AWF (Agentic Workflow Firewall) Usage Skill

Use this skill when you need to run commands with network isolation, restrict network access to approved domains, or execute AI agents in a sandboxed environment with controlled network access.

What is AWF?

AWF is a network firewall for agentic workflows that provides:

• L7 Domain Whitelisting: Control HTTP/HTTPS traffic at the application layer
• Host-Level Enforcement: Uses iptables DOCKER-USER chain to enforce firewall on ALL containers
• Chroot Mode: Optional transparent access to host binaries (Python, Node.js, Go) while maintaining network isolation

When to Use AWF

Use AWF when:

• Running AI agents (Copilot CLI, Claude, etc.) that need network access but should be restricted
• Testing code that makes network requests in a controlled environment
• Enforcing network security policies for automated workflows
• Running untrusted commands with limited network access
• Testing Playwright or other tools against localhost services

When Not to Use

• When running standard unit tests that do not require any external network requests.
• For workflows that are already running in a fully air-gapped, self-hosted runner environment where AWF is redundant.
• If the task only requires compiling YAML frontmatter (AWF is for runtime execution, not compilation).

Common Pitfalls

• Subdomain Blocking: Allowing example.com but forgetting that API calls actually go to api.example.com, causing unexpected TCP_DENIED errors in the Squid log.
• Hanging Interactive Shells: Running sudo awf with an interactive tool (like the Copilot CLI) without providing the --prompt argument, causing the firewall container to hang forever.
• Missing Cleanup: Failing to provide --keep-containers during debugging, or conversely, leaving debug containers running indefinitely and eating up host memory.

Quick Start

Basic Command

# Run a command with only github.com allowed
sudo awf --allow-domains github.com -- curl https://api.github.com

The -- separator divides firewall options from the command to run.

Test Domain Blocking

# This should FAIL (example.com not allowed)
sudo awf --allow-domains github.com -- curl -f --max-time 10 https://example.com

Enable Debug Logging

sudo awf --allow-domains github.com --log-level debug -- curl https://api.github.com

Installation

Install Script (Recommended)

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/github/gh-aw-firewall/main/install.sh | sudo bash
sudo awf --version

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/github/gh-aw-firewall.git awf
cd awf
npm install
npm run build
npm link

CLI Options Reference

sudo awf [options] -- <command>

Domain Options:
  --allow-domains <domains>       Comma-separated allowed domains
  --allow-domains-file <path>     File with allowed domains (one per line)
  --block-domains <domains>       Comma-separated blocked domains (takes precedence)
  --block-domains-file <path>     File with blocked domains

Network Options:
  --dns-servers <servers>         DNS servers (default: 8.8.8.8,8.8.4.4)
  --enable-host-access            Enable access to host via host.docker.internal
  --allow-host-ports <ports>      Ports to allow with host access (e.g., 3000,8080)

Container Options:
  --tty                           Allocate TTY for interactive tools
  --env KEY=VALUE                 Pass environment variable (repeatable)
  --env-all                       Pass all host environment variables
  --mount <host:container[:mode]> Volume mount (repeatable)
  --container-workdir <dir>       Working directory inside container
  --agent-image <value>           Agent image preset (default, act) or custom

Advanced Options:
  --ssl-bump                      Enable HTTPS content inspection
  --allow-urls <urls>             URL patterns for SSL Bump (requires --ssl-bump)

Debugging Options:
  --log-level <level>             Log level: debug, info, warn, error
  --keep-containers               Keep containers after command exits
  --proxy-logs-dir <path>         Directory to save Squid logs to

Domain Whitelisting Patterns

Subdomain Matching (Automatic)

# github.com also allows api.github.com, raw.github.com, etc.
sudo awf --allow-domains github.com -- curl https://api.github.com

Wildcard Patterns

# Match any subdomain
--allow-domains '*.github.com'

# Match prefix patterns
--allow-domains 'api-*.example.com'

# Combine multiple patterns
--allow-domains 'github.com,*.googleapis.com,api-*.example.com'

Protocol-Specific

# HTTPS only
--allow-domains 'https://secure.example.com'

# HTTP only
--allow-domains 'http://legacy.example.com'

Domain Blocklist

# Allow domain but block specific subdomain
sudo awf \
  --allow-domains example.com \
  --block-domains internal.example.com \
  -- curl https://api.example.com  # Works

Common Workflows

1. Run GitHub Copilot CLI

sudo awf \
  --allow-domains github.com,api.github.com,githubusercontent.com,anthropic.com \
  -- copilot --prompt "List my repositories"

2. Run with MCP Servers

sudo awf \
  --allow-domains github.com,arxiv.org,mcp.tavily.com \
  --log-level debug \
  -- copilot --mcp arxiv,tavily --prompt "Search arxiv for recent AI papers"

