boost

Projects that follow the best practices below can voluntarily self-certify and show that they've achieved an Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) best practices badge.

There is no set of practices that can guarantee that software will never have defects or vulnerabilities; even formal methods can fail if the specifications or assumptions are wrong. Nor is there any set of practices that can guarantee that a project will sustain a healthy and well-functioning development community. However, following best practices can help improve the results of projects. For example, some practices enable multi-person review before release, which can both help find otherwise hard-to-find technical vulnerabilities and help build trust and a desire for repeated interaction among developers from different companies. To earn a badge, all MUST and MUST NOT criteria must be met, all SHOULD criteria must be met OR be unmet with justification, and all SUGGESTED criteria must be met OR unmet (we want them considered at least). If you want to enter justification text as a generic comment, instead of being a rationale that the situation is acceptable, start the text block with '//' followed by a space. Feedback is welcome via the GitHub site as issues or pull requests There is also a mailing list for general discussion.

We gladly provide the information in several locales, however, if there is any conflict or inconsistency between the translations, the English version is the authoritative version.
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These are the Silver level criteria. You can also view the Passing or Gold level criteria.

Baseline Series: Baseline Level 1 Baseline Level 2 Baseline Level 3

        

 Basics 17/17

  • General

    Note that other projects may use the same name.

    Package manager for AI coding skills — search, install, and sync SKILL.md skills across Claude Code, Windsurf, and Cursor

    Please use SPDX license expression format; examples include "Apache-2.0", "BSD-2-Clause", "BSD-3-Clause", "GPL-2.0+", "LGPL-3.0+", "MIT", and "(BSD-2-Clause OR Ruby)". Do not include single quotes or double quotes.
    If there is more than one language, list them as comma-separated values (spaces optional) and sort them from most to least used. If there is a long list, please list at least the first three most common ones. If there is no language (e.g., this is a documentation-only or test-only project), use the single character "-". Please use a conventional capitalization for each language, e.g., "JavaScript".
    The Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) is a structured naming scheme for information technology systems, software, and packages. It is used in a number of systems and databases when reporting vulnerabilities.
  • Prerequisites


    The project MUST achieve a passing level badge. [achieve_passing]

  • Basic project website content


    The information on how to contribute MUST include the requirements for acceptable contributions (e.g., a reference to any required coding standard). (URL required) [contribution_requirements]

    CONTRIBUTING.md's 'Ground rules' section states the requirements: stdlib-only runtime, the cli -> commands -> core layering rule, and that behaviour changes need tests. https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md pre-fills the same checklist on every PR.


  • Project oversight


    The project SHOULD have a legal mechanism where all developers of non-trivial amounts of project software assert that they are legally authorized to make these contributions. The most common and easily-implemented approach for doing this is by using a Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO), where users add "signed-off-by" in their commits and the project links to the DCO website. However, this MAY be implemented as a Contributor License Agreement (CLA), or other legal mechanism. (URL required) [dco]
    The DCO is the recommended mechanism because it's easy to implement, tracked in the source code, and git directly supports a "signed-off" feature using "commit -s". To be most effective it is best if the project documentation explains what "signed-off" means for that project. A CLA is a legal agreement that defines the terms under which intellectual works have been licensed to an organization or project. A contributor assignment agreement (CAA) is a legal agreement that transfers rights in an intellectual work to another party; projects are not required to have CAAs, since having CAA increases the risk that potential contributors will not contribute, especially if the receiver is a for-profit organization. The Apache Software Foundation CLAs (the individual contributor license and the corporate CLA) are examples of CLAs, for projects which determine that the risks of these kinds of CLAs to the project are less than their benefits.

    The repository requires a Developer Certificate of Origin sign-off on every commit a pull request adds. The certificate is the standard DCO 1.1 text at https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/DCO ; enforcement is scripts/check_dco.py, wired as the 'dco' required status check (.github/workflows/dco.yml) and listed in .github/required-checks.txt, so a commit without a sign-off cannot merge. Contributors are told how in CONTRIBUTING.md ('Sign your commits'), and the same check runs locally.

    One design point worth stating, because it is what makes the assertion meaningful: the checker compares the trailer against each commit's OWN AUTHOR and rejects a sign-off naming anybody else. A DCO is the contributor certifying they have the right to submit the work, so a trailer added later by a reviewer or a script certifies nothing; tests/unit/test_check_dco.py::test_signoff_naming_someone_else_is_rejected pins that behaviour, and it is the test the file exists for.

    The requirement applies from the commit that introduced it forward, which is how DCO adoption normally works. Sign-offs were deliberately NOT backfilled onto the 569 pre-existing commits: doing so would have rewritten main, breaking 478 git tags, every setuptools-scm version derived from them, and the SLSA build-provenance attestation on every published release - all to record an assertion nobody actually made. Bot authors are exempt because an account cannot agree to a certificate. [osps_le_01_01]



    The project MUST clearly define and document its project governance model (the way it makes decisions, including key roles). (URL required) [governance]
    There needs to be some well-established documented way to make decisions and resolve disputes. In small projects, this may be as simple as "the project owner and lead makes all final decisions". There are various governance models, including benevolent dictator and formal meritocracy; for more details, see Governance models. Both centralized (e.g., single-maintainer) and decentralized (e.g., group maintainers) approaches have been successfully used in projects. The governance information does not need to document the possibility of creating a project fork, since that is always possible for FLOSS projects.

    https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/GOVERNANCE.md documents the decision-making model outright rather than implying a committee that does not exist: a benevolent-dictator model with a single maintainer, stated as the current state and not an aspiration. It sets out how a decision is made (anyone may propose; the argument happens in public on the issue or pull request; the required gates decide the large class of questions that are not matters of opinion, and a maintainer does not get to wave one through — changing a threshold is itself a pull request with the measurement that justifies it; the lead maintainer decides the rest and records it where the work is), how a 'no' is recorded rather than dropped (the roadmap's declined status), and how disputes are resolved, including the honest statement that with one maintainer there is no appeal body and the real backstop is the GPL plus a public history: anyone who thinks the project is run badly may fork it. Companion file MAINTAINERS.md lists who holds which role and which credential.



