cdxgen is a CLI tool, library, REPL, and server to create, validate, sign, and verify software BOMs. It generates CycloneDX JSON BOMs and supports SPDX 3.0.1 JSON-LD export. CycloneDX is a full-stack BOM specification that is easily created, human and machine-readable, and simple to parse. The tool supports CycloneDX specification versions from 1.5 - 1.7.

Supported BOM formats:

• Software (SBOM) - For many languages and container images.
• Cryptography (CBOM) - For Java and Python projects.
• Operations (OBOM) - For Linux container images and VMs running Linux or Windows operating systems.
• Software-as-a-Service (SaaSBOM) - For Java, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, and PHP projects.
• Attestations (CDXA) - Generate SBOM with templates for multiple standards. Sign the BOM document at a granular level to improve authenticity.
• Vulnerability Disclosure Report (VDR) - Use cdxgen with OWASP depscan to automate the generation of VDR at scale.

Supported output document formats:

• CycloneDX JSON (primary native format)
• SPDX 3.0.1 JSON-LD (cdxgen --format spdx or cdx-convert)

• Start with a local path, git URL, or purl and generate a BOM in one command.
• Use Supported Project Types to confirm ecosystem coverage before wiring cdxgen into CI.

• Use --profile appsec, --evidence, and --bom-audit when you want richer security context.
• Combine generation with BOM Audit, cdx-validate, signing, and verification for a fuller secure-SBOM workflow.

• Use obom for live-system and runtime inventory on Linux and Windows hosts.
• Focus on OBOM lessons when you need host triage, persistence review, LOLBAS-backed Windows startup analysis, or incident-response evidence.

• Use cdx-validate to assess structural and compliance posture, then cdx-convert when SPDX output is required.
• Review Permissions and hardened-environment guidance before adopting cdxgen in controlled pipelines.

Most SBOM tools are like simple barcode scanners. For easy applications, they can parse a few package manifests and create a list of components only based on these files without any deep inspection. Further, a typical application might have several repos, components, and libraries with complex build requirements. Traditional techniques to generate an SBOM per language or package manifest either do not work in enterprise environments or don't provide the confidence required for both compliance and automated analysis. So we built cdxgen - the universal polyglot SBOM generator that is user-friendly, precise, and comprehensive!

Our philosophy:

• Explainability: Don't list, but explain with evidence.
• Precision: Try using multiple techniques to improve precision, even if it takes extra time.
• Personas: Cater to the needs of a range of personas such as security researchers, compliance auditors, developers, and SOC.
• Machine Learning: Optimize the generated data for Machine Learning (ML) purposes by considering the various model properties.
• Safety: Execute external build tools and handle untrusted inputs defensively, with hardened defaults, a secure mode for sensitive environments, and a read-only --dry-run mode for review-first workflows.

When you want to inspect what cdxgen would do before allowing side effects, use --dry-run.

cdxgen --dry-run -p -t js .

Dry-run mode keeps cdxgen read-only: it reads local files, blocks writes/exec/temp creation/cloning/submission, and prints an activity summary table for both beginners and power users.

Please visit our GPT app or the documentation site for detailed usage, tutorials, and support documentation.

Sections include:

• Getting Started
• CLI Usage
• Server Usage
• Hands-on Lessons
• Container Escape & Privilege Lesson
• Supported Project Types
• Environment Variables
• Advanced Usage
• Permissions
• Security Policy
• Threat Model
• Support (Enterprise & Community)

Install the npm package when you want the full multi-command CLI surface.

npm install -g @cyclonedx/cdxgen

Installing @cyclonedx/cdxgen exposes these commands:

Standalone GitHub release binaries are published for cdxgen, cdxgen-slim, cdx-audit, cdx-convert, cdx-sign, cdx-validate, and cdx-verify.

cdx-audit is designed to accelerate upstream dependency review with explainable, evidence-backed risk prioritization. It complements provenance, reproducibility, and manual investigation rather than replacing them.

To run cdxgen without installing (hotloading), use the pnpm dlx command.

corepack pnpm dlx @cyclonedx/cdxgen --help

You can call any packaged command the same way:

corepack pnpm dlx --package=@cyclonedx/cdxgen cdx-audit --help
corepack pnpm dlx --package=@cyclonedx/cdxgen cdx-convert --help
corepack pnpm dlx --package=@cyclonedx/cdxgen cdx-validate --help
corepack pnpm dlx --package=@cyclonedx/cdxgen cdx-sign --help
corepack pnpm dlx --package=@cyclonedx/cdxgen cdx-verify --help
corepack pnpm dlx --package=@cyclonedx/cdxgen evinse --help
corepack pnpm dlx --package=@cyclonedx/cdxgen cdxi --help

If you are a Homebrew user, you can also install cdxgen via:

$ brew install cdxgen

If you are a Winget user on windows, you can also install cdxgen via:

winget install cdxgen

If you want a single-file executable instead of an npm installation, download a published release asset and verify its hash before executing it.

