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Run Claude Code, Codex or your own models under a short rule file that a deterministic engine checks before every action, and carry work from idea to production in the Software Factory.

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Warden is a desktop app for working with coding agents. You bring the agent you already use: Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, Devin, Kimi, an API key, or a local model. Warden checks every action the agent takes against your rules before it runs. The rules are a few lines of YAML, and a policy engine applies them, not a model. The same action under the same rules always gets the same answer, and every verdict names the rule behind it.

A rule file you can read at a glance
default: allow
rules:
  - deny: { touches: dotenv }
    reason: "Secrets stay out of agent context"
  - ask: "git push"
    when: { branch: [main, master] }
    reason: "Pushing to main needs a person"
  - deny: "terraform destroy"

Under that file, the agent reads, edits and tests freely. Reading a .env file is BLOCKED, a push to main ASKS YOU, and everything else RUNS.

Start here#

Install and first runDownload, licence, connect a model, and see your first block in five minutes.How Warden decidesVerdicts, rule sets, what gets checked, and what happens when nobody is watching.Write your first ruleThe rule file format, from one line to a policy for production data.Set up the Software FactoryTake work from a ticket to merged, with a person at the gates you choose.

Find your way around#

RulesMatchers, conditions, rule sets, exceptions, tests and recipes.Software FactoryStages, lanes, gates, review and merge.FeaturesChat and editor, specs and plans, review, assurance levels, workflows, automations.Known limitationsWhat Warden doesn't do yet, in plain words.

What Warden is, and isn't#

  • It is a governed workspace: a chat with the agent, a real editor, diff and commit, a terminal and a browser in one window, with your rules on every tool call.
  • It is local-first. Policy checks run on your Mac. Your code goes only to the model you choose, never to us on the free Developer edition.
  • It isn't a model guessing whether something looks risky. Rules decide.
  • It isn't a wrapper for your terminal. Only agents you run inside Warden are checked. See Known limitations.

Warden runs on Apple Silicon Macs (M1 or later). The Developer edition is free, including for commercial work. Warden Team adds company-wide rules, shared skills and an AI gateway.