    The project MUST adopt a code of conduct and post it in a standard location. (URL required) [code_of_conduct]
    Projects may be able to improve the civility of their community and to set expectations about acceptable conduct by adopting a code of conduct. This can help avoid problems before they occur and make the project a more welcoming place to encourage contributions. This should focus only on behavior within the community/workplace of the project. Example codes of conduct are the Linux kernel code of conduct, the Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct, the Debian Code of Conduct, the Ubuntu Code of Conduct, the Fedora Code of Conduct, the GNOME Code Of Conduct, the KDE Community Code of Conduct, the Python Community Code of Conduct, The Ruby Community Conduct Guideline, and The Rust Code of Conduct.

    https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md - Contributor Covenant 2.1. CONTRIBUTING.md states that participation is governed by it and that conduct reports go through the private reporting form linked there, never a public issue.



    The project MUST clearly define and publicly document the key roles in the project and their responsibilities, including any tasks those roles must perform. It MUST be clear who has which role(s), though this might not be documented in the same way. (URL required) [roles_responsibilities]
    The documentation for governance and roles and responsibilities may be in one place.

    https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/MAINTAINERS.md describes each role and what it is responsible for: lead maintainer (sets direction, reviews and merges, owns the release process, receives private vulnerability reports, administers repository settings and the required-check list), maintainer (reviews and merges within an agreed area; may not change repository settings, rulesets, or the release path), contributor (anyone who opens a pull request, with no standing permissions), and security reporter (credited by name in the advisory and release notes unless they ask not to be).

    The same file carries the policy for granting access - a track record first, public review before the grant, least privilege at the grant, and the file updated in the same change that grants the permission, so an access grant that is not recorded there has not happened - and for removing it. https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/GOVERNANCE.md is the companion document covering how decisions are actually made and how disagreements are resolved.

    It states plainly that boost is a single-maintainer project today rather than implying a team that does not exist.



    The project MUST be able to continue with minimal interruption if any one person dies, is incapacitated, or is otherwise unable or unwilling to continue support of the project. In particular, the project MUST be able to create and close issues, accept proposed changes, and release versions of software, within a week of confirmation of the loss of support from any one individual. This MAY be done by ensuring someone else has any necessary keys, passwords, and legal rights to continue the project. Individuals who run a FLOSS project MAY do this by providing keys in a lockbox and a will providing any needed legal rights (e.g., for DNS names). (URL required) [access_continuity]

    https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/MAINTAINERS.md has a 'Continuity' section stating what happens if the lead maintainer becomes unavailable: the code is GPL-3.0 with full public history so anyone may fork; published PyPI and GitHub releases remain available and nothing expires; repository recovery would go through GitHub's account-recovery process; and because the release path is a GitHub OIDC identity bound to the repository rather than a personal token, whoever legitimately controls the repository controls releases - there is no credential that has to be handed over. It also says plainly that until a second maintainer exists, forking is the honest continuity plan.



    The project SHOULD have a "bus factor" of 2 or more. (URL required) [bus_factor]
    A "bus factor" (aka "truck factor") is the minimum number of project members that have to suddenly disappear from a project ("hit by a bus") before the project stalls due to lack of knowledgeable or competent personnel. The truck-factor tool can estimate this for projects on GitHub. For more information, see Assessing the Bus Factor of Git Repositories by Cosentino et al.

    https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/MAINTAINERS.md documents this directly. Answered honestly: boost has one maintainer today, so the bus factor is 1 rather than 2 or more, and MAINTAINERS.md says so in its own words - 'boost is a single-maintainer project today... it is the single largest risk to the project' - rather than implying a team that does not exist.

    What exists instead of a second maintainer, from https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/GOVERNANCE.md and the Continuity section of MAINTAINERS.md: the project is GPL-3.0 with full public history, so anyone may fork it; every published release remains available and nothing expires if no one logs in; every artifact is reproducible from a public tag and carries a SLSA build-provenance attestation; and the release path is a GitHub OIDC identity bound to the repository rather than a personal token, so there is no private credential that would have to be recovered or handed over. Continuity therefore does not depend on reaching one person.

    MAINTAINERS.md also documents the route to appointing a second maintainer - track record, public review before the grant, least privilege at the grant, and the file updated in the same change - and explicitly invites it. This will be re-answered as Met when a second maintainer is appointed.


  • Documentation


    The project MUST have a documented roadmap that describes what the project intends to do and not do for at least the next year. (URL required) [documentation_roadmap]
    The project might not achieve the roadmap, and that's fine; the purpose of the roadmap is to help potential users and contributors understand the intended direction of the project. It need not be detailed.

    Two living roadmap boards, generated from one Markdown file per item under docs/roadmap/items/ so that priority is public and reviewable rather than a private backlog: https://jonnyeclectic.github.io/boost/docs/roadmap.html (engine, correctness and tooling) and https://jonnyeclectic.github.io/boost/docs/design-roadmap.html (the Visual Guide and docsite). Cards carry a status including a declined state, so work that was investigated and rejected is recorded as answered rather than sitting as backlog forever.



    The project MUST include documentation of the architecture (aka high-level design) of the software produced by the project. If the project does not produce software, select "not applicable" (N/A). (URL required) [documentation_architecture]
    A software architecture explains a program's fundamental structures, i.e., the program's major components, the relationships among them, and the key properties of these components and relationships.

    https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/tree/main/docs/architecture holds C4 design documentation - system context, containers, core components, and a dynamic view of the install flow - showing the actors and the actions between them. https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/docs/security-design.md adds the security view of the same system: the trust boundaries, which actors are trusted and which are not (a tap author is treated as an attacker for modelling purposes), and where each untrusted input crosses into privileged behaviour. docs/rag-architecture.md covers the retrieval subsystem. [osps_sa_01_01]



    The project MUST document what the user can and cannot expect in terms of security from the software produced by the project (its "security requirements"). (URL required) [documentation_security]
    These are the security requirements that the software is intended to meet.

    https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/docs/security-design.md is the project's threat model and security architecture: trust boundaries, Saltzer and Schroeder's eight design principles as concrete claims about this codebase, the CWE classes that apply to a CLI that clones third-party repositories and writes files with the mitigation countering each, the cryptography actually used, and the residual limits stated plainly.