Common asset names:

• cdxgen-linux-amd64
• cdxgen-linux-amd64-musl
• cdxgen-darwin-arm64
• cdxgen-windows-amd64.exe
• cdx-audit-linux-amd64
• cdx-audit-darwin-arm64
• cdx-audit-windows-amd64.exe
• cdx-convert-*, cdx-sign-*, cdx-validate-*, cdx-verify-*

VERSION="v12.3.0"
ASSET="cdx-audit-linux-amd64"
BASE_URL="https://github.com/cdxgen/cdxgen/releases/download/${VERSION}"

curl -fsSLO "${BASE_URL}/${ASSET}"
curl -fsSLO "${BASE_URL}/${ASSET}.sha256"
sha256sum -c "${ASSET}.sha256"
chmod +x "${ASSET}"
./"${ASSET}" --help

VERSION="v12.3.0"
ASSET="cdx-audit-darwin-arm64"
BASE_URL="https://github.com/cdxgen/cdxgen/releases/download/${VERSION}"

curl -fsSLO "${BASE_URL}/${ASSET}"
curl -fsSLO "${BASE_URL}/${ASSET}.sha256"
shasum -a 256 -c "${ASSET}.sha256"
chmod +x "${ASSET}"
./"${ASSET}" --help

$Version = "v12.3.0"
$Asset = "cdx-audit-windows-amd64.exe"
$BaseUrl = "https://github.com/cdxgen/cdxgen/releases/download/$Version"

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "$BaseUrl/$Asset" -OutFile $Asset
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "$BaseUrl/$Asset.sha256" -OutFile "$Asset.sha256"
$Expected = (Get-Content "$Asset.sha256" | Select-Object -First 1).Trim().Split()[0]
$Actual = (Get-FileHash $Asset -Algorithm SHA256).Hash.ToLowerInvariant()
if ($Actual -ne $Expected.ToLowerInvariant()) {
  throw "SHA256 mismatch for $Asset"
}
.\$Asset --help

permissions:
  contents: read

steps:
  - name: Download cdx-audit release binary
    env:
      GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
    run: |
      gh release download v12.3.0 \
        --repo cdxgen/cdxgen \
        --pattern 'cdx-audit-linux-amd64' \
        --pattern 'cdx-audit-linux-amd64.sha256'
      sha256sum -c cdx-audit-linux-amd64.sha256
      chmod +x cdx-audit-linux-amd64
      ./cdx-audit-linux-amd64 --help

Deno and bun runtime can be used with limited support.

deno install --allow-read --allow-env --allow-run --allow-sys=uid,systemMemoryInfo,gid,homedir --allow-write --allow-net -n cdxgen "npm:@cyclonedx/cdxgen/cdxgen"

You can also use the cdxgen container image with node, deno, or bun runtime versions.

The default version uses Node.js 23

docker run --rm -e CDXGEN_DEBUG_MODE=debug -v /tmp:/tmp -v $(pwd):/app:rw -t ghcr.io/cyclonedx/cdxgen:master -r /app -o /app/bom.json

To use the deno version, use ghcr.io/cyclonedx/cdxgen-deno as the image name.

docker run --rm -e CDXGEN_DEBUG_MODE=debug -v /tmp:/tmp -v $(pwd):/app:rw -t ghcr.io/cyclonedx/cdxgen-deno:master -r /app -o /app/bom.json

For the bun version, use ghcr.io/cyclonedx/cdxgen-bun as the image name.

docker run --rm -e CDXGEN_DEBUG_MODE=debug -v /tmp:/tmp -v $(pwd):/app:rw -t ghcr.io/cyclonedx/cdxgen-bun:master -r /app -o /app/bom.json

In deno applications, cdxgen could be directly imported without any conversion.

import { createBom, submitBom } from "npm:@cyclonedx/cdxgen@^12.2.1";

For the full option reference, use cdxgen --help or visit CLI Usage.

