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Safe Chain integrates with your shell by sourcing startup scripts that wrap common package manager commands with their Aikido-protected equivalents.

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Overview

When shell integration is active, the following commands are automatically wrapped: npm, npx, yarn, pnpm, pnpx, bun, bunx, pip, pip3, uv, poetry, pipx, python, python3 Each command is replaced by a shell function that delegates to the corresponding aikido-* binary (e.g., npm calls aikido-npm). Safe Chain also intercepts Python module invocations for pip: python -m pip, python -m pip3, python3 -m pip, and python3 -m pip3.

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Supported shells

ShellStartup file
Bash~/.bashrc
Zsh~/.zshrc
Fish~/.config/fish/config.fish
PowerShell Core$PROFILE
Windows PowerShell$PROFILE

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Setup commands

Run the following commands to manage shell integration:
1

Set up shell integration

safe-chain setup
This command:
  • Copies startup scripts to ~/.safe-chain/scripts/
  • Detects all supported shells on your system
  • Modifies each shell’s startup file to source the Safe Chain scripts
  • Adds interceptors so python -m pip[...] and python3 -m pip[...] route through Safe Chain
2

Restart your terminal

You must restart your terminal after running safe-chain setup for the changes to take effect. Shell functions defined in startup files are not active in the current session until the file is re-sourced.
3

Remove shell integration

To restore the original unprotected commands:
safe-chain teardown
This removes the Safe Chain entries from each detected shell’s startup file. Restart your terminal after running this command.

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File locations modified

ShellFile modified
Bash~/.bashrc
Zsh~/.zshrc
Fish~/.config/fish/config.fish
PowerShell Core~/.config/powershell/profile.ps1 (resolved via $PROFILE)

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Manual setup

For advanced users who prefer not to use safe-chain setup, you can add wrapper functions directly to your shell’s startup file. Shell functions take precedence over binaries in PATH, so defining an npm function intercepts all npm calls.

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Package manager wrappers

Add the following pattern for each package manager. Repeat for npx, yarn, pnpm, pnpx, bun, bunx, pip, pip3, uv, poetry, and pipx using their respective aikido-* commands. 
# Example for Bash/Zsh
npm() {
  if command -v aikido-npm > /dev/null 2>&1; then
    aikido-npm "$@"
  else
    echo "Warning: safe-chain is not installed. npm will run without protection."
    command npm "$@"
  fi
}

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Python module interception

To intercept python -m pip and python3 -m pip invocations without altering the Python binary itself, add these forwarding functions: 
# Example for Bash/Zsh
python() {
  if [[ "$1" == "-m" && "$2" == pip* ]]; then
    local mod="$2"; shift 2
    if [[ "$mod" == "pip3" ]]; then aikido-pip3 "$@"; else aikido-pip "$@"; fi
  else
    command python "$@"
  fi
}

python3() {
  if [[ "$1" == "-m" && "$2" == pip* ]]; then
    local mod="$2"; shift 2
    if [[ "$mod" == "pip3" ]]; then aikido-pip3 "$@"; else aikido-pip "$@"; fi
  else
    command python3 "$@"
  fi
}
After adding these functions, restart your terminal to apply the changes.
These shell functions only intercept invocations of python and python3 by name. Calls using absolute paths (e.g., /usr/bin/python -m pip) bypass shell functions entirely and will not be protected by Safe Chain.

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