    The project MUST provide a "quick start" guide for new users to help them quickly do something with the software. (URL required) [documentation_quick_start]
    The idea is to show users how to get started and make the software do anything at all. This is critically important for potential users to get started.

    The README's first screen is the quick start - install with pipx, tap the default registries, search, install - followed by worked examples. https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost#install . The Visual Guide at https://jonnyeclectic.github.io/boost/ presents the same flow, and docs/commands.html documents every command and flag.



    The project MUST make an effort to keep the documentation consistent with the current version of the project results (including software produced by the project). Any known documentation defects making it inconsistent MUST be fixed. If the documentation is generally current, but erroneously includes some older information that is no longer true, just treat that as a defect, then track and fix as usual. [documentation_current]
    The documentation MAY include information about differences or changes between versions of the software and/or link to older versions of the documentation. The intent of this criterion is that an effort is made to keep the documentation consistent, not that the documentation must be perfect.

    The reference documentation cannot go stale, because it is generated from the code and a CI check fails the build on drift: docs/commands.html is built from the COMMANDS registry and each command's own argparse parser by scripts/build_command_reference.py, and both roadmap boards are generated from docs/roadmap/items/*.md. Each has a --check mode run in CI plus a unit test (tests/unit/test_roadmap_fresh.py, tests/unit/test_registries_fresh.py), so a hand-edit or a stale artifact is a build failure rather than a documentation bug someone notices later.



    The project repository front page and/or website MUST identify and hyperlink to any achievements, including this best practices badge, within 48 hours of public recognition that the achievement has been attained. (URL required) [documentation_achievements]
    An achievement is any set of external criteria that the project has specifically worked to meet, including some badges. This information does not need to be on the project website front page. A project using GitHub can put achievements on the repository front page by adding them to the README file.

    The repository front page hyperlinks its achievements in the badge row at the top of https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost - the OpenSSF Best Practices passing badge (https://www.bestpractices.dev/projects/14275) and the OpenSSF Baseline badge (https://www.bestpractices.dev/projects/14275/baseline), alongside CI, coverage, mutation score and licence badges. Both link to the live badge entry rather than to a static image.


  • Accessibility and internationalization


    The project (both project sites and project results) SHOULD follow accessibility best practices so that persons with disabilities can still participate in the project and use the project results where it is reasonable to do so. [accessibility_best_practices]
    For web applications, see the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) and its supporting document Understanding WCAG 2.0; see also W3C accessibility information. For GUI applications, consider using the environment-specific accessibility guidelines (such as Gnome, KDE, XFCE, Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows). Some TUI applications (e.g. `ncurses` programs) can do certain things to make themselves more accessible (such as `alpine`'s `force-arrow-cursor` setting). Most command-line applications are fairly accessible as-is. This criterion is often N/A, e.g., for program libraries. Here are some examples of actions to take or issues to consider:
    • Provide text alternatives for any non-text content so that it can be changed into other forms people need, such as large print, braille, speech, symbols or simpler language ( WCAG 2.0 guideline 1.1)
    • Color is not used as the only visual means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element. ( WCAG 2.0 guideline 1.4.1)
    • The visual presentation of text and images of text has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1, except for large text, incidental text, and logotypes ( WCAG 2.0 guideline 1.4.3)
    • Make all functionality available from a keyboard (WCAG guideline 2.1)
    • A GUI or web-based project SHOULD test with at least one screen-reader on the target platform(s) (e.g. NVDA, Jaws, or WindowEyes on Windows; VoiceOver on Mac & iOS; Orca on Linux/BSD; TalkBack on Android). TUI programs MAY work to reduce overdraw to prevent redundant reading by screen-readers.

    The project's web presence is the GitHub Pages documentation site, and accessibility is gated rather than asserted: Lighthouse CI runs on every change to the site and asserts categories:accessibility at a minimum score of 0.95 (.lighthouserc.json), with the site scoring 100. An axe accessibility pass runs alongside it. The software itself is a terminal CLI whose output is plain text honouring terminal width, with colour used as an accent rather than as the sole carrier of meaning.



    The software produced by the project SHOULD be internationalized to enable easy localization for the target audience's culture, region, or language. If internationalization (i18n) does not apply (e.g., the software doesn't generate text intended for end-users and doesn't sort human-readable text), select "not applicable" (N/A). [internationalization]
    Localization "refers to the adaptation of a product, application or document content to meet the language, cultural and other requirements of a specific target market (a locale)." Internationalization is the "design and development of a product, application or document content that enables easy localization for target audiences that vary in culture, region, or language." (See W3C's "Localization vs. Internationalization".) Software meets this criterion simply by being internationalized. No localization for another specific language is required, since once software has been internationalized it's possible for others to work on localization.

    Answered honestly rather than claimed. boost's user-facing output is English strings written inline in the source; there is no gettext catalogue or message-extraction layer, so the software is not currently internationalized and localizing it would mean a refactor rather than a translation. Two mitigating facts, offered as context and not as a claim of compliance: boost handles non-ASCII input correctly throughout (UTF-8 is used explicitly on every read and write, and skill content in any language is indexed and served unchanged), and its audience is developers using English-language AI coding tools. This is a genuine gap, not an N/A.


