The Aikido Safe Chain prevents developers from installing malware on their workstations while developing in the Javascript ecosystem (through npm, npx, yarn, pnpm, pnpx, bun and bunx). It's free to use and does not require any token.

The Aikido Safe Chain wraps around the npm cli, npx, yarn, pnpm, pnpx, bun, bunx, and pip to provide extra checks before installing new packages. This tool will detect when a package contains malware and prompt you to exit, preventing npm, npx, yarn, pnpm, pnpx, bun, bunx, or pip/pip3 from downloading or running the malware.

Aikido Safe Chain works on Node.js version 16 and above and supports the following package managers:

• ✅ npm
• ✅ npx
• ✅ yarn
• ✅ pnpm
• ✅ pnpx
• ✅ bun
• ✅ bunx
• ✅ pip (beta)
• ✅ pip3 (beta)

Installing the Aikido Safe Chain is easy. You just need 3 simple steps:

1. Install the Aikido Safe Chain package globally using npm:

   npm install -g @aikidosec/safe-chain

2. Setup the shell integration by running:

   safe-chain setup

   To enable Python (pip/pip3) support (beta), use the --include-python flag:

   safe-chain setup --include-python

3. ❗Restart your terminal to start using the Aikido Safe Chain.

   • This step is crucial as it ensures that the shell aliases for npm, npx, yarn, pnpm, pnpx, bun, bunx, and pip/pip3 are loaded correctly. If you do not restart your terminal, the aliases will not be available.

4. Verify the installation by running one of the following commands:

   For JavaScript/Node.js:

   npm install safe-chain-test

   For Python (beta):

   pip3 install safe-chain-pi-test

   • The output should show that Aikido Safe Chain is blocking the installation of these test packages as they are flagged as malware.

When running npm, npx, yarn, pnpm, pnpx, bun, bunx, pip, or pip3 commands, the Aikido Safe Chain will automatically check for malware in the packages you are trying to install. It also intercepts Python module invocations for pip when available (e.g., python -m pip install ..., python3 -m pip download ...). If any malware is detected, it will prompt you to exit the command.

You can check the installed version by running:

safe-chain --version

The Aikido Safe Chain works by running a lightweight proxy server that intercepts package downloads from the npm registry and PyPI. When you run npm, npx, yarn, pnpm, pnpx, bun, bunx, pip, or pip3 commands, all package downloads are routed through this local proxy, which verifies packages in real-time against Aikido Intel - Open Sources Threat Intelligence. If malware is detected in any package (including deep dependencies), the proxy blocks the download before the malicious code reaches your machine.

For npm packages, Safe Chain temporarily suppresses packages published within the last 24 hours until they have been validated against malware. This provides an additional security layer during the critical period when newly published packages are most vulnerable to containing undetected threats. You can bypass this protection for specific installs using the --safe-chain-skip-minimum-package-age flag.

⚠️ This feature only applies to npm-based package managers (npm, npx, yarn, pnpm, pnpx, bun, bunx) and does not apply to PyPI/pip.

The Aikido Safe Chain integrates with your shell to provide a seamless experience when using npm, npx, yarn, pnpm, pnpx, bun, bunx, and pip commands. It sets up aliases for these commands so that they are wrapped by the Aikido Safe Chain commands, which manage the proxy server before executing the original commands. We currently support:

• ✅ Bash
• ✅ Zsh
• ✅ Fish
• ✅ PowerShell
• ✅ PowerShell Core

More information about the shell integration can be found in the shell integration documentation.

To uninstall the Aikido Safe Chain, you can run the following command:

1. Remove all aliases from your shell by running:

   safe-chain teardown

2. Uninstall the Aikido Safe Chain package using npm:

   npm uninstall -g @aikidosec/safe-chain

3. ❗Restart your terminal to remove the aliases.

You can control the output from Aikido Safe Chain using the --safe-chain-logging flag:

• --safe-chain-logging=silent - Suppresses all Aikido Safe Chain output except when malware is blocked. The package manager output is written to stdout as normal, and Safe Chain only writes a short message if it has blocked malware and causes the process to exit.

  Example usage:

  npm install express --safe-chain-logging=silent

• --safe-chain-logging=verbose - Enables detailed diagnostic output from Aikido Safe Chain. Useful for troubleshooting issues or understanding what Safe Chain is doing behind the scenes.

  Example usage:

  npm install express --safe-chain-logging=verbose

You can protect your CI/CD pipelines from malicious packages by integrating Aikido Safe Chain into your build process. This ensures that any packages installed during your automated builds are checked for malware before installation.

For optimal protection in CI/CD environments, we recommend using npm >= 10.4.0 as it provides full dependency tree scanning. Other package managers currently offer limited scanning of install command arguments only.

To use Aikido Safe Chain in CI/CD environments, run the following command after installing the package:

safe-chain setup-ci

To enable Python (pip/pip3) support (beta) in CI/CD, use the --include-python flag:

safe-chain setup-ci --include-python

This automatically configures your CI environment to use Aikido Safe Chain for all package manager commands.

• ✅ GitHub Actions
• ✅ Azure Pipelines

- name: Setup Node.js uses: actions/setup-node@v4 with: node-version: "22" cache: "npm" - name: Setup safe-chain run: |  npm i -g @aikidosec/safe-chain  safe-chain setup-ci  - name: Install dependencies run: |  npm ci

- task: NodeTool@0 inputs: versionSpec: "22.x" displayName: "Install Node.js" - script: |  npm i -g @aikidosec/safe-chain  safe-chain setup-ci  displayName: "Install safe chain" - script: |  npm ci  displayName: "npm install and build"

After setup, all subsequent package manager commands in your CI pipeline will automatically be protected by Aikido Safe Chain's malware detection.