For AI Agents & Automation#

This page is the entry point for AI agents, LLM-driven tools, and automation pipelines that invoke opnDossier programmatically. Every link below points at a stable, machine-readable interface or a reference doc that is kept in sync with the code via generator (so it does not drift).

If you are a human operator, start with the User Guide instead — that path is narrative and assumes you are reading top-to-bottom. This page is optimized for agents that need to jump directly to a flag list, an output schema, or an exit-code table.

Exhaustive CLI reference (auto-generated)#

The CLI reference in docs/cli/ is generated from the Cobra command definitions by just generate-cli-docs. Every subcommand, flag, alias, and shell-completion hint is listed; the content is always in sync with the binary because it is regenerated on every build.

• opnDossier — root command, global flags
• audit — security audit and compliance
• convert — render config to markdown/json/yaml/html/text
• display — render to terminal
• diff — compare two configs
• sanitize — redact sensitive values
• validate — structural + semantic validation
• config — manage the opnDossier config file
  • config init
  • config show
  • config validate
• list — enumerate supported capabilities (agent-friendly)
  • list plugins
  • list devices
  • list formats
• man — generate man pages
• completion — shell completion scripts
• version

Capability discovery#

Use the list subcommand group to enumerate what the running binary supports without parsing --help text. Each subcommand emits one name per line by default, or a JSON array of objects with --json. Pass the discovered names directly to --device-type, --format, or --plugins on the consuming commands.

JSON shape is stable: list plugins returns [{"name":"stig","description":"...","version":"1.0.0"}] (plus optional "status" and "loadError" fields when a dynamic plugin failed to load); list devices and list formats return [{"name":"opnsense","description":"..."}]. Empty registries return [] (never null) and exit code 0.

• list plugins without --plugin-dir returns only built-in plugins (stig, sans, firewall). Dynamic .so plugins are opt-in to keep the default invocation free of any local-filesystem dependency.
• Per-plugin dynamic load failures surface inline AND on stderr. JSON output includes a corresponding entry with "status":"load-failed" and "loadError":"<reason>" populated; stderr also emits a WARN line (plugin=<name> error=<reason>). The command still exits 0. Capture stderr alongside stdout when consuming list plugins --plugin-dir if you want the full diagnostic trail, but the structured JSON envelope is self-describing.

Machine-readable output formats#

convert, audit, and display all accept --format / -f. The structured formats below are the recommended consumers for automated pipelines.

The CommonDevice schema these formats expose is documented in Model Reference (auto-generated from the Go struct definitions in pkg/model).

!!! tip "Structural honesty on unpopulated fields"
JSON and YAML output include every CommonDevice field. When a subsystem is not yet implemented for a given device type (e.g., KeaDHCP on pfSense), the field is empty AND a ConversionWarning is emitted with a stable message: "not yet implemented in pfSense converter". Agents can filter on this substring instead of guessing why a field is empty. The canonical list of gaps is exposed via pkg/parser/pfsense.KnownGaps() and documented in the Device Support Matrix.

Public Go API#

For programmatic consumers embedding opnDossier as a library (not via the CLI), see API Reference and the Public API Contract. Key entry points live in pkg/parser and pkg/model; the public API is under semver commitment from v1.5 onward.

Configuration#

• Configuration Reference — every flag, environment variable, and config-file key with types, defaults, and precedence rules
• config init emits a fully annotated default config that can be used as a starting template

Exit semantics#

• Exit code 0 — success (parse/audit/convert completed with no fatal error)
• Exit code non-zero — fatal error; details on stderr
• Non-fatal issues (unrecognized XML elements, missing subsystems, unresolved alias references) are reported as warnings on stderr and do not change the exit code
• audit --mode blue exits 0 even when compliance checks fail; parse the audit output to detect findings
• list plugins, list devices, and list formats exit 0 regardless of registry size — an empty registry yields [] (JSON) or an empty stdout (text) with exit code 0. Non-zero only on internal errors such as plugin-manager initialization failure for list plugins --plugin-dir <missing-path>.

Device support#

• Device Support Matrix — OPNsense vs. pfSense coverage per CommonDevice subsystem
• pkg/parser.DeviceType is a typed string enum; use DeviceTypeOPNsense / DeviceTypePfSense rather than the raw literals

Security-sensitive operations#

If your pipeline loads third-party compliance plugins via --plugin-dir, read Third-Party Plugin Security first. The loader performs preflight checks (symlink rejection, permission-bit enforcement on POSIX, SHA-256 audit logging) but does not sandbox or verify signatures; plugin loading is Linux/macOS/FreeBSD only and is a clean no-op on Windows.

Integration with the action.yaml#

opnDossier ships a GitHub Action at the repo root (action.yaml). For CI-driven audit pipelines, the action wraps the CLI and emits structured JSON; see the repo root README for the canonical example.