  • Other


    If the project sites (website, repository, and download URLs) store passwords for authentication of external users, the passwords MUST be stored as iterated hashes with a per-user salt by using a key stretching (iterated) algorithm (e.g., Argon2id, Bcrypt, Scrypt, or PBKDF2). If the project sites do not store passwords for this purpose, select "not applicable" (N/A). [sites_password_security]
    Note that the use of GitHub meets this criterion. This criterion only applies to passwords used for authentication of external users into the project sites (aka inbound authentication). If the project sites must log in to other sites (aka outbound authentication), they may need to store authorization tokens for that purpose differently (since storing a hash would be useless). This applies criterion crypto_password_storage to the project sites, similar to sites_https.

    No project site stores passwords for authentication of external users. The repository and its releases are hosted by GitHub and PyPI, which run their own authentication; the documentation site is static GitHub Pages with no accounts, no login and no user data. boost itself performs no inbound authentication.


 Change Control 1/1

  • Previous versions


    The project MUST maintain the most often used older versions of the product or provide an upgrade path to newer versions. If the upgrade path is difficult, the project MUST document how to perform the upgrade (e.g., the interfaces that have changed and detailed suggested steps to help upgrade). [maintenance_or_update]

    https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/SUPPORT.md documents the policy and the upgrade path. Only the latest release is supported, and the upgrade is a single command ('pipx upgrade boost-skill-cli'), which is practical here rather than aspirational: the runtime is standard-library only so there is no dependency resolution to break, versions come from git tags via setuptools-scm, and no configuration migration is required between patch releases. Because a release is cut on every merge, the gap between an installed version and the fixed one is small by construction.


 Reporting 3/3

  • Bug-reporting process


    The project MUST use an issue tracker for tracking individual issues. [report_tracker]

    GitHub Issues, used as the sole tracker: https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/issues


  • Vulnerability report process


    The project MUST give credit to the reporter(s) of all vulnerability reports resolved in the last 12 months, except for the reporter(s) who request anonymity. If there have been no vulnerabilities resolved in the last 12 months, select "not applicable" (N/A). (URL required) [vulnerability_report_credit]

    MAINTAINERS.md states the policy in the roles table: 'Security reporter - anyone who reports a vulnerability through the process in SECURITY.md. Reporters are credited by name in the advisory and the release notes unless they ask not to be.' https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/MAINTAINERS.md . No vulnerability has been reported to date, so the policy has not yet had an occasion to be exercised.



    The project MUST have a documented process for responding to vulnerability reports. (URL required) [vulnerability_response_process]
    This is strongly related to vulnerability_report_process, which requires that there be a documented way to report vulnerabilities. It also related to vulnerability_report_response, which requires response to vulnerability reports within a certain time frame.

    https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/SECURITY.md states the channel, the expected acknowledgement time, and what a useful report contains. [vulnerability_report_process] [osps_vm_01_01]


 Quality 19/19

  • Coding standards


    The project MUST identify the specific coding style guides for the primary languages it uses, and require that contributions generally comply with it. (URL required) [coding_standards]
    In most cases this is done by referring to some existing style guide(s), possibly listing differences. These style guides can include ways to improve readability and ways to reduce the likelihood of defects (including vulnerabilities). Many programming languages have one or more widely-used style guides. Examples of style guides include Google's style guides and SEI CERT Coding Standards.

    https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#ground-rules states the coding standards: standard-library only at runtime, the cli -> commands -> core layering rule with core importing neither of the outer layers, new commands as def cmd_<name>(argv) -> int dispatched lazily from cli.py, behaviour changes requiring tests, and everything under boost_cli/core being mutation-tested. Style itself is delegated to tooling rather than prose - the ruff configuration in pyproject.toml states the enabled rule families explicitly, with comments explaining each choice.



    The project MUST automatically enforce its selected coding style(s) if there is at least one FLOSS tool that can do so in the selected language(s). [coding_standards_enforced]
    This MAY be implemented using static analysis tool(s) and/or by forcing the code through code reformatters. In many cases the tool configuration is included in the project's repository (since different projects may choose different configurations). Projects MAY allow style exceptions (and typically will); where exceptions occur, they MUST be rare and documented in the code at their locations, so that these exceptions can be reviewed and so that tools can automatically handle them in the future. Examples of such tools include ESLint (JavaScript), Rubocop (Ruby), and devtools check (R).

    Enforced mechanically on every pull request as required checks, not by review: ruff (an explicitly enumerated rule set - E/F, flake8-bandit S, bugbear B, SIM, C4, PERF, RUF, pyupgrade UP, isort I), mypy and pyright as two independent type checkers, vulture for dead code, xenon as a complexity ratchet, refurb for modernization smells, and import-linter enforcing the layering rule from CONTRIBUTING. Zero findings are permitted from any of them - a single finding fails the build - so a standard cannot erode gradually. pre-commit runs the same tools locally before a commit is made.


  • Working build system


    Build systems for native binaries MUST honor the relevant compiler and linker (environment) variables passed in to them (e.g., CC, CFLAGS, CXX, CXXFLAGS, and LDFLAGS) and pass them to compiler and linker invocations. A build system MAY extend them with additional flags; it MUST NOT simply replace provided values with its own. If no native binaries are being generated, select "not applicable" (N/A). [build_standard_variables]
    It should be easy to enable special build features like Address Sanitizer (ASAN), or to comply with distribution hardening best practices (e.g., by easily turning on compiler flags to do so).

    boost produces no native binaries. It is a pure-Python package built with the standard PEP 517 toolchain from pyproject.toml, so there is no compiler or linker invocation and CC, CFLAGS, CXX, CXXFLAGS and LDFLAGS have nothing to be honoured by.



    The build and installation system SHOULD preserve debugging information if they are requested in the relevant flags (e.g., "install -s" is not used). If there is no build or installation system (e.g., typical JavaScript libraries), select "not applicable" (N/A). [build_preserve_debug]
    E.G., setting CFLAGS (C) or CXXFLAGS (C++) should create the relevant debugging information if those languages are used, and they should not be stripped during installation. Debugging information is needed for support and analysis, and also useful for measuring the presence of hardening features in the compiled binaries.

    There is no compilation step and therefore no debugging information to strip or preserve. Python source is installed as source; tracebacks carry full file and line information by construction.



