warden-skill

name	warden-skill
description	Guide for using Warden CLI locally to analyze code changes. Use when running warden commands, configuring warden.toml, creating custom skills, understanding triggers, or troubleshooting analysis issues. Triggers on "run warden", "warden config", "warden.toml", "create warden skill", "add trigger", or any Warden-related local development task.

Warden Usage

Warden is an event-driven AI agent that analyzes code changes and executes configurable skills to produce structured reports with findings.

Quick Start

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

# Analyze uncommitted changes (uses warden.toml triggers)
warden

# Run specific skill on uncommitted changes
warden --skill find-bugs

# Analyze specific files
warden src/auth.ts src/database.ts

# Analyze changes from git ref
warden main..HEAD
warden HEAD~3

CLI Reference

warden [command] [targets...] [options]

Commands:

• (default) - Run analysis
• init - Initialize warden.toml and GitHub workflow
• add [skill] - Add skill trigger to warden.toml
• sync [repo] - Update cached remote skills to latest
• setup-app - Create GitHub App via manifest flow

Targets:

• <files> - Specific files (e.g., src/auth.ts)
• <glob> - Pattern match (e.g., src/**/*.ts)
• <git-ref> - Git range (e.g., main..HEAD, HEAD~3)
• (none) - Uncommitted changes

Key Options:

Option	Description
--skill <name>	Run only this skill
--config <path>	Path to warden.toml (default: ./warden.toml)
-m, --model <model>	Model to use
--json	Output as JSON
-o, --output <path>	Write output to JSONL file
--fail-on <severity>	Exit 1 if findings >= severity
--comment-on <severity>	Show findings >= severity
--fix	Auto-apply suggested fixes
--parallel <n>	Concurrent executions (default: 4)
--offline	Use cached remote skills only
-q, --quiet	Errors and summary only
-v, --verbose	Show real-time findings
-vv	Debug info (tokens, latency)

Severity levels: critical, high, medium, low, info, off

Configuration (warden.toml)

See references/config-schema.md for complete schema.

Minimal example:

version = 1

[defaults]
model = "claude-sonnet-4-20250514"

[[triggers]]
name = "find-bugs"
event = "pull_request"
actions = ["opened", "synchronize"]
skill = "find-bugs"

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

With custom output thresholds:

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

[triggers.filters]
paths = ["src/auth/**", "src/payments/**"]

[triggers.output]
failOn = "critical"
commentOn = "high"
maxFindings = 20

Creating Custom Skills

Skills live in .warden/skills/, .agents/skills/, or .claude/skills/.

Structure:

.warden/skills/my-skill/
└── SKILL.md

SKILL.md format:

---
name: my-skill
description: What this skill analyzes
allowed-tools: Read Grep Glob
---

[Analysis instructions for the agent]

## What to Look For
- Specific issue type 1
- Specific issue type 2

## Output Format
Report findings with severity, location, and suggested fix.

Available tools: Read, Glob, Grep, WebFetch, WebSearch, Bash, Write, Edit

Remote Skills

Skills can be fetched from GitHub repositories:

# Add a remote skill
warden add --remote getsentry/skills --skill security-review

# Add with version pinning (recommended for reproducibility)
warden add --remote getsentry/skills@abc123 --skill security-review

# List skills in a remote repo
warden add --remote getsentry/skills --list

# Update all unpinned remote skills
warden sync

# Update specific repo
warden sync getsentry/skills

# Run with cached skills only (no network)
warden --offline

Remote trigger in warden.toml:

[[triggers]]
name = "security-review"
event = "pull_request"
actions = ["opened", "synchronize"]
skill = "security-review"
remote = "getsentry/skills@abc123"

Cache location: ~/.local/warden/skills/ (override with WARDEN_STATE_DIR)

Cache TTL: 24 hours for unpinned refs (override with WARDEN_SKILL_CACHE_TTL in seconds)

Common Patterns

Strict security on critical files:

[[triggers]]
name = "auth-security"
event = "pull_request"
actions = ["opened", "synchronize"]
skill = "security-review"
model = "claude-opus-4-20250514"
maxTurns = 100

[triggers.filters]
paths = ["src/auth/**", "src/payments/**"]

[triggers.output]
failOn = "critical"

Skip test files:

[triggers.filters]
paths = ["src/**/*.ts"]
ignorePaths = ["**/*.test.ts", "**/*.spec.ts"]

Whole-file analysis for configs:

[defaults.chunking.filePatterns]
pattern = "*.config.*"
mode = "whole-file"

Troubleshooting

No findings reported:

• Check --comment-on threshold (default shows all)
• Verify skill matches file types in filters.paths
• Use -v to see which files are being analyzed

Files being skipped:

• Built-in skip patterns: lock files, minified, node_modules/, dist/
• Check ignorePaths in config
• Use -vv to see skip reasons

Token/cost issues:

• Reduce maxTurns (default: 50)
• Use chunking settings to control chunk size
• Filter to relevant files with paths