MCP_MODE": "1"
      }
    }
  }
}

After restarting Cursor, you can interact with GoThreatScope using natural language prompts.
For example:

1. Open a repository in Cursor
2. Use the chat interface to request security analysis:
   • "GoThreatScope, analyze my current project and show me if any dependencies look risky or contain secrets."
   • "Analyze this repository for security issues"
   • "Generate an SBOM for this project"
   • "Check for vulnerabilities in dependencies"
   • "Scan for secrets in this codebase"
3. Access stored results through the MCP resources system

Cursor will automatically call the MCP tools (analyzeRepo, scanRepoSBOM, vulnCheck, secretScan), read the stored JSON artifacts, and reason over the SBOM, vulnerabilities, and secrets results to provide an AI-driven assessment.

Testing the MCP Server

For debug purposes, here you can find some examples to test the MCP server.

• Individually:

  `echo '{"id":2,"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"ping"}' | gothreatscope --mcp`

• All at once (or copy the one you want to test):

printf '%s\n' \
'{"id":1,"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"initialize"}' \
'{"id":2,"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"ping"}' \
'{"id":3,"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"tools/list"}' \
'{"id":4,"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"scanRepoSBOM","arguments":{"path":"."}}}' \
'{"id":5,"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"vulnCheck","arguments":{"path":"."}}}' \
'{"id":6,"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"secretScan","arguments":{"path":".","engine":"auto"}}}' \
'{"id":7,"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"analyzeRepo","arguments":{"path":"."}}}' \
'{"id":8,"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"resources/list"}' \
| gothreatscope --mcp

---

Authors and License

Created by anotherik
Released for educational and research use under the Apache-2.0 License.

GoThreatScope is an open, educational project that aims to demonstrate best practices in secure software analysis and model-integrated scanning.
Contributions, feedback, and research collaborations are always welcome.