chainsaw gem

Run gem through Chainsaw — refuse malicious/typosquatted gems at install time

chainsaw gem [args...]

Run gem with an install-time supply-chain check in front of it.

Chainsaw evaluates the packages gem would install, refuses on a hit, and otherwise hands off to the real gem with your arguments untouched. Anything that is not an install verb (gem build, gem run, …) delegates immediately.

Guarded: gem install.

Offline by default. The bundled checks — typosquat detection and a known-malicious floor — run entirely on your machine and send nothing. For the full OpenSSF malicious-packages feed, run the opt-in chainsaw guard update, which is the only networked step. Set CHAINSAW_OFFLINE=1 to refuse network access outright.

Fails open by default: when a signal cannot be evaluated, Chainsaw prints a visible notice and lets the install proceed, so a thin feed never breaks your build. See chainsaw guard coverage to make that fail closed instead.

Exit codes: 0 when the install proceeds (Chainsaw then returns the real tool’s own exit code), 1 when Chainsaw refuses.

--help and every other flag are forwarded to gem untouched, so chainsaw gem --help shows gem’s help, not this text. Use chainsaw help gem to see this page.

To make the check automatic, add the shell shims: eval "$(chainsaw guard init)".

Examples

chainsaw gem install rails

Flags

This command forwards its arguments to the underlying tool unchanged, so it parses no flags of its own. Anything after the command name goes to the wrapped package manager verbatim.