First Inspection

The inspect command retrieves an artifact, runs it through the detection pipeline, and reports findings without executing anything:

arbitraitor inspect https://example.com/install.sh

Reading the output

Artifact:    sha256:a1b2c3d4e5f6...
Source:      https://example.com/install.sh
Type:        application/x-shellscript
Size:        4.2 KB
Detectors:   shell ✅  archive ✅

Findings:
  network:curl              high      Downloads content via curl
  network:wget               high      Downloads content via wget
  fs:write:/tmp              medium    Writes to /tmp directory
  exec:subprocess            high      Spawns subprocesses

Verdict: WARN (inspect)
  Elevated findings require human review before execution.
  Run 'arbitraitor run <URL>' to request approval.

Line	What it tells you
Artifact	The SHA-256 of the exact bytes that were inspected. This hash is immutable — execution uses these exact bytes.
Source	The final URL after redirects. May differ from what you typed if the server redirected.
Type	Detected content type. Determines which detectors run (shell scripts get shell analysis, archives get archive inspection).
Detectors	Which detectors ran and their status. A green check means the detector completed; a red cross means it failed (produces an Incomplete verdict).
Findings	Individual detections. Each has an ID, severity, and description. The ID format is `category:detail` (e.g., `network:curl` = network access via curl).
Verdict	The policy engine’s decision. Always includes the assurance level in parentheses.

Understanding the verdict

The policy engine produces one of five verdicts:

Verdict	Meaning
Pass	No findings or only informational findings. Safe to proceed.
Warn	Suspicious patterns detected. Proceed with caution.
Prompt	Findings require human approval before execution.
Block	Confirmed malicious content. Execution refused.
Incomplete	A detector failed. Treat as untrusted until re-scanned.

The verdict always states which assurance level was in effect: PASS (inspect), WARN (inspect), etc. A clean scan at the Inspect level means the content was analyzed but not executed — it is not a guarantee of safety.

Provenance verification

If the publisher provides a signature, you can verify it during inspection:

arbitraitor inspect https://example.com/install.sh \
  --minisign-key RWQf6LRCGA9i53mlYecO4IzT51TGPpvWucNSCh1CBM0QUVlq39r+nX7p

Arbitraitor fetches the artifact once, verifies the signature against the public key, and only proceeds to detection if the signature is valid.

Explainability

Add --explain to get a human-readable explanation of each finding:

arbitraitor inspect https://example.com/install.sh --explain

Use --explain --format shellcheck for output compatible with tools that consume ShellCheck JSON.

What you just did

You ran a complete security inspection on a remote artifact — without executing it. Arbitraitor:

Fetched the content once and buffered it immutably
Identified the content type
Ran detectors (shell analysis, archive inspection, etc.)
Evaluated findings against policy
Produced an explainable verdict

No bytes reached a shell. To actually execute the script (with sandboxing and approval), continue to First Run with Approval.