    The build system for the software produced by the project MUST NOT recursively build subdirectories if there are cross-dependencies in the subdirectories. If there is no build or installation system (e.g., typical JavaScript libraries), select "not applicable" (N/A). [build_non_recursive]
    The project build system's internal dependency information needs to be accurate, otherwise, changes to the project may not build correctly. Incorrect builds can lead to defects (including vulnerabilities). A common mistake in large build systems is to use a "recursive build" or "recursive make", that is, a hierarchy of subdirectories containing source files, where each subdirectory is independently built. Unless each subdirectory is fully independent, this is a mistake, because the dependency information is incorrect.

    There is no recursive build. The package is built in one PEP 517 invocation from a single pyproject.toml with no subdirectory build systems and no cross-dependencies between them.



    The project MUST be able to repeat the process of generating information from source files and get exactly the same bit-for-bit result. If no building occurs (e.g., scripting languages where the source code is used directly instead of being compiled), select "not applicable" (N/A). [build_repeatable]
    GCC and clang users may find the -frandom-seed option useful; in some cases, this can be resolved by forcing some sort order. More suggestions can be found at the reproducible build site.

    A build is repeatable and its inputs are pinned by hash. requirements/*.txt pin an exact version and every artifact's sha256 for the full transitive closure of the toolchain, enforced by pip --require-hashes, so a contributor's make venv and a CI runner resolve to identical bytes; scripts/lock_toolchain.py --check runs in the lint gate and fails on drift between the .in declaration and the locked .txt. The runtime itself has no third-party dependency to vary. The version is derived deterministically from the git tag by setuptools-scm rather than from a hand-edited constant, and noxfile.py reproduces the exact CI gate in isolated environments across every supported interpreter.


  • Installation system


    The project MUST provide a way to easily install and uninstall the software produced by the project using a commonly-used convention. [installation_common]
    Examples include using a package manager (at the system or language level), "make install/uninstall" (supporting DESTDIR), a container in a standard format, or a virtual machine image in a standard format. The installation and uninstallation process (e.g., its packaging) MAY be implemented by a third party as long as it is FLOSS.

    Installation uses the standard Python mechanisms and nothing bespoke: pipx install boost-skill-cli (recommended, for an isolated CLI) or pip install boost-skill-cli. The package is published to PyPI with standard metadata, so any conventional Python installation method works. Prerequisites are Python 3.12+ and git, stated in the README.



    The installation system for end-users MUST honor standard conventions for selecting the location where built artifacts are written to at installation time. For example, if it installs files on a POSIX system it MUST honor the DESTDIR environment variable. If there is no installation system or no standard convention, select "not applicable" (N/A). [installation_standard_variables]

    There is no bespoke installation system whose destination boost chooses. Installation is performed by pip or pipx, which already honour the standard Python conventions (--prefix, --target, --user, virtual environments and PEP 668 handling); DESTDIR is a POSIX build-system convention that does not apply to a wheel installed by pip.



    The project MUST provide a way for potential developers to quickly install all the project results and support environment necessary to make changes, including the tests and test environment. This MUST be performed with a commonly-used convention. [installation_development_quick]
    This MAY be implemented using a generated container and/or installation script(s). External dependencies would typically be installed by invoking system and/or language package manager(s), per external_dependencies.

    https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md documents the build from a clean clone: 'make venv' installs every gate tool from the hash-pinned requirements, and the full gate table lists each command. noxfile.py reproduces the exact CI gate in isolated venvs across every supported interpreter, so 'green on my machine' and 'green in CI' mean the same thing. Prerequisites are Python 3.12+ and git, stated in the README; the runtime itself has no third-party dependencies. [osps_do_07_01]


  • Externally-maintained components


    The project MUST list external dependencies in a computer-processable way. (URL required) [external_dependencies]
    Typically this is done using the conventions of package manager and/or build system. Note that this helps implement installation_development_quick.

    Dependencies are ingested with standard ecosystem tooling only - pip, driven by pyproject.toml for the project's own extras and by requirements/*.txt for the toolchain. Those lock files pin an exact version and every artifact's sha256 for the full transitive closure, enforced by pip --require-hashes, so a build resolves to identical bytes on a contributor's machine and on a CI runner. Nothing is vendored or fetched ad hoc. See https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/docs/dependencies.md [osps_br_05_01]



    Projects MUST monitor or periodically check their external dependencies (including convenience copies) to detect known vulnerabilities, and fix exploitable vulnerabilities or verify them as unexploitable. [dependency_monitoring]
    This can be done using an origin analyzer / dependency checking tool / software composition analysis tool such as OWASP's Dependency-Check, Sonatype's Nexus Auditor, Synopsys' Black Duck Software Composition Analysis, and Bundler-audit (for Ruby). Some package managers include mechanisms to do this. It is acceptable if the components' vulnerability cannot be exploited, but this analysis is difficult and it is sometimes easier to simply update or fix the part.

    https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/docs/dependencies.md documents the monitoring and the thresholds. Dependabot proposes upgrades; pip-audit fails the build when a resolved dependency matches a known OSV or PyPI advisory and also runs on a weekly schedule so a newly published advisory against unchanged code is still caught; OSV-Scanner runs diffed against the base branch and fails on what a pull request adds; a licence gate fails on a licence outside the allowed set; and a CycloneDX SBOM is generated per released wheel. pip-audit and osv-scan are both required checks. The runtime has no third-party dependency to monitor, which is the strongest form of this.



