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Shannon

Autonomous AI pentester for web apps and APIs

freemiumopen sourceupdated Aug 16, 2026

Shannon is an autonomous white-box AI pentesting tool for web applications and APIs. It analyzes authorized source code, identifies attack vectors, attempts proof-by-exploitation, and produces remediation-ready reports. Shannon Lite is AGPL-3.0 for local use, while Shannon Pro is the commercial Keygraph platform for continuous security testing.

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Shannon is an autonomous white-box AI pentesting tool from Keygraph for web applications and APIs. Instead of presenting itself as a generic vulnerability scanner, the current source-supported workflow focuses on authorized source-code analysis, attack-vector discovery, proof-by-exploitation, and remediation-ready reporting. This makes it relevant for teams that are shipping quickly with AI coding tools and need a security review layer that can reason about application-specific risks.

The project is active on GitHub with roughly 44K+ stars at write time and is distributed as Shannon Lite under AGPL-3.0 for local authorized testing. Current documentation emphasizes AI provider credentials, with Anthropic recommended and additional provider routes available. Shannon Pro is the commercial Keygraph edition for organizations that need continuous pentesting, support, or enterprise deployment terms.

For DevSecOps teams, Shannon sits between lightweight scanners and expensive manual pentest engagements. It can help validate exploitability before releases, but teams should not rely on stale fixed benchmark, zero-day-count, or per-scan-cost claims. A source-safe evaluation should pilot Shannon against representative code, measure model/runtime cost, and decide whether the open-source Lite edition or the commercial Pro platform fits the organization’s governance needs.

Pricing

Shannon Lite is AGPL-3.0 for authorized local testing; Shannon Pro is commercial. AI provider and runtime costs depend on deployment.

Platforms

Linux, macOS, and Windows-capable deployment. Requires authorized source/application access and AI provider credentials; exact runtime setup depends on Shannon Lite or Shannon Pro.

Categories

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Use Cases

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Comparisons

Shannon vs Garak — AI Penetration Tester vs LLM Vulnerability Scanner

Shannon and Garak both address AI security but from completely different angles. Shannon is an autonomous pentester that attacks web applications and APIs to find real vulnerabilities, while Garak probes LLM models themselves for prompt injection, jailbreaks, and alignment failures. They are complementary tools targeting different layers of the AI application stack.

Shannongarak

FAQ

What is Shannon?

Shannon is an autonomous white-box AI pentesting tool for web applications and APIs. It analyzes authorized source code, identifies attack vectors, attempts proof-by-exploitation, and produces remediation-ready reports. Shannon Lite is AGPL-3.0 for local use, while Shannon Pro is the commercial Keygraph platform for continuous security testing.

Is Shannon free?

Shannon offers a free tier alongside paid plans. Shannon Lite is AGPL-3.0 for authorized local testing; Shannon Pro is commercial. AI provider and runtime costs depend on deployment.

Is Shannon open source?

Yes — Shannon is open source.

What are the best Shannon alternatives?

The top editor-verified Shannon alternatives are garak, Guardrails AI, LLM Guard, and more.

How does Shannon score in our review?

Our hands-on review scores Shannon 84/100 overall, based on speed, privacy, and developer-experience testing.