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What is ShepGate?

ShepGate is an AI governance gateway that sits between AI agents (Claude Desktop, Windsurf, etc.) and external tools (GitHub, databases, APIs). It gives you:

• 🔐 Policy Control — Define what AI can do: allow, require approval, or block
• ✅ Approval Workflows — Review risky actions before they execute
• 📊 Activity Logging — Complete audit trail of every AI action
• 🔑 Secrets Management — Encrypted credential storage (AES-256-GCM)
• 🔌 MCP Integration — Works with any Model Context Protocol host

The Problem

AI agents are powerful, but giving them unrestricted access to your tools is risky:

• What if Claude accidentally deletes a production database?
• How do you know what actions your AI assistant took?
• How do you share API keys without exposing them?

The Solution

ShepGate acts as a policy layer between AI and your systems:

┌─────────────┐     ┌─────────────┐     ┌─────────────┐
│   Claude    │────▶│  ShepGate   │────▶│   GitHub    │
│   Desktop   │     │  (Gateway)  │     │   Slack     │
│             │◀────│             │◀────│   Database  │
└─────────────┘     └─────────────┘     └─────────────┘
                           │
                    ┌──────┴──────┐
                    │  Dashboard  │
                    │  - Policies │
                    │  - Approvals│
                    │  - Logs     │
                    └─────────────┘

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Demo

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/placeholder-demo-video

Coming Soon: Live demo video showing Claude Desktop → ShepGate → GitHub flow

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Features

✅ Working in MVP

Feature	Description
Policy Engine	Three-tier risk levels: safe (auto-execute), needs_approval (human review), blocked (always deny)
Approval Workflow	Pending actions queue with approve/deny from web dashboard
Activity Logging	Every tool call logged with agent, arguments, result, timestamp
Secrets Vault	AES-256-GCM encrypted storage for API keys and tokens
MCP Host	Stdio-based MCP server for Claude Desktop integration
Web Dashboard	Manage servers, tools, agents, and approvals

🚧 Roadmap

Feature	Status	Target
Multi-user auth	Planned	v0.2
Team workspaces	Planned	v0.2
VS Code extension	Planned	v0.3
Hosted cloud version	Planned	v0.4
Billing & usage limits	Planned	v0.4

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Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Node.js 22+ (Download)
• pnpm (npm install -g pnpm)
• PostgreSQL (local, Docker, or cloud like Neon)

1. Clone and Install

git clone https://github.com/golden-sheep-ai/shepgate.git
cd shepgate
pnpm install

2. Configure Environment

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env with your database URL:

DATABASE_URL="postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/shepgate"
ENCRYPTION_KEY="your-32-byte-hex-key"

MVP Note: No authentication required. The dashboard is open access to reduce friction.

3. Setup Database

# Run migrations
pnpm db:migrate

# (Optional) Seed with test data
pnpm db:seed

4. Start the Dashboard

pnpm dev

Open http://localhost:3000 — you'll land directly on the dashboard!

5. Connect Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config (%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "shepgate": {
      "command": "cmd",
      "args": ["/c", "path\\to\\shepgate\\scripts\\claude-launcher.bat"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. You should see ShepGate's tools available!

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Architecture

shepgate/
├── src/
│   ├── app/                 # Next.js App Router
│   │   ├── api/             # REST API routes
│   │   ├── (dashboard)/     # Dashboard pages
│   │   └── login/           # Auth pages
│   ├── components/          # React components
│   └── lib/                 # Core logic
│       ├── policy.ts        # Policy engine
│       ├── execution.ts     # Tool execution
│       ├── secrets.ts       # Encryption
│       └── mcp-client.ts    # MCP SDK wrapper
├── scripts/
│   └── mcp-host.ts          # MCP host for Claude
├── prisma/
│   └── schema.prisma        # Database schema
└── .specify/                # Spec-driven docs

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Pricing

ShepGate uses a freemium model designed for non-technical founders.

Tier	Price	Agents	Servers	Best For
Free	$0/mo	1	2	Solo founders testing
Pro	$19/mo	5	10	Serious builders
Scale	$49/mo	20	Unlimited	Growing teams

MVP Note: v0.1 is free with no limits. Pricing tiers coming in v0.2.

See Business Model for full details.

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Runtime	Node.js 22 LTS
Language	TypeScript 5
Framework	Next.js 16 (App Router)
Database	PostgreSQL
ORM	Prisma
MCP SDK	@modelcontextprotocol/sdk
Auth	None (MVP is open access)
Encryption	AES-256-GCM via Node.js crypto

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Documentation

• Getting Started Guide — Full setup walkthrough
• Claude Desktop Integration — Detailed Claude setup
• API Reference — REST API documentation
• Policy Configuration — How to configure risk levels

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Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

# Run tests
pnpm test

# Run linter
pnpm lint

# Type check
pnpm type-check

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License

MIT License — see LICENSE for details.

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About

Built by Golden Sheep AI — Making AI agents safer for everyone.

ShepGate is part of the Golden Sheep AI ecosystem:

• ShepGate — AI governance gateway (this project)
• ShepLang — Natural language spec compiler
• ShepLight — Lightweight AI observability
• ShepVerify - Your Code Quality at a Glance

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