    The project MUST either:
    1. make it easy to identify and update reused externally-maintained components; or
    2. use the standard components provided by the system or programming language.
    Then, if a vulnerability is found in a reused component, it will be easy to update that component. [updateable_reused_components]
    A typical way to meet this criterion is to use system and programming language package management systems. Many FLOSS programs are distributed with "convenience libraries" that are local copies of standard libraries (possibly forked). By itself, that's fine. However, if the program *must* use these local (forked) copies, then updating the "standard" libraries as a security update will leave these additional copies still vulnerable. This is especially an issue for cloud-based systems; if the cloud provider updates their "standard" libraries but the program won't use them, then the updates don't actually help. See, e.g., "Chromium: Why it isn't in Fedora yet as a proper package" by Tom Callaway.

    pyproject.toml declares the project's direct dependencies (the runtime is deliberately standard-library only; the optional [rag], [eval], [bdd] and [langchain] extras declare theirs). The development and CI toolchain is enumerated in requirements/.in and locked in requirements/.txt, which pin an exact version and every artifact's sha256 for the full transitive closure, enforced by pip --require-hashes. https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/pyproject.toml [osps_qa_02_01]



    The project SHOULD avoid using deprecated or obsolete functions and APIs where FLOSS alternatives are available in the set of technology it uses (its "technology stack") and to a supermajority of the users the project supports (so that users have ready access to the alternative). [interfaces_current]

    The project holds the line on dated idioms mechanically rather than by intention: ruff's pyupgrade (UP) family is enabled as a selected rule set with zero findings permitted, so a deprecated construct fails the build as it is written rather than accreting. The supported floor is Python 3.12+, which allowed the typing.List -> list and X | Y union sweeps to be completed rather than deferred. refurb additionally reports modernization smells the ruff families miss. Dependencies in the optional extras are tracked by Dependabot, so a deprecated upstream API surfaces as an upgrade pull request.


  • Automated test suite


    An automated test suite MUST be applied on each check-in to a shared repository for at least one branch. This test suite MUST produce a report on test success or failure. [automated_integration_testing]
    This requirement can be viewed as a subset of test_continuous_integration, but focused on just testing, without requiring continuous integration.

    GitHub Actions runs the full gate on every push and every pull request: https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/actions/workflows/ci.yml [test_continuous_integration] [osps_qa_06_01]



    The project MUST add regression tests to an automated test suite for at least 50% of the bugs fixed within the last six months. [regression_tests_added50]

    Well above 50%, and enforced rather than encouraged: a changed-line coverage gate requires at least 80% of the lines a pull request adds to be covered, and it is a required check. The mutation gate compounds it - 80% of mutants in boost_cli/core must be killed, so new logic that is executed but not asserted on still fails. Recent history bears it out; the most recent bug fix in this repository (a restored key fingerprint that a static-analysis autofix had deleted) shipped with a regression test verified to fail against the broken code and pass against the fix.



    The project MUST have FLOSS automated test suite(s) that provide at least 80% statement coverage if there is at least one FLOSS tool that can measure this criterion in the selected language. [test_statement_coverage80]
    Many FLOSS tools are available to measure test coverage, including gcov/lcov, Blanket.js, Istanbul, JCov, and covr (R). Note that meeting this criterion is not a guarantee that the test suite is thorough, instead, failing to meet this criterion is a strong indicator of a poor test suite.

    The coverage gate is set at exactly this threshold and is a required check: fail_under = 80 in the coverage configuration, run as part of make test over the unit and functional suites. A pull request that drops line coverage below 80% fails. The changed-line gate applies the same 80% to the diff specifically, so overall coverage cannot be held up by old code while new code arrives untested.


  • New functionality testing


    The project MUST have a formal written policy that as major new functionality is added, tests for the new functionality MUST be added to an automated test suite. [test_policy_mandated]

    The policy is mandated by automation rather than by convention, which is the stronger form. CONTRIBUTING.md states that behaviour changes need tests and that anything under boost_cli/core is mutation-tested; the changed-line coverage gate and the mutation gate then enforce it as required status checks, so a change adding major functionality without tests cannot be merged into main even by the maintainer - main is protected and takes changes only through a pull request that has passed the full gate.



    The project MUST include, in its documented instructions for change proposals, the policy that tests are to be added for major new functionality. [tests_documented_added]
    However, even an informal rule is acceptable as long as the tests are being added in practice.

    Documented in CONTRIBUTING.md ('The gates' table and 'Ground rules') and restated in the pull-request template checklist.


  • Warning flags


    Projects MUST be maximally strict with warnings in the software produced by the project, where practical. [warnings_strict]
    Some warnings cannot be effectively enabled on some projects. What is needed is evidence that the project is striving to enable warning flags where it can, so that errors are detected early.

    The gates are already maximally strict: zero tolerance on six linters and two type checkers, plus a complexity ratchet (xenon) that fails on regression rather than against an absolute threshold.


 Security 13/13

  • Secure development knowledge


    The project MUST implement secure design principles (from "know_secure_design"), where applicable. If the project is not producing software, select "not applicable" (N/A). [implement_secure_design]
    For example, the project results should have fail-safe defaults (access decisions should deny by default, and projects' installation should be secure by default). They should also have complete mediation (every access that might be limited must be checked for authority and be non-bypassable). Note that in some cases principles will conflict, in which case a choice must be made (e.g., many mechanisms can make things more complex, contravening "economy of mechanism" / keep it simple).

    The principles from know_secure_design are implemented, not just understood, and https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/docs/security-design.md maps each to the code. Fail-safe defaults: archive members, path components and served skill names are accepted only against allowlists and rejected otherwise. Complete mediation: exactly one place asks whether a name may be joined onto a directory (util.is_safe_component) and one place joins a relative path inside a base; archive extraction validates a member's name and then discards it, rebuilding the destination from the basename, because a check that feeds its input forward is one refactor from being decorative. Least privilege: no elevation, no shell (shell=True appears nowhere), every subprocess an argument vector, and per-job CI permissions audited by zizmor. Economy of mechanism: a standard-library-only runtime enforced by import-linter, so there is no dependency tree to compromise.


  • Use basic good cryptographic practices

    Note that some software does not need to use cryptographic mechanisms. If your project produces software that (1) includes, activates, or enables encryption functionality, and (2) might be released from the United States (US) to outside the US or to a non-US-citizen, you may be legally required to take a few extra steps. Typically this just involves sending an email. For more information, see the encryption section of Understanding Open Source Technology & US Export Controls.

