Scan Tech Assistant

A Chainlit chat app that helps SecurityMetrics scan technicians validate disputed Nessus findings from a terminal. A tech enters a plugin ID; the app locates the plugin's NASL source in a local mirror, reads it, and returns a plain-language explanation plus draft commands the tech can adapt and run by hand. It never touches a customer environment and never runs anything itself.

Installation

This app is built and deployed using Docker. The image bundles a mirror of the Nessus plugin archive and builds a plugin ID -> file path index at build time, so no external plugin source is needed at runtime.

The image typically will be built and pushed via GitHub Actions workflows automatically when associated files are changed. If you need to manually build an image, run the following command from the root of the repository:

docker build -t scan_tech_assistant:latest apps/scan_tech_assistant

Configuration

The following environment variables can be set to configure the app:

Variable	Description	Default
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	API key used to call the Claude API.	(empty)
MODEL	The Claude model to use for generating testing procedures.	claude-sonnet-5-5

Usage

Build and run from this repo

From the repo root (where the Dockerfile is):

# 1. Build the image (first build downloads the plugin archive and indexes it;
#    later builds that only change app code reuse those layers)
docker build -t scan_tech_assistant:latest .

# 2. Load a fresh API key into this shell without echoing it or saving it to history
read -rs ANTHROPIC_API_KEY && export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY

# 3. Start the container. `-e ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` with no value passes the variable
#    through from your shell, so the key never appears in the command line or `docker ps`
docker run -d --name scan_tech_assistant -p 8000:8000 -e ANTHROPIC_API_KEY scan_tech_assistant:latest

# 4. Open http://localhost:8000 and enter a numeric Nessus plugin ID

Useful follow-ups:

docker logs -f scan_tech_assistant                 # watch startup and request errors
docker rm -f scan_tech_assistant                   # stop and remove before re-running
docker run ... -e MODEL=claude-sonnet-5 ...        # override the default model

To pick up code changes: docker rm -f scan_tech_assistant, rebuild (step 1), and run again (step 3). The key stays loaded in the same shell session.