Companion commands also expose built-in help:

• cbom --help
• cdx-audit --help
• cdx-validate --help
• cdx-convert --help
• cdx-sign --help
• cdx-verify --help
• cdxgen-secure --help
• cdxi --help
• evinse --help
• obom --help
• saasbom --help
• spdxgen --help

Minimal example.

cdxgen -o bom.json

The primary positional input can be:

• a local filesystem path (default: current directory)
• a git URL that cdxgen clones before scanning
• a package URL (purl) that cdxgen resolves to source and then scans

Common source input examples:

# Local path
cdxgen -o bom.json .

# Git URL
cdxgen -t java -o bom.json --git-branch main https://github.com/HooliCorp/java-sec-code.git

# Package URL (purl)
cdxgen -t js -o bom.json "pkg:npm/lodash@4.17.21"

For a java project. cdxgen would automatically detect maven, gradle, or sbt and build bom accordingly

cdxgen -t java -o bom.json

To print the SBOM as a table pass -p argument.

cdxgen -t java -o bom.json -p

To recursively generate a single BOM for all languages pass -r argument.

cdxgen -r -o bom.json

To generate an SBOM directly from a git URL:

cdxgen -t java -o bom.json --git-branch main https://github.com/HooliCorp/java-sec-code.git

This works anywhere cdxgen expects its primary source input, so a git URL can be used in place of . or any other local path.

To generate an SBOM from a package URL (purl), cdxgen resolves registry metadata to a repository URL, clones it, and scans it:

cdxgen -t js -o bom.json "pkg:npm/lodash@4.17.21"

Supported purl source types: npm, pypi, gem, cargo, pub, github, bitbucket, maven (version required), composer, and generic (with vcs_url or download_url qualifier).

Warning: Repository URLs resolved from registries may be inaccurate or malicious. Review resolved sources before trusting generated output.

The default specification used by cdxgen is 1.7. To generate BOM for a different specification version, such as 1.5 or 1.6, pass the version number using the --spec-version argument.

# 1.6 is supported by most tools
cdxgen -r -o bom.json --spec-version 1.6

To generate SBOM for C or Python, ensure Java >= 21 is installed.

# Install java >= 21
cdxgen -t c -o bom.json

NOTE: cdxgen is known to freeze with Java 8 or 11, so ensure >= 21 is installed and JAVA_HOME environment variable is configured correctly. If in doubt, use the cdxgen container image.

By passing the type argument -t universal, cdxgen could be forced to opportunistically collect as many components and services as possible by scanning all package, container, and Kubernetes manifests. The resulting SBOM could have over a thousand components, thus requiring additional triaging before use with traditional SCA tools.

Invoke cdxgen with --server argument to run it in server mode. By default, it listens to port 9090, which can be customized with the arguments --server-host and --server-port.

cdxgen --server

Or use the container image.

docker run --rm -v /tmp:/tmp -p 9090:9090 -v $(pwd):/app:rw -t ghcr.io/cyclonedx/cdxgen -r /app --server --server-host 0.0.0.0

Use curl or your favorite tool to pass arguments to the /sbom route.

Arguments can be passed either via the query string or as a JSON body. Please refer to Server Usage

Use the /health endpoint to check if the SBOM server is up and running.

curl "http://127.0.0.1:9090/health"

curl "http://127.0.0.1:9090/sbom?path=/Volumes/Work/sandbox/vulnerable-aws-koa-app&multiProject=true&type=js"

curl "http://127.0.0.1:9090/sbom?url=https://github.com/HooliCorp/vulnerable-aws-koa-app.git&multiProject=true&type=js"

If you need to pass credentials to authenticate.

curl "http://127.0.0.1:9090/sbom?url=https://<access_token>@github.com/some/repo.git&multiProject=true&type=js"
curl "http://127.0.0.1:9090/sbom?url=https://<username>:<password>@bitbucket.org/some/repo.git&multiProject=true&type=js"

You can POST the arguments.

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" http://localhost:9090/sbom -XPOST -d $'{"url": "https://github.com/HooliCorp/vulnerable-aws-koa-app.git", "type": "nodejs", "multiProject": "true"}'

git clone https://github.com/cdxgen/cdxgen.git
docker compose up

cdxgen can generate a BOM file from a given war file.