    The default security mechanisms within the software produced by the project MUST NOT depend on cryptographic algorithms or modes with known serious weaknesses (e.g., the SHA-1 cryptographic hash algorithm or the CBC mode in SSH). [crypto_weaknesses]
    Concerns about CBC mode in SSH are discussed in CERT: SSH CBC vulnerability.

    Same evidence as crypto_working. Ed25519, SHA-2 and BLAKE2 have no known serious weakness, and nothing in the codebase depends on SHA-1 or CBC-mode SSH.



    The project SHOULD support multiple cryptographic algorithms, so users can quickly switch if one is broken. Common symmetric key algorithms include AES, Twofish, and Serpent. Common cryptographic hash algorithm alternatives include SHA-2 (including SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384 AND SHA-512) and SHA-3. [crypto_algorithm_agility]

    Answered honestly. boost verifies minisign signatures, and the minisign format specifies Ed25519 - there is no algorithm negotiation in the format to support, so boost cannot offer a switch it has nowhere to send. Hashing is more agile in practice (SHA-256, SHA-512 and BLAKE2b-512 are all used, via hashlib, which offers the full set), but signature verification is single-algorithm by the design of the format boost standardised on. If Ed25519 were broken, the remedy would be a new signature format rather than a configuration change, and that is the honest description.



    The project MUST support storing authentication credentials (such as passwords and dynamic tokens) and private cryptographic keys in files that are separate from other information (such as configuration files, databases, and logs), and permit users to update and replace them without code recompilation. If the project never processes authentication credentials and private cryptographic keys, select "not applicable" (N/A). [crypto_credential_agility]

    boost stores no authentication credential and no private cryptographic key. It performs signature VERIFICATION only, over public keys, and holds no secret of any kind: publishing to PyPI uses a short-lived OIDC identity minted per workflow run rather than a stored token, so there is nothing for the project to store separately, update or replace. Trusted public keys are held in their own state file rather than mixed into configuration, but a public key is not a credential in the sense this criterion means.



    The software produced by the project SHOULD support secure protocols for all of its network communications, such as SSHv2 or later, TLS1.2 or later (HTTPS), IPsec, SFTP, and SNMPv3. Insecure protocols such as FTP, HTTP, telnet, SSLv3 or earlier, and SSHv1 SHOULD be disabled by default, and only enabled if the user specifically configures it. If the software produced by the project does not support network communications, select "not applicable" (N/A). [crypto_used_network]

    boost implements no network protocol of its own. Its network access is delegated entirely to git (for cloning tapped registries, over HTTPS or SSH) and to pip (for installation, over HTTPS); both use secure protocols by default and boost neither configures nor weakens them. No insecure protocol is supported or enabled anywhere, because no protocol is implemented at all.



    The software produced by the project SHOULD, if it supports or uses TLS, support at least TLS version 1.2. Note that the predecessor of TLS was called SSL. If the software does not use TLS, select "not applicable" (N/A). [crypto_tls12]

    boost does not implement or configure TLS. TLS is provided by git and by pip, which negotiate it themselves; boost passes no TLS options and cannot downgrade a version. The optional boost serve command binds a plain local HTTP listener for development on a trusted network and is documented as such rather than presented as a secure server.



    The software produced by the project MUST, if it supports TLS, perform TLS certificate verification by default when using TLS, including on subresources. If the software does not use TLS, select "not applicable" (N/A). [crypto_certificate_verification]

    boost does not implement TLS, so it performs no certificate verification of its own and cannot disable any. Certificate verification is done by git and pip with their defaults intact - boost passes no flag that would relax it, and there is no --insecure or verification-disabling option anywhere in the CLI.



    The software produced by the project MUST, if it supports TLS, perform certificate verification before sending HTTP headers with private information (such as secure cookies). If the software does not use TLS, select "not applicable" (N/A). [crypto_verification_private]

    boost does not implement TLS and sends no HTTP headers carrying private information. It has no accounts, no cookies, no session state and no authenticated requests of its own; all network transfer is delegated to git and pip.


  • Secure release


    The project MUST cryptographically sign releases of the project results intended for widespread use, and there MUST be a documented process explaining to users how they can obtain the public signing keys and verify the signature(s). The private key for these signature(s) MUST NOT be on site(s) used to directly distribute the software to the public. If releases are not intended for widespread use, select "not applicable" (N/A). [signed_releases]
    The project results include both source code and any generated deliverables where applicable (e.g., executables, packages, and containers). Generated deliverables MAY be signed separately from source code. These MAY be implemented as signed git tags (using cryptographic digital signatures). Projects MAY provide generated results separately from tools like git, but in those cases, the separate results MUST be separately signed.

    Every release is signed with SLSA build provenance at build time. publish.yml runs actions/attest-build-provenance over dist/* after 'twine check' and before the PyPI upload, so the exact bytes published are the bytes signed, and the attestation records which workflow built which artifact from which commit. Upload to PyPI additionally uses Trusted Publishing (a short-lived OIDC identity, no stored token). A CycloneDX SBOM is generated per released wheel and attached to the GitHub release. Verification instructions: https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/docs/verifying-releases.md [osps_br_06_01]



    It is SUGGESTED that in the version control system, each important version tag (a tag that is part of a major release, minor release, or fixes publicly noted vulnerabilities) be cryptographically signed and verifiable as described in signed_releases. [version_tags_signed]

    Answered honestly: the git tags are not cryptographically signed. Release authenticity is provided by a different and, for a consumer, more checkable mechanism - each release artifact carries a SLSA build-provenance attestation created by actions/attest-build-provenance, which binds the artifact to the commit, the repository and the exact workflow that built it, and is verifiable with gh attestation verify FILE --repo jonnyeclectic/boost --signer-workflow .... Publication uses PyPI Trusted Publishing, so there is deliberately no long-lived personal key anywhere in the release path - which is also why there is no maintainer key with which to sign tags. Instructions are at https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/docs/verifying-releases.md . Signing tags as well remains a reasonable future addition.


