Shannon: An Open-Source Autonomous AI Pentester Combining Source Analysis and Live Exploitation

Developed by Keygraph, Shannon is an autonomous open-source AI penetration testing agent that combines source code analysis with live exploitation and includes

tau · October 30, 2026

#security #penetration-testing #ai-agent #devsecops #open-source

Shannon, developed by Keygraph, is an autonomous, open-source AI penetration testing agent that analyzes web application and API source codes and executes live exploits to report strictly verified vulnerabilities.

Shannon open-source AI pentester

Image source: https://github.com/KeygraphHQ/shannon

Shannon analyzes source code to identify potential attack vectors, then uses browser automation and command-line tools to execute real exploits against the running application and its APIs. Under its "No exploit, no report" principle, only vulnerabilities with a working proof-of-concept are included in the final report.

Key Capabilities and CI/CD Automation

Shannon is engineered to shift security testing left throughout the software development lifecycle.

Live Exploit Verification: It tests attack vectors against running applications and APIs and reports only vulnerabilities with a working proof-of-concept.
Reporting Formats: The repository links PDF reports and SARIF outputs from Shannon OSS scans of Photoview 2.4.0.
CI/CD Pipeline Integration: Shannon can run automated penetration testing against every build or release.
Provider Agnostic: Supports Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, AWS Bedrock, and other providers available through its provider catalogue.

Quick Start and Usage

Shannon is released under the GNU AGPLv3 open-source license and can be launched directly from your command line using an interactive runner.

# Configure credentials with the interactive setup wizard
npx @keygraph/shannon@latest setup

# Run a penetration test against a source-available target
npx @keygraph/shannon@latest start \
  -u https://your-app.com \
  -r /path/to/your/repo

It runs inside an ephemeral Docker worker container with the target repository mounted read-only.

[!WARNING] Shannon actively executes exploits. Do not run it against production systems; use it only against applications and environments you own or have explicit written authorization to test. Anthropic and OpenAI apply real-time safeguards to cybersecurity workloads that can interrupt scans, so complete their guidance for legitimate security testers before the first run.

Sources

GitHub: KeygraphHQ/shannon
X (Mo Elgaraihy): Post about Shannon