# cdxgen -t java app.war
cdxgen app.war

Sometimes, it is necessary to resolve class names contained in jar files. By passing an optional argument --resolve-class, it is possible to get cdxgen to create a separate mapping file with the jar name (including the version) as the key and class names list as a value.

cdxgen -t java --resolve-class -o bom.json

This would create a bom.json.map file with the jar - class name mapping. Refer to these examples to learn about the structure.

cdxgen can automatically query public registries such as maven, npm, or nuget to resolve the package licenses. This is a time-consuming operation and is disabled by default. To enable, set the environment variable FETCH_LICENSE to true, as shown. Ensure that GITHUB_TOKEN is set or provided by built-in GITHUB_TOKEN in GitHub Actions, otherwise rate limiting might prevent license resolving.

export FETCH_LICENSE=true

cdxgen can retain the dependency tree under the dependencies attribute for a small number of supported package manifests. These are currently limited to:

• package-lock.json
• yarn.lock
• pnpm-lock.yaml
• Maven (pom.xml)
• Gradle
• Scala SBT
• Python (requirements.txt, setup.py, pyproject.toml, poetry.lock)
• .NET (packages.lock.json, project.assets.json, paket.lock, .nuspec/.nupkg)
• Go (go.mod)
• PHP (composer.lock)
• Ruby (Gemfile.lock)
• Rust (Cargo.lock)

cdxgen could be extended with external binary plugins to support more SBOM use cases. These are now installed as an optional dependency.

sudo npm install -g @cdxgen/cdxgen-plugins-bin

cdxgen can be extended with external binary plugins to support more SBOM use cases.
These are now installed as optional dependencies and can be used without a global install.

pnpm dlx @cdxgen/cdxgen-plugins-bin

docker type is automatically detected based on the presence of values such as sha256 or docker.io prefix etc in the path.

cdxgen odoo@sha256:4e1e147f0e6714e8f8c5806d2b484075b4076ca50490577cdf9162566086d15e -o /tmp/bom.json

You can also pass -t docker with repository names. Only the latest tag would be pulled if none was specified.

cdxgen shiftleft/scan-slim -o /tmp/bom.json -t docker

You can also pass the .tar file of a container image.

docker pull shiftleft/scan-slim
docker save -o /tmp/slim.tar shiftleft/scan-slim
podman save -q --format oci-archive -o /tmp/slim.tar shiftleft/scan-slim
cdxgen /tmp/slim.tar -o /tmp/bom.json -t docker

Setup podman in either rootless or remote mode

Do not forget to start the podman socket required for API access on Linux.

systemctl --user enable --now podman.socket
systemctl --user start podman.socket
podman system service -t 0 &

You can use the obom command to generate an OBOM for a live system or a VM for compliance and vulnerability management purposes. Windows and Linux operating systems are supported in this mode.

# obom is an alias for cdxgen -t os
obom
# cdxgen -t os

This feature is powered by osquery, which is installed along with the binary plugins. cdxgen would opportunistically try to detect as many components, apps, and extensions as possible using the default queries. The process would take several minutes and result in an SBOM file with thousands of components of various types, such as operating-system, device-drivers, files, and data.

For practical SOC/IR and compliance workflows, see the dedicated OBOM lessons.

Use the cbom alias to generate a CBOM. This is currently supported only for Java projects.

cbom -t java
# cdxgen -t java --include-crypto -o bom.json .

See evinse mode in the advanced documentation.

cdxgen features a best-in-class, native JSON Signature Format (JSF) implementation for BOM signing, providing robust authenticity and non-repudiation capabilities. Unlike basic signing tools, our implementation fully supports granular signatures (signing individual components, services, and annotations), parallel Multi-Signatures (signers), and sequential Signature Chains (chain).

To enable automatic signing during BOM generation, set the following environment variables:

• SBOM_SIGN_ALGORITHM: JSF Algorithm. Examples: RS512, ES256, Ed25519, HS256
• SBOM_SIGN_PRIVATE_KEY: Location of the private key (PEM format)
• SBOM_SIGN_PUBLIC_KEY: Optional. Location of the public key
• SBOM_SIGN_MODE: Optional. Signature mode (replace, signers, chain). Default is replace.

To quickly generate test public/private key pairs and sign your first BOM, you can run cdxgen with the --generate-key-and-sign argument.

For complex supply chain orchestration, use the bundled cdx-sign CLI. This tool allows multiple entities (e.g., a Builder and an Auditor) to co-sign an existing BOM without modifying its original data.

# Append a parallel multi-signature (Auditor co-signing)
# Note: Granular component signing is disabled to preserve the Builder's original signature payload.
cdx-sign -i bom.json -k auditor_private.pem -a ES256 --key-id "auditor-qa" --mode signers --no-sign-components

Use the bundled cdx-validate command to validate CycloneDX BOMs against structural, deep, and compliance checks. Refer to this document for usage.

