Bash Patterns Reference

Default patterns used by the bash command classifier. There are 60+ safe patterns and 40+ dangerous patterns built in.

Safe patterns (auto-allow)

Commands matching these patterns are allowed without HITL approval.

File viewing

Pattern	Commands
cat, head, tail, less, more	View file contents
file, stat, wc, md5sum, sha256sum	File metadata
basename, dirname, realpath, readlink	Path resolution
xxd, od, hexdump	Binary inspection
strings, nm, objdump	Binary analysis

Directory listing

Pattern	Commands
ls, ll, la, tree, du, df	Directory listing and disk usage
pwd, cd	Navigation

Searching

Pattern	Commands
grep, rg, ag, ack	Content search
find, fd, locate	File search
which, whereis, type, command	Command lookup

Text processing (read-only)

Pattern	Commands
sort, uniq, cut, awk, sed	Text manipulation (sed without -i)
tr, diff, comm, join, paste	Text comparison/transformation
jq, yq, xmlstarlet	Structured data queries
fmt, fold, column, expand, unexpand	Formatting
tac, rev, nl	Line manipulation
yes, seq, shuf	Generators
xargs, tee	Pipeline utilities

Git (read-only)

Pattern	Commands
git log, git status, git diff, git show	History/state
git blame, git branch, git tag, git remote	References
git stash list, git ls-files, git ls-tree	Listing
git rev-parse, git describe, git shortlog	Metadata
git config --get, git config -l, git reflog	Configuration (read)
git cat-file, git count-objects, git fsck	Low-level

System info

Pattern	Commands
whoami, id, groups, uname, hostname	User/system info
date, uptime, env, printenv	Environment
echo, printf	Output
lsof, ps, top, htop, vmstat, iostat, free	Process/resource
lscpu, lsblk, lsusb, lspci	Hardware info
nproc, getconf	System configuration

Package info (not install)

Pattern	Commands
npm list, npm info, npm outdated, npm audit	npm
yarn list, yarn info	yarn
pnpm list, pnpm info	pnpm
pip list, pip show, pip freeze	pip
node --version, python --version, ruby --version	Versions
node -e, python -e, ruby -e	Inline evaluation

Networking (read-only)

Pattern	Commands
ping, dig, nslookup, host	DNS/connectivity
traceroute, tracepath	Route tracing
curl --head, curl -I	HTTP HEAD requests only

Dangerous patterns (always block)

Commands matching these patterns are blocked regardless of role or mode.

Destructive file operations

Pattern	What it catches
rm -rf, rm -f, rm --recursive --force	Recursive/forced deletion
shred	Secure file destruction

Privilege escalation

Pattern	What it catches
sudo	Superuser execution
su -	Switch user
doas	OpenBSD privilege escalation

Permission/ownership changes

Pattern	What it catches
chmod	Permission changes
chown, chgrp	Ownership changes

Disk/partition operations

Pattern	What it catches
dd ... of=	Raw disk writes
mkfs	Filesystem creation
fdisk, parted	Partition editing
mount, umount	Mount operations

Remote code execution

Pattern	What it catches
curl ... | bash/sh/python	Pipe-to-shell attacks
wget ... | bash/sh/python	Pipe-to-shell attacks
curl ... > *.sh && ...	Download-and-execute

Remote access

Pattern	What it catches
ssh	Remote shell
scp	Remote file copy
rsync ...:/	Remote sync
nc -l, ncat, socat	Network listeners
telnet	Unencrypted remote access

System modification

Pattern	What it catches
systemctl start/stop/restart/enable/disable	Service management
service ... start/stop/restart	Legacy service management
iptables, ufw, firewall-cmd	Firewall modification

Package installation

Pattern	What it catches
npm install, npm i, npm add, npm ci	npm
yarn add, yarn install	yarn
pnpm add, pnpm install	pnpm
pip install	pip
apt install, apt-get install	apt
brew install	Homebrew
cargo install	Rust

Environment variable manipulation

Pattern	What it catches
export ...KEY/TOKEN/SECRET/PASSWORD	Secret exposure

Cron / scheduled tasks

Pattern	What it catches
crontab	Cron job editing
at	Scheduled execution

Container operations

Pattern	What it catches
docker run/exec/build/push/pull	Docker operations
kubectl exec/run/apply/delete	Kubernetes operations

Process manipulation

Pattern	What it catches
kill, killall, pkill	Process termination

History manipulation

Pattern	What it catches
history -c	Clear command history
unset HISTFILE	Disable history logging

Build/compile

Pattern	What it catches
make	Build system execution
gcc, g++	Compiler execution

needs_review

Any command not matching a safe or dangerous pattern falls into needs_review. In supervised mode, these are routed to HITL approval. In autonomous mode, they are allowed. In dry-run mode, they are blocked.