klaws

한국어

Korean law compliance risk scanner for codebases. Scans source code for patterns that may indicate compliance risks under Korean law and maps findings to specific legal provisions. Runs as an MCP server (so AI coding assistants can scan on request) and as a standalone CLI.

Currently covers PIPA (Personal Information Protection Act), the Network Act (정보통신망법), the Credit Information Act (신용정보법), and the E-Commerce Act (전자상거래법).

Disclaimer: klaws identifies possible compliance risks for review. It does not constitute legal advice. Consult qualified legal counsel for definitive guidance.

Privacy: klaws analyzes code locally and transmits nothing. The only outbound network call is the optional --live law lookup to law.go.kr; without that flag it is fully offline. See Privacy & Security.

Quick Start

# Scan the current directory with Docker — no install needed
docker run --rm -v "$PWD":/src:ro ghcr.io/rostradamus/klaws scan /src

# ...or, if you installed the binary:
klaws scan ./my-project        # scan a directory
klaws scan ./MyService.java    # scan a single file

Installation

Docker (recommended)

No toolchain required — the image is published to GitHub Container Registry and works identically on macOS, Linux, and Windows:

# Scan the current directory (mount it read-only at /src)
docker run --rm -v "$PWD":/src:ro ghcr.io/rostradamus/klaws scan /src

# Pin a version instead of the floating latest tag
docker run --rm -v "$PWD":/src:ro ghcr.io/rostradamus/klaws:0.1.6 scan /src

Prebuilt binary

Download the archive for your platform from the latest release, extract it, and move klaws onto your PATH.

go install

go install github.com/rostradamus/klaws/cmd/klaws@latest

From source

Requirements: Go 1.23+

git clone https://github.com/rostradamus/klaws.git
cd klaws
go build -o klaws ./cmd/klaws/

Verify the install:

klaws --version

Usage

Scan

# Scan a directory (default: *.java files)
klaws scan ./src

# Scan specific file types
klaws scan ./src --pattern "*.kt"

# Text output (default is JSON)
klaws scan ./src --format text

# SARIF output (for GitHub code scanning / other tools)
klaws scan ./src --format sarif > klaws.sarif

# Fail the command (exit 1) if any finding is at or above a severity
klaws scan ./src --fail-on HIGH

# Use a custom laws file
klaws scan ./src --laws ./my-laws.yaml

Example Output

klaws scan report
Target:  ./testdata
Files:   4
Findings: 7

--- Finding 1 ---
  Detector:  PIPA-CST-001
  Risk:      HIGH
  Location:  testdata/MemberController.java:10
  Snippet:   @PostMapping("/register")
  Message:   Endpoint accepts possible personal data without apparent consent
             mechanism — may require review under PIPA Article 15
  Laws:      PIPA-15

--- Finding 2 ---
  Detector:  PIPA-ENC-001
  Risk:      HIGH
  Location:  testdata/MemberEntity.java:11
  Snippet:   private String residentNumber;
  Message:   Poss

... [View full README on GitHub](https://github.com/rostradamus/klaws#readme)