Use the bundled cdx-verify command to validate BOM signatures. By default, cdx-verify performs a strict deep verification, meaning it mathematically validates the top-level BOM signature and the signatures of every nested component, service, and annotation against the provided public key. Refer to this lesson for the usage of sign and verify commands.

npm install -g @cyclonedx/cdxgen

# Perform strict deep verification (default)
cdx-verify -i bom.json --public-key public.key

# Verify ONLY the top-level root signature (useful for verifying a multi-signer who didn't sign nested components)
cdx-verify -i bom.json --public-key auditor_public.key --no-deep

You can run the verification tools directly using pnpm (no global install needed):

pnpm dlx @cyclonedx/cdxgen cdx-verify -i bom.json --public-key public.key

You can also use pnpm to invoke the signing tool:

pnpm dlx @cyclonedx/cdxgen cdx-sign -i bom.json -k private.key

For node.js projects, lock files are parsed initially, so the SBOM would include all dependencies, including dev ones. An AST parser powered by babel-parser is then used to detect packages that are imported and used by non-test code. Such imported packages would automatically set their scope property to required in the resulting SBOM. You can turn off this analysis by passing the argument --no-babel. Scope property would then be set based on the dev attribute in the lock file.

This attribute can be later used for various purposes. For example, dep-scan uses this attribute to prioritize vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, tools such as dependency track, do not include this feature and might over-report the CVEs.

With the argument --required-only, you can limit the SBOM only to include packages with the scope "required", commonly called production or non-dev dependencies. Combine with --no-babel to limit this list to only non-dev dependencies based on the dev attribute being false in the lock files.

For go, go mod why command is used to identify required packages. For php, composer lock file is parsed to distinguish required (packages) from optional (packages-dev).

cdxgen can automatically detect names of services from YAML manifests such as docker-compose, Kubernetes, or Skaffold manifests. These would be populated under the services attribute in the generated SBOM. With evinse, additional services could be detected by parsing common annotations from the source code.

For direct conversion of an existing CycloneDX JSON BOM to SPDX JSON-LD, use the bundled cdx-convert command:

cdx-convert -i bom.json -o bom.spdx.json

cdx-convert currently supports CycloneDX 1.6 and 1.7 inputs and exports SPDX 3.0.1 JSON-LD.

Use cdxgen --format spdx (or --format cyclonedx,spdx) when generating BOMs. Use the CycloneDX CLI tool for advanced use cases such as diff and merging.

For dotnet and dotnet-framework, SBOM could include components without a version number. Often, these components begin with the prefix System..

Global Assembly Cache (GAC) dependencies (System Runtime dependencies) must be made available in the build output of the project for version detection. A simple way to have the dotnet build copy the GAC dependencies into the build directory is to place the file Directory.Build.props into the root of the project and ensure the contents include the following:

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemDefinitionGroup>
  <Reference>
    <Private>True</Private>
  </Reference>
</ItemDefinitionGroup>
</Project>

Then, run cdxgen cli with the --deep argument.

Permission to modify and redistribute is granted under the terms of the Apache 2.0 license. See the LICENSE file for the full license.

cdxgen is ESM only and could be imported and used with both deno and Node.js >= 20

Minimal example:

import { createBom, submitBom } from "npm:@cyclonedx/cdxgen@^9.0.1";

See the Deno Readme for detailed instructions.

import { createBom, submitBom } from "@cyclonedx/cdxgen";
// bomNSData would contain bomJson
const bomNSData = await createBom(filePath, options);
// Submission to dependency track server
const dbody = await submitBom(args, bomNSData.bomJson);

Please check out our open issues if you are interested in helping.

The project is mirrored on Codeberg. Users can clone the repository using the following URL:

git clone https://codeberg.org/cdxgen/cdxgen.git

The maintainers accept Pull Requests (PRs) against the Codeberg repository.

Note: The Codeberg repository is currently synced manually from GitHub.

Before raising a PR, please run the following commands.

corepack enable pnpm
pnpm install:frozen
# Generate types using jsdoc syntax
pnpm run gen-types
# Run biomejs formatter and linter with auto fix
pnpm run lint
# Run jest tests
pnpm test

Use pnpm add -g command to quickly test the main branch.

corepack pnpm bin -g
corepack pnpm setup
corepack pnpm add -g https://github.com/cdxgen/cdxgen
cdxgen --help

To quickly test the latest main branch without installing globally, you can use pnpm in a local or temporary environment.

corepack enable
pnpm install --prefer-offline
pnpm dlx cdxgen --help

Some features are funded through NGI Zero Core, a fund established by NLnet with financial support from the European Commission's Next Generation Internet program. Learn more at the NLnet project page.

cdxgen is an OWASP Foundation production project.

Copy the below block to your markdown files to show your ❤️ for cdxgen.

[![SBOM](https://img.shields.io/badge/SBOM-with_%E2%9D%A4%EF%B8%8F_by_cdxgen-FF753D)](https://github.com/cdxgen/cdxgen)