  • Other security issues


    The project results MUST check all inputs from potentially untrusted sources to ensure they are valid (an *allowlist*), and reject invalid inputs, if there are any restrictions on the data at all. [input_validation]
    Note that comparing input against a list of "bad formats" (aka a *denylist*) is normally not enough, because attackers can often work around a denylist. In particular, numbers are converted into internal formats and then checked if they are between their minimum and maximum (inclusive), and text strings are checked to ensure that they are valid text patterns (e.g., valid UTF-8, length, syntax, etc.). Some data may need to be "anything at all" (e.g., a file uploader), but these would typically be rare.

    Untrusted input is validated against allowlists and rejected, which is exactly the form this criterion asks for. The untrusted source is a tapped registry - a tap author controls the file paths, the frontmatter and the body, so all of it is attacker-controlled for modelling purposes. Concretely: util.is_safe_component accepts a path component only if it matches a restrictive allowlist pattern and is neither '.' nor '..', and it is the single place that question is asked; catalogbundle.safe_members accepts an archive member only if it is a regular file directly under catalog/ whose name is a plain basename, caps the member count, and then discards the member name and rebuilds the destination from the validated basename; serve.py accepts a skill name only against ^[A-Za-z0-9.-]+$ and joins paths only through _safe_join_within; workflows.py validates a Gemini agent name against a restrictive pattern before rendering. Where rejecting is not an option - the catalogue indexer must not fail the whole scan on one hostile entry - the unsafe name is rewritten by util.safe_component rather than passed through. The parsers are additionally fuzzed with atheris in CI.



    Hardening mechanisms SHOULD be used in the software produced by the project so that software defects are less likely to result in security vulnerabilities. [hardening]
    Hardening mechanisms may include HTTP headers like Content Security Policy (CSP), compiler flags to mitigate attacks (such as -fstack-protector), or compiler flags to eliminate undefined behavior. For our purposes least privilege is not considered a hardening mechanism (least privilege is important, but separate).

    Hardening mechanisms appropriate to a Python CLI are used. The largest is structural: the runtime imports no third-party package at all, enforced by import-linter, so there is no dependency tree in which a defect could become a vulnerability. Beyond that: no shell is ever invoked (shell=True appears nowhere; every subprocess call is an argument vector), tap clones are sparse and cone-limited so a registry's non-Markdown payload is never even fetched, installed content carries a sha256 tripwire that can be promoted from advisory to binding (core/integrity.py), and boost never requests elevated privileges. In CI, every workflow declares a read-only default token with write scopes granted per job, actions are pinned to commit SHAs, and step-security/harden-runner audits egress. The docs site is static with no scripts requiring a relaxed policy.



    The project MUST provide an assurance case that justifies why its security requirements are met. The assurance case MUST include: a description of the threat model, clear identification of trust boundaries, an argument that secure design principles have been applied, and an argument that common implementation security weaknesses have been countered. (URL required) [assurance_case]
    An assurance case is "a documented body of evidence that provides a convincing and valid argument that a specified set of critical claims regarding a system’s properties are adequately justified for a given application in a given environment" ("Software Assurance Using Structured Assurance Case Models", Thomas Rhodes et al, NIST Interagency Report 7608). Trust boundaries are boundaries where data or execution changes its level of trust, e.g., a server's boundaries in a typical web application. It's common to list secure design principles (such as Saltzer and Schroeer) and common implementation security weaknesses (such as the OWASP top 10 or CWE/SANS top 25), and show how each are countered. The BadgeApp assurance case may be a useful example. This is related to documentation_security, documentation_architecture, and implement_secure_design.

    https://github.com/jonnyeclectic/boost/blob/main/docs/security-design.md is that assessment. It identifies the most likely and impactful problems for a CLI that clones third-party repositories and writes files into the directories an AI agent reads - path traversal via attacker-controlled frontmatter, command injection through skill and tap names, archive extraction escapes, link following, untrusted deserialization, supply-chain and CI-action compromise - and pairs each with the mitigation in the codebase. It also states the residual risks plainly, including the most important one: boost can give provenance, integrity and a diff, but cannot vet what a skill instructs an agent to do. [osps_sa_03_01]


 Analysis 2/2

  • Static code analysis


    The project MUST use at least one static analysis tool with rules or approaches to look for common vulnerabilities in the analyzed language or environment, if there is at least one FLOSS tool that can implement this criterion in the selected language. [static_analysis_common_vulnerabilities]
    Static analysis tools that are specifically designed to look for common vulnerabilities are more likely to find them. That said, using any static tools will typically help find some problems, so we are suggesting but not requiring this for the 'passing' level badge.

    CodeQL's Python security queries and ruff's flake8-bandit family are both vulnerability-focused rather than generic-defect tools, and osv-scanner plus pip-audit cover known-vulnerable dependencies.


  • Dynamic code analysis


    If the software produced by the project includes software written using a memory-unsafe language (e.g., C or C++), then at least one dynamic tool (e.g., a fuzzer or web application scanner) MUST be routinely used in combination with a mechanism to detect memory safety problems such as buffer overwrites. If the project does not produce software written in a memory-unsafe language, choose "not applicable" (N/A). [dynamic_analysis_unsafe]
    Examples of mechanisms to detect memory safety problems include Address Sanitizer (ASAN) (available in GCC and LLVM), Memory Sanitizer, and valgrind. Other potentially-used tools include thread sanitizer and undefined behavior sanitizer. Widespread assertions would also work.

    Python is memory-safe, so there is no buffer overflow or use-after-free class for a tool such as ASan or Valgrind to find. The runtime has no C extension - the optional [rag] extra is not on the install path.



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Project badge entry owned by: Jonathan Reyes.
Entry created on 2026-08-28 13:39:22 UTC, last updated on 2026-08-29 02:20:11 UTC. Last achieved passing badge on 2026-08-28 14:27:12 UTC.