AgentBrake 🛡️

The Safety Control Plane for AI Agents.

"Run AI agents at full throttle — without losing control."

AgentBrake is a transparent Model Context Protocol (MCP) proxy that enforces safety policies on AI tool calls in real-time. It sits between your agent (Archestra, LangChain, etc.) and your tools, blocking dangerous actions before they happen.

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🚀 Quick Demo: Stop a Rogue Agent

See AgentBrake intercept a simulated "Rogue Agent" trying to steal secrets.

Option 1: Docker (Recommended)

# Start the Research Agent demo (Blocks attacks + HITL automatically)
docker compose up --build

Option 2: Local (Node.js)

npm install
npm run build
npm run demo:rogue

What you'll see:

• ✅ Allow: Safe tools (calculator) pass through.
• 🛡️ Block: DLP rules stop access to /app/.env.
• ⏳ HITL: Critical actions trigger Human-in-the-Loop approval.

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✨ Features

• 🛡️ Semantic Firewall: Block tools based on arguments (regex), not just names.
  • Example: Allow read_file only for /tmp/*. Block *.env.
• 💰 Budget Enforcement: Limit spending per session (Mock currency or token counts).
• 🔌 Circuit Breaker: Auto-cut connection if tools fail repeatedly (e.g., 5 errors in 60s).
• 👮 Human-in-the-Loop: Pause execution for approval via Slack/Webhook for sensitive actions.
• 📜 Policy-as-Code: Configure everything via a single YAML file (enterprise-config.yml).
• 📊 JSON Logging: Structured logs for every decision (ALLOW, BLOCK, KILL).

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🏗️ How It Works

AgentBrake operates as a transparent proxy between your AI Agent (the client) and its Tools (the server).

1. Intercept: The agent sends a JSON-RPC request (e.g., call_tool: search_web) to AgentBrake.
2. Evaluate: AgentBrake pauses the request and runs it through the Policy Engine, checking:
   • Identity: Is this agent allowed to use this tool?
   • Content: Do the arguments match DLP blocklists (e.g., regex for .env)?
   • Context: Has the budget been exceeded? Is the tool failing repeatedly?
   • Approval: Does this specific action require human verification?
3. Enforce:
   • ✅ ALLOW: Request is forwarded to the actual tool. Result is returned to the agent.
   • 🛡️ BLOCK: Request is rejected. The agent receives a standard error (e.g., "Access Denied").
   • 🛑 KILL: The entire session is terminated immediately (for high-risk violations).
   • ⏳ HITL: The system waits for an external signal (e.g., webhook/Slack) before proceeding.

Architecture Diagram

sequenceDiagram
    participant Agent as 🤖 AI Agent
    participant Brake as 🛡️ AgentBrake
    participant Admin as 👩‍💻 Human Admin
    participant Tool as 🏢 Real Tool

    Agent->>Brake: Call Tool (read_file)
    Brake->>Brake: Check Policies (DLP, Budget)
    
    alt Policy Violation
        Brake--xAgent: 🚫 Blocked / Access Denied
    else Sensitive Action
        Brake->>Admin: 📩 Request Approval
        Admin-->>Brake: ✅ Approve
        Brake->>Tool: Forward Request
        Tool-->>Brake: Result
        Brake-->>Agent: Result
    else Safe Action
        Brake->>Tool: Forward Request
        Tool-->>Brake: Result
        Brake-->>Agent: Result
    end

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⚙️ Configuration

Create an enterprise-config.yml (or mount it in Docker):

version: "3.0"
agent:
  name: "production-agent"
  trust_level: "sandbox"

policies:
  global:
    on_violation: "block"

  limits:
    budget:
      max_cost: 50.0
      warn_threshold: 0.8
    circuit_breaker:
      failure_threshold: 5
      reset_timeout_seconds: 60

  security:
    allowed_tools:
      - "read_file"
      - "search_web"
    
    # Granular DLP Rules
    granular_rules:
      - tool: "read_file"
        deny_if:
          arguments:
            path: ".*(password|secret|\\.env).*"
        action: "kill"

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📦 Installation

Docker (Generic)

services:
  agent-brake:
    image: ujjwaljain16/agentbrake:latest
    volumes:
      # Mount your config to /app/agent-brake.yml (default lookup path)
      - ./my-config.yml:/app/agent-brake.yml:ro
    environment:
      # Or specify a custom path
      - AGENT_BRAKE_CONFIG=/app/custom-config.yml
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"

NPM

npm install
npm run build
# Wrap your MCP server
AGENT_BRAKE_CONFIG=./my-config.yml node dist/proxy/index.js node path/to/your/server.js

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🛣️ Roadmap

• V1: Basic Allow/Block Policies
• V2: Regex DLP & Logging
• V3: Resilience (Circuit Breaker, Budget, HITL) & Docker
• V4: Sandbox isolation & Multi-agent orchestration support

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🤝 Contributing

Pull requests are welcome! Please run npm test before submitting.

📄 License

MIT © Ujjwal Jain