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Quickstart Guide

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Your first step to vulnerability scanning and patching.

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Free · Opens the source repo

What Quickstart Guide does

The Quickstart Guide serves as an entry point for users of the anthropics/defending-code-reference-harness repository. It offers two modes: Intro mode, which provides a brief orientation and guides users through their first run, and Help mode, which answers specific questions based on the repository's documentation. This skill is designed to assist developers and security professionals in quickly understanding how to utilize the repository's capabilities for vulnerability detection and remediation.

In Intro mode, users are welcomed with a concise overview of the repository's purpose and the steps to take from identifying vulnerabilities to implementing patches. The guide outlines a structured ramp-up plan spanning several days, focusing on threat modeling, static scanning, and triage of findings. Users can initiate a guided first run on a sample target, the canary, allowing them to interactively learn how to execute the necessary commands and understand the outputs generated at each step.

Help mode is tailored for users with specific inquiries about the repository. It leverages the documentation available within the repo to provide accurate, contextual answers, ensuring that users receive guidance directly relevant to their questions. This mode is particularly beneficial for users who may encounter challenges or have specific operational queries while using the tools provided in the repository.

Overall, the Quickstart Guide is an essential resource for anyone looking to efficiently navigate the complexities of vulnerability scanning and patching using the repository's tools. It is particularly suited for developers and security teams who need a structured approach to begin their security assessments and integrate the repository's capabilities into their workflows.

When to use it

Use this skill when starting with the anthropics/defending-code-reference-harness repository to get oriented and learn how to execute key commands effectively.

When not to use it

This skill may not be suitable for experienced users who are already familiar with the repository's functionalities and require advanced operational support or troubleshooting.

What you can build with it

New User Orientation

A new developer uses the Quickstart Guide to familiarize themselves with the repository and its features, ensuring they understand how to start scanning for vulnerabilities.

Guided First Run

A security team member selects the option to walk through the first run on the canary target, following the step-by-step instructions provided by the Quickstart Guide.

Specific Query Resolution

An experienced user has a specific question about running the pipeline and uses the Help mode of the Quickstart Guide to find the exact command needed.

How to install Quickstart Guide

View source

1. Install with the skills CLI

npx skills add anthropics/defending-code-reference-harness/quickstart --agent claude-code

2. Or install it manually

Download the skill folder and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/ for all projects, or .claude/skills/ to scope it to one repo. Restart Claude Code so it picks up the new skill.

Anthropic's agentic coding CLI, and the reference implementation of Agent Skills. Drop a skill folder into ~/.claude/skills and Claude Code loads it automatically whenever a task matches the skill's description. Claude Code docs

Inside SKILL.md

Written by anthropics

/quickstart

Two modes, picked by whether $ARGUMENTS is empty.

  • Empty → Intro mode. Short orientation, then offer the guided first run.
  • Non-empty → Help mode. Treat $ARGUMENTS as the operator's question.

Intro mode

Keep it short and a little warm; this is the first thing a new operator sees.

Say roughly:

Welcome! This repo takes you from finding your first vulnerability to patching at scale, using a set of Claude Code skills and an autonomous pipeline. Two ways in: interactive skills (no setup, safe, start here) and the autonomous pipeline (Docker, scales to hundreds of parallel agents).

The ramp-up:

| Day 1 | Threat-model + first static scan + triage | | Day 2 | Run the reference pipeline (C/C++) | | Day 3-4 | Customize it for your stack | | Week 2 | Autonomous scanning, triage, and patching |

Day-1 goal: threat-model, scan, and triage the bundled canary target. Most teams get there before lunch.

Remind them to export CLAUDE_CODE_SUBAGENT_MODEL=<model-id> so subagents use the same model as the session.

Then AskUserQuestion with three options:

  1. Walk me through Day 1 on the canary (~10 min) → run "Guided first run" below.
  2. I have a question → ask what it is, then switch to Help mode.
  3. I'll read the README → point at README.md Step 1 and stop.

Guided first run

Runs the three Step-1 skills on targets/canary, pausing after each to show what landed on disk. These only read/write files in the repo; no sandbox needed.

  1. /threat-model bootstrap targets/canary via Task. When done, open THREAT_MODEL.md, show the focus areas, explain in 2-3 sentences how this steers the scan.
  2. /vuln-scan targets/canary via Task. When done, open targets/canary/VULN-FINDINGS.md, summarize the count and top 2-3 findings, point at VULN-FINDINGS.json.
  3. /triage targets/canary/VULN-FINDINGS.json via Task. When done, open TRIAGE.md, explain what changed vs. raw findings (verified, deduped, re-ranked).

Pause for the operator between each (AskUserQuestion); don't barrel through. Close with a one-line recap of the three artifacts on disk, then point at README Step 2 for the execution-verified pipeline. Never run vuln-pipeline or anything that executes target code here; that's Step 2 and needs Docker + a sandbox.


Help mode

Answer the operator's question using this repo as ground truth: README, docs/*.md, harness/*.py, dnr_harness/*.py, targets/*/config.yaml, .claude/skills/*. Don't answer from general knowledge when the repo has a specific answer.

Routing map

If the question is about…Read firstThen offer
running the pipelinedocs/pipeline.md, README Step 2the recon / run command
too many findings, triagedocs/triage.md/triage <path>
porting, Java/Go/Rust/etc.docs/customizing.md, README Step 3/customize
safety, sandbox, Dockerdocs/security.mdcite; no action
rate limits, 429, token budgetdocs/pipeline.md: Rate limits, docs/troubleshooting.md#rate-limitscite the numbers
duplicates, dedupdocs/troubleshooting.md#duplicate-findingsknown_bugs: hint
CLI flags, "what does --X do"harness/cli.py (grep the argparse)exact flag + example
which model, subagent pinningdocs/troubleshooting.md: Subagentsthe export line
best practices, promptingdocs/best-practices.md, docs/prompting.mdcite the principle
threat model, attack surface, scopedocs/threat-model.md/threat-model bootstrap <target-dir>
scan, audit, find vulns.claude/skills/vuln-scan/SKILL.md/vuln-scan <target-dir>
"how do I start"README Step 1offer Guided first run
patching, fix, diff, re-attackdocs/patching.md, README Step 4/patch <input>
threat hunting, incident response, logsdocs/detection-response.md/dnr-hunt or /dnr-respond
autonomous D&R, dnrcanarydocs/detection-response.md, targets/dnrcanary/README.mdthe dnr-pipeline run command
binary, embedded, other domainsdocs/other-use-cases.mdcite section
anything elseREADME Table of contentsbest-match doc

Answer format

  1. Direct answer in 2-5 sentences.
  2. > source: the file(s) and section you used.
  3. Next action: one copy-pasteable command or skill invocation, if one applies. If none does, say so.
  4. If the question is ambiguous, ask one clarifying question; don't guess.

Constraints

  • Never fabricate CLI flags or file paths. If unsure, Grep for it in harness/cli.py or the target configs and quote what you find.
  • If the repo doesn't answer the question, say so plainly and suggest the operator open a GitHub issue on this repo.
  • Keep the Q&A dry and cited. Save the warmth for Intro mode.

Frequently asked questions about Quickstart Guide

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