CLI Reference¶

All commands are invoked as terok-shield <command> [options].

Global options:

Option	Description
`--version`	Show version and exit
`--state-dir <path>`	Override state root directory

run¶

Launch a shielded container via podman. Resolves DNS, checks setup, and execs into podman run with the correct flags.

terok-shield run <container> [--profiles <profile>...] -- <image> [cmd...]

Argument	Description
`container`	Container name
`--profiles`	Override default profiles (space-separated)
`-- ...`	Everything after `--` is passed to `podman run`

# Basic usage
terok-shield run my-container -- alpine:latest sh

# With custom profiles
terok-shield run my-container --profiles dev-standard dev-python -- alpine:latest sh

# With extra podman flags (after --)
terok-shield run my-container -- --rm -it -e FOO=bar alpine:latest sh

Shield-managed flags (--name, --hooks-dir, --annotation, --cap-drop, --cap-add, --security-opt, --network) are set automatically and rejected if passed after --.

prepare¶

Resolve DNS, install hooks, and print the podman flags needed to launch a shielded container. Useful for scripting or inspecting what run would do.

terok-shield prepare <container> [--profiles <profile>...] [--json]

Argument	Description
`container`	Container name
`--profiles`	Override default profiles (space-separated)
`--json`	Output as a JSON array (machine-readable)

# Shell-quoted output (default)
terok-shield prepare my-container
# --hooks-dir /home/user/.local/state/... --annotation ... --name my-container

# Use with eval for manual podman invocations
eval "podman run $(terok-shield prepare my-ctr) alpine:latest sh"

# JSON output for programmatic consumption
terok-shield prepare my-container --json
# ["--hooks-dir", "/home/user/.local/state/...", "--name", "my-container"]

status¶

Show current shield status, or query a specific container's firewall state.

terok-shield status [container]

Argument	Description
`container`	Optional — when given, prints the container's firewall state

Without a container name, shows the global shield configuration:

terok-shield status

Mode:     hook
Audit:    enabled
Profiles: base, dev-node, dev-python, dev-standard, nvidia-hpc

With a container name, prints the live firewall state (up, down, disengaged, offline, or error). Useful for scripting and integration:

terok-shield status my-container
# up

resolve¶

Resolve DNS domains from the configured profiles and cache the resulting IPs.

terok-shield resolve <container> [--force]

Argument	Description
`container`	Container name (used as the cache key)
`--force`	Bypass cache freshness and re-resolve all domains

terok-shield resolve my-container
# Resolved 28 IPs for my-container

terok-shield resolve my-container --force
# Resolved 28 IPs for my-container (forced)

Cached IPs are stored in the container's resolved.ips file and automatically refreshed when stale (default: 1 hour).

allow¶

Add a domain or IP to a running container's allow set.

terok-shield allow <container> <target>

Argument	Description
`container`	Container name or ID
`target`	Domain name or IP address to allow

terok-shield allow my-container example.com
# Allowed example.com -> <resolved-ip> for my-container

terok-shield allow my-container 203.0.113.10
# Allowed 203.0.113.10 -> 203.0.113.10 for my-container

If target is a domain name, it is resolved to IPs automatically. Changes take effect immediately. The allow is persisted to the policy/live overlay (as a + line) and survives down/up posture cycles. If the target was previously denied, the allow flips that verdict automatically.

deny¶

Remove a domain or IP from a running container's allow set.

terok-shield deny <container> <target>

Argument	Description
`container`	Container name or ID
`target`	Domain name or IP address to deny

terok-shield deny my-container example.com
# Denied example.com (<resolved-ip>) for my-container

The IP is removed from the nft t40_project_allow set (if present; errors are logged but do not prevent the deny from being persisted) and added to the t20_security_deny set. The deny is recorded as a - line in the policy/live overlay, so it persists across up/down cycles and container restarts and flips any prior allow of the same target.

down¶

Switch a container to the DOWN posture. Public traffic is accepted with logging; private ranges (RFC 1918/RFC 4193) remain blocked unless --disengage is used.

terok-shield down <container> [--disengage]

Argument	Description
`container`	Container name or ID
`--disengage`	Enforce nothing — lift the deny set and every range reject (DISENGAGED posture)

Plain DOWN keeps three rejects: the hard-deny floor (link-local, IMDS), the security-deny set, and the private ranges (RFC 1918, RFC 4193). --disengage lifts all three. The DISENGAGED posture accepts every destination and logs each new connection.

A t10 override opens one private host or one private range in every enforcing posture. Shield logs a CIDR override as a warning. The private-range reject sits above the allow tiers, so an allowlist entry does not open a private address. The hard-deny floor sits above t10, so no override reaches a link-local or IMDS address.

up¶

Restore normal deny-all mode for a container.

terok-shield up <container>

Re-applies the deny-all ruleset and restores the effective allow IPs (the composed policy/ tiers with the runtime overlay, minus the security-deny tier). Allow-set state the container learned through dnsmasq survives the transition — a down/up round trip never forgets IPs the workload already resolved.

reset¶

Forget DNS-learned allow-set state, returning the allow sets to their just-launched contents.

terok-shield reset <container>

The live tier accumulates every IP the workload legitimately resolved (elements also age out on their own via the set timeout). reset drops that learned state in one transaction while re-seeding the authored policy literals, and touches neither the deny tier nor runtime allow/deny overlay entries. The workload re-earns its state on its next DNS queries.

preview¶

Show the nftables ruleset that would be applied.

terok-shield preview [--down] [--disengage]

Option	Description
`--down`	Show the DOWN-posture ruleset instead of default deny-all
`--disengage`	Show the DISENGAGED ruleset: no deny set, no range rejects (requires `--down`)

rules¶

Display the active nftables rules for a container.

terok-shield rules <container>

Shows the container's shield state and the full nftables ruleset in its network namespace.

profiles¶

List available shield profiles.

terok-shield profiles

base
dev-node
dev-python
dev-standard
nvidia-hpc

Lists both bundled profiles and any user-defined profiles from the config profiles directory.

logs¶

Show audit log entries.

terok-shield logs [--container <name>] [-n <count>]

Option	Default	Description
`--container`	all	Filter by container name
`-n`	50	Number of recent entries to show

terok-shield logs --container my-container -n 10
terok-shield logs -n 5   # last 5 entries across all containers

Each entry is a JSON object printed on one line. See Audit Logging for the log format.