3. Playwright Testing with Localhost

# The localhost keyword auto-configures host access and dev ports
sudo awf \
  --allow-domains localhost,playwright.dev \
  -- npx playwright test

4. Pass Environment Variables

# Pass specific variables
sudo awf --allow-domains github.com \
  --env GITHUB_TOKEN="$GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  --env NODE_ENV=production \
  -- npm test

# Pass all host environment variables
sudo awf --allow-domains github.com --env-all -- npm test

5. Mount Custom Volumes

sudo awf --allow-domains github.com \
  --mount /path/to/data:/data:ro \
  -- cat /data/config.json

6. Use Host Binaries (Chroot Mode is Always On)

# Access host Python, Node, Go, etc. (chroot mode is the default)
sudo awf --allow-domains api.github.com \
  -- python3 -c "import requests; print(requests.get('https://api.github.com').status_code)"

7. SSL Bump for URL Path Filtering

sudo awf \
  --allow-domains github.com \
  --ssl-bump \
  --allow-urls "https://github.com/myorg/*" \
  -- curl https://github.com/myorg/some-repo

8. GitHub Actions Integration

- name: Setup awf
  uses: github/gh-aw-firewall@main

- name: Run with firewall
  run: |
    sudo -E awf --allow-domains github.com -- 'cd $GITHUB_WORKSPACE && npm test'

Log Analysis Commands

View Logs

# Pretty format (default)
awf logs

# Follow in real-time
awf logs -f

# JSON format for scripting
awf logs --format json

# List available log sources
awf logs --list

Get Statistics

# Terminal output
awf logs stats

# JSON for scripting
awf logs stats --format json

# Markdown for GitHub Actions
awf logs summary >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY

Find Blocked Requests

# Using awf logs
awf logs --format json | jq 'select(.isAllowed == false)'

# Direct Squid log query
sudo grep "TCP_DENIED" /tmp/squid-logs-*/access.log

Debugging Tips

Keep Containers for Inspection

sudo awf --allow-domains github.com --keep-containers -- failing-command

# Inspect containers
docker logs awf-squid
docker logs awf-agent

# View Squid config
docker exec awf-squid cat /etc/squid/squid.conf

# Manual cleanup when done
docker rm -f awf-squid awf-agent

Check Which Domains Were Blocked

# After command completes
sudo cat /tmp/squid-logs-*/access.log | grep TCP_DENIED

# Or use the logs command
awf logs --format json | jq 'select(.isAllowed == false) | .domain'

Debug Container Network

# Check iptables rules
docker exec awf-agent iptables -t nat -L OUTPUT -n -v

# Check DNS
docker exec awf-agent cat /etc/resolv.conf

# Test connectivity to Squid
docker exec awf-agent nc -zv 172.30.0.10 3128

Squid Decision Codes

When analyzing logs, these codes indicate the traffic decision:

Agent Image Options

Presets (Pre-built, Fast)

# Default - minimal ubuntu:22.04 (~200MB)
sudo awf --agent-image default --allow-domains github.com -- command

# Act - GitHub Actions parity (~2GB)
sudo awf --agent-image act --allow-domains github.com -- command

Custom Base Images (Requires --build-local)

sudo awf \
  --build-local \
  --agent-image ghcr.io/catthehacker/ubuntu:runner-22.04 \
  --allow-domains github.com \
  -- command

Common Issues and Fixes

"Cannot connect to Docker daemon"

sudo systemctl start docker

"Port 3128 already in use"

docker stop $(docker ps -q --filter "expose=3128")

Domain Not Working

1. Check if subdomain is needed: api.example.com vs example.com
2. Enable debug logging: --log-level debug
3. Check Squid logs: awf logs --format json

Command Fails with Exit Code 28 (Timeout)

The domain is being blocked. Check:

1. Is domain in --allow-domains?
2. Is subdomain required?
3. View blocked domains: awf logs --format json | jq 'select(.isAllowed == false)'

Limitations

• No IPv6: Only IPv4 traffic is supported
• No HTTP/3: Container curl doesn't support HTTP/3
• No internationalized domains: Use punycode (e.g., xn--bcher-kva.ch)
• HTTP to HTTPS redirects: May fail; use HTTPS directly
• IP-based access: Direct IP access is blocked (no domain)

Best Practices

1. Start with minimal domains: Only add what's needed
2. Use wildcards carefully: *.example.com is safer than *
3. Enable debug logging: When troubleshooting add --log-level debug
4. Review logs: Check what was blocked with awf logs stats
5. Use blocklists: For fine-grained control when allowing broad domains
6. Quote shell commands: Use 'command $VAR' to preserve container expansion

References

• Official AWF Repo
• AWF Skill Reference

Related Skills

• gh-aw-troubleshooting - Load this skill when debugging Agentic Workflows