Setup

Set up Warden once. It watches every change from there.

Local CLI (Quick Start)

Get started in seconds. No configuration required.

Terminal 
# Set your API key
export WARDEN_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

# Run security review on uncommitted changes
npx warden --skill security-review

# Run on specific files
npx warden src/auth.ts --skill security-review

# Run on git changes
npx warden HEAD~3

# Found something? Fix it immediately
npx warden --fix

For more CLI options, see the CLI reference.

GitHub Action Setup

Prerequisites

1. Add Your API Key

Add your Anthropic API key as a repository secret:

  1. Go to your repository on GitHub
  2. Navigate to Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions
  3. Click New repository secret
  4. Name: WARDEN_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
  5. Value: Your API key from console.anthropic.com

2. Create the Workflow

Create .github/workflows/warden.yml:

.github/workflows/warden.yml 
name: Warden
on:
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, synchronize, reopened]

jobs:
  warden:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: getsentry/warden-action@v1
        with:
          anthropic-api-key: ${{ secrets.WARDEN_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}
          github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Action Inputs

Input Required Description
anthropic-api-key Yes Your Anthropic API key
github-token Yes GitHub token for posting comments (use secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN)
config-path No Path to config file (default: warden.toml)
fail-on No Minimum severity to fail the action: critical, high, medium, low
comment-on No Minimum severity to show in comments: critical, high, medium, low. Independent of fail-on.

3. Create the Configuration

Create warden.toml in your repository root:

warden.toml 
version = 1

[[triggers]]
name = "Security Review"
event = "pull_request"
actions = ["opened", "synchronize"]
skill = "security-review"

Configuration Reference

Triggers

Each trigger maps GitHub events to skills that should run.

warden.toml 
[[triggers]]
name = "Security Review"           # Display name
event = "pull_request"             # GitHub event type
actions = ["opened", "synchronize"] # Which actions trigger this
skill = "security-review"          # Skill to run

# Optional: filter by file paths
[triggers.filters]
paths = ["src/**/*.ts"]            # Only run on matching files
ignorePaths = ["**/*.test.ts"]     # Exclude test files

# Optional: output configuration
[triggers.output]
failOn = "high"                    # Fail CI if high+ severity found
commentOn = "high"                 # Only show high+ severity in comments
maxFindings = 10                   # Limit to 10 findings in output
labels = ["security"]              # Always add this label when trigger runs

Supported Events

Event Actions
pull_request opened, synchronize, reopened, closed

Multiple Triggers

You can define multiple triggers for different scenarios:

warden.toml 
version = 1

# Run security review on all PRs
[[triggers]]
name = "Security Review"
event = "pull_request"
actions = ["opened", "synchronize"]
skill = "security-review"

# Run a custom skill only on specific paths
[[triggers]]
name = "API Review"
event = "pull_request"
actions = ["opened"]
skill = "api-review"

[triggers.filters]
paths = ["src/api/**/*.ts"]

Custom Skills

Define custom skills in .warden/skills/. See the skills documentation for details.

Verify Setup

Open a pull request to test your configuration. You should see:

  1. The Warden action running in the PR checks
  2. Review comments appearing on the PR if issues are found
  3. A summary comment with all findings

Local Development Workflow

Run Warden locally before pushing to catch issues early. This is faster and cheaper than waiting for CI.

Terminal 
# Before committing: check your changes
warden --skill security-review

# Before pushing: check everything since main
warden main..HEAD --skill security-review

# Found issues? Apply fixes automatically
warden --fix

Use --json and --fail-on to integrate with your own CI scripts.