CLI Scanner

The HoundDog.ai CLI scanner detects sensitive dataflows directly in your source code — locally during development or in CI. Scans are fully deterministic, run on standard CPU hardware, and your code never leaves your environment.

The scanner is available as a standalone binary and a Docker image. Install it below, then run your first scan with the Quickstart.

Standalone Binary

Requirements

• Operating System: Linux, macOS, or Windows 10/11
• Architecture: AMD64 (x86-64) or ARM64
• Shell: Bash, Zsh, or Fish on Linux/macOS; PowerShell on Windows
• CPU: Minimum 2 CPU cores
• Memory: Minimum 4 GB of free memory
• Storage: Minimum 1 GB of free disk space

Linux and macOS

To install the latest version in your user directory at ~/.hounddog/bin/hounddog:

bash

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hounddogai/hounddog/main/install.sh | sh

To install system-wide at /usr/local/bin/hounddog (requires sudo):

bash

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hounddogai/hounddog/main/install.sh | sudo sh

To install a specific version:

bash

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hounddogai/hounddog/main/install.sh | sh -s -- --version 1.2.3

Windows

To install the latest version at %LocalAppData%\hounddog\bin\hounddog.exe (requires PowerShell). Run PowerShell as Administrator to install for all users at %ProgramFiles%\hounddog\bin\hounddog.exe instead:

powershell

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hounddogai/hounddog/main/install.ps1 | iex

To install a specific version:

powershell

$env:HOUNDDOG_VERSION = '1.2.3'; irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hounddogai/hounddog/main/install.ps1 | iex

Manual Download

You can also download the binaries and their SHA-256 checksums directly from the releases page. Each release provides hounddog-linux-amd64.tar.gz, hounddog-linux-arm64.tar.gz, hounddog-macos-amd64.tar.gz, hounddog-macos-arm64.tar.gz, hounddog-windows-amd64.zip, and hounddog-windows-arm64.zip.

Upgrading

Re-run the install command to upgrade in place — the installer verifies the checksum and replaces the binary atomically. Check the installed version at any time with:

bash

hounddog --version

Uninstalling

bash

# Linux and macOS
rm -rf ~/.hounddog

powershell

# Windows
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:LocalAppData\hounddog"

If you installed for all users from an elevated PowerShell, remove "$env:ProgramFiles\hounddog" instead.

Note

Uninstalling does not remove the scanner’s configuration file (~/.config/hounddog/.env, or %APPDATA%\hounddog\.env on Windows) or the local scan state database. Delete those separately if you want a fully clean removal.

Docker Image

The hounddogai/hounddog image is published to Docker Hub for AMD64 and ARM64. The scanner expects the code to scan to be mounted at /data:

bash

docker run --pull=always -it --rm -v /path/to/repo:/data hounddogai/hounddog hounddog scan

Note

Docker scans require the mounted directory to be a git repository. Scanning a non-git directory fails with Cannot find git metadata in directory.

Requirements

• CPU: Minimum 2 CPU cores allocated to Docker
• Memory: Minimum 4 GB of memory allocated to Docker
• Storage: Minimum 1 GB of free disk space allocated to Docker

See Docker Desktop or Docker Engine for Docker installation instructions.

Next Steps

Continue to the Quickstart to run your first scan.