# Warden docs

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.

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.

```yaml title="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 {{deny}}, a push to main {{ask}}, and everything else {{allow}}.

## Start here

:::cards
- [Install and first run](install) - Download, licence, connect a model, and see your first block in five minutes.
- [How Warden decides](how-it-decides) - Verdicts, rule sets, what gets checked, and what happens when nobody is watching.
- [Write your first rule](writing-rules) - The rule file format, from one line to a policy for production data.
- [Set up the Software Factory](factory-setup) - Take work from a ticket to merged, with a person at the gates you choose.
:::

## Find your way around

:::cards
- [Rules](writing-rules) - Matchers, conditions, rule sets, exceptions, tests and recipes.
- [Software Factory](factory) - Stages, lanes, gates, review and merge.
- [Features](workspace) - Chat and editor, specs and plans, review, assurance levels, workflows, automations.
- [Known limitations](limitations) - What Warden doesn't do yet, in plain words.
:::

> [!TIP] Press / or ⌘K to search
> Search covers every heading and paragraph in these docs. Every page also has **Copy page as Markdown**, and [llms.txt](/llms.txt) lists all of them, so your agent can read the docs too.

## 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](limitations).

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