Rowan, an open‑source SAST scanner built for AI/ML applications, reached alpha status this week. It can scan source code, model artifacts and dependency lists in a single run, and it never executes the target code.
What Rowan checks
The tool reads Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, and a handful of other languages to look for injection, unsafe deserialization, SSRF, leaked secrets, and AI‑specific risks such as unsafe model loading or risky agent tools. Its rule catalog contains 591 rules across 48 YAML files – 400 regex rules and 191 taint rules powered by the Opengrep engine. It also queries OSV for known CVEs and can output CycloneDX SBOMs.
Quick start workflow
Install with pipx (or uv tool install) on Python 3.10+:
pipx install "rowan-sast[js-crossfile]"
rowan install-engine
rowan self-test # should print [OK] three times
rowan scan /path/to/project
The official docs walk through these steps in more detail (getting‑started guide).
CI integration
Rowan supports a --ci flag that exits 0 for no findings, 1 for high/critical issues, and 2 if the scan is incomplete. You can combine it with --baseline to report only new findings, or export JSON, HTML, or SARIF for downstream tooling. This makes it straightforward to gate merges in a CI pipeline.
Caveats to keep in mind
The project is still alpha, and its authors stress that a clean report does not prove a project is secure. Language coverage is deeper for Python and JS/TS; Go, Java, Kotlin, C# get only within‑file analysis, and Ruby, PHP, Rust see limited pattern checks. Network traffic occurs only for dependency lookups (OSV/FIRST EPSS) unless you disable it with --no-sca. An experimental rowan hunt command can send code to a configured LLM, but that feature is optional and not covered in the default workflow.
When to try it – If your startup ships AI services and already runs static analysis on code, add Rowan to your pipeline to surface model‑loading and agent‑tool risks. Start with a local scan on a non‑critical repo; once you’re comfortable with the false‑positive rate, integrate the --ci mode into your CI.
