Give your coding agent the dependency graph it is about to change: scan, diff, explain, audit
MCP Server: io.github.bomly-dev/bomly-cli
The MCP server “io.github.bomly-dev/bomly-cli” provides functionality to help a coding agent understand the dependency graph for code changes. Its description indicates it performs scanning, diffing, explaining, and auditing of dependencies prior to or as part of an update workflow.
🛠️ Key Features
Scan dependency graph for changes
Diff dependencies between states
Explain what the dependency changes imply
Audit dependencies as part of the workflow
🚀 Use Cases
Preparing an agent to modify code with dependency awareness
Reviewing how a change affects a project’s dependency graph
Running audits to understand and assess dependency impact
⚡ Developer Benefits
Dependency visibility for a coding agent before changes are applied
Clear separation of scanning, diffing, explaining, and auditing steps
⚠️ Limitations
Available source material only specifies dependency graph scanning, diffing, explaining, and auditing; no additional capabilities, tooling count, or constraints are provided.
Bomly is a free, open-source CLI for dependency intelligence. It scans source trees, SBOMs, Git refs, and container images; explains why dependencies are present; enriches packages with vulnerability and license data when you ask for it; evaluates policy; and writes automation-friendly output for CI.
Free and open source, no account, no login. One binary. No service to host. No telemetry. No outbound matcher calls unless you opt in with --enrich. Network and Privacy documents every network trigger so you can audit that claim instead of taking it on faith.
Install Bomly
bash
# macOS / Linuxbrew
brew install bomly-dev/tap/bomly
# Linux / macOS install script
curl -fsSL https://bomly.dev/install.sh | sh
# Windows
winget install Bomly.BomlyCLI
Prebuilt archives and Linux packages are published from GitHub Releases. Releases include bomly (full binary with builtin Syft and Grype) and bomly-lite (smaller binary that shells out to external syft and grype).
Verify the install:
bash
bomly version
For Linux packages, Scoop, Go install, checksums, pinned versions, upgrades, and uninstall instructions, see Installation.
Start With a Scan
bash
# Scan the current project
bomly scan
# Scan a specific directory
bomly scan --path ./services/api
# Scan a container image
bomly scan --image ghcr.io/example/app:latest
# Scan a remote Git ref
bomly scan --url https://github.com/owner/repo --ref v1.2.3
# Read an existing SPDX or CycloneDX SBOM
bomly scan --sbom --path ./sbom.cdx.json
Bomly reads manifests, lockfiles, package-manager output, container layers, or existing SBOMs and turns them into one dependency graph. Native detectors cover Go, npm, pnpm, Yarn, Maven, Gradle, Python, Composer, Bundler, GitHub Actions, SBOM ingest, and more. Syft fills the long tail, including container images. See the Support Matrix and Scan Targets.
What Bomly Can Answer
Question
Command
What do we depend on?
bomly scan
What changed in this PR or branch?
bomly diff --base main --head HEAD
Why is this package here?
bomly explain lodash
Which findings matter to policy?
bomly scan --enrich --audit --fail-on high
Can CI fail on high-severity findings?
bomly scan --enrich --audit --fail-on high --format sarif
Can I triage reachable findings first?
bomly scan --enrich --audit --analyze --fail-on high --fail-on reachable
For more recipes, see Getting Started and
Use Cases. To review the public inputs, commands, expected
results, and limitations behind important behavior claims, see
Reproducible Evidence.
Explore Interactively
Open the terminal UI when you want to inspect a graph by hand:
bash
bomly scan --interactive
Use it to fuzzy-find packages, inspect versions and scopes, pivot through findings, and see how a dependency entered the graph without writing a report to disk. See Interactive TUI.
Enrich and Audit
By default, Bomly does not call vulnerability, license, lifecycle, or scorecard services. Add --enrich when you want external package intelligence:
bash
# Fetch vulnerability and license data
bomly scan --enrich
# Evaluate policy against enriched package data
bomly scan --enrich --audit --fail-on high
# Add experimental reachability analysis
bomly scan --enrich --audit --analyze --fail-on high --fail-on reachable
Built-in enrichment uses public services such as OSV, CISA KEV, deps.dev, and OpenSSF Scorecard. --audit evaluates the vulnerability and license data already present on packages; use --enrich --audit when you want to fetch and evaluate in one run.
Reachability is experimental. It is useful for triage, but "unreachable" is not a guarantee of safety. Read Reachability before using --fail-on reachable as a CI gate.
Explain and Diff
Use explain when a transitive package shows up and you need the path:
Use diff when you need to review dependency changes across Git refs or SBOMs:
bash
# Compare Git refs
bomly diff --base main --head HEAD
# Compare two SBOM files
bomly diff --sbom --base ./old.spdx.json --head ./new.spdx.json
See Getting Started for the first-run walkthrough and Use Cases for PR review, upgrade review, and incident triage recipes.
Generate Output for CI
Bomly can write human-readable text, JSON, SARIF, SPDX 2.3, and CycloneDX 1.7:
bash
# Structured JSON for automation
bomly scan --json
# SARIF for security tabs and code-scanning integrations
bomly scan --enrich --audit --fail-on high --format sarif
# Write SBOM artifacts (add --format text to also print the report)
bomly scan -o spdx=sbom.spdx.json -o cyclonedx=sbom.cdx.json
# Emit one SBOM to stdout
bomly scan --format cyclonedx
Exit codes are stable for scripts: 0 for clean results, 2 for policy violations, and separate values for usage, runtime, and no-supported-project failures. See Output Formats, SBOM Formats, and Exit Codes.
To gate pull requests, use the Bomly Guard action or call the CLI directly from your workflow:
Bomly can run as a local MCP server so AI agents can call the same dependency graph tools you use on the command line:
bash
bomly mcp serve
If you have not installed the CLI, the bomly-mcp npm wrapper starts the same server:
bash
npx -y bomly-mcp
Add Bomly to an MCP-aware agent such as Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, or a custom tool, and the agent receives structured JSON it can summarize or reason over. See MCP Server for setup recipes and the tool reference.
Configure and Extend
Bomly reads configuration from your user config, an explicitly selected
config file, BOMLY_* environment variables, and CLI flags, with later
sources taking precedence:
~/.bomly/config.yaml
--config <path> or BOMLY_CONFIG
BOMLY_* environment variables
CLI flags
Repository config files are never loaded automatically. A project may keep
its shared configuration at .bomly/config.yaml, but you must trust it
explicitly with --config .bomly/config.yaml or BOMLY_CONFIG. See the
generated Config Reference.
Managed plugins let you add detectors, matchers, and auditors without forking Bomly:
For questions, ideas, and general support, please use Bomly Discussions.
Use this repository's issues only for confirmed bugs, regressions, or actionable implementation work.
Support
Bomly is an open-source project. If you find it useful, you can support the project by starring the repository, sharing feedback, opening issues, contributing improvements, or sponsoring ongoing maintenance.
