Back to directory

Cairn

A general-purpose AI search engine for problems with a known starting point and goal but an unknown path between them, first validated on autonomous penetration testing.

Cairn

Cairn is built around a directed search through a state space defined by a known origin and a defined goal, a shape shared by problems such as penetration testing, vulnerability research, mathematical proof, and CTF challenges. It defines no fixed roles or workflows: instead, an explicit fact-intent graph built on a blackboard architecture tracks confirmed Facts, declared but unexecuted Intents, and Hints of human judgment that agents absorb on their next read.

Worker agents run an observe-orient-decide-act loop over the shared graph rather than following predefined job descriptions, coordinating only through the shared board rather than direct communication. Three task types share one worker: an initial bootstrap attempt, a reasoning step that checks whether the goal is met and proposes next intents, and an exploration step that executes one intent and reports a finding. Penetration testing is the first domain the engine has been validated on.

More in Security

See all 287
  • The Standup

    standup.thecompound.tech

    A daily email and dashboard tracking software releases, security advisories, outages and breaking changes across the vendors and repositories a team depends on, surfacing only what needs action rather than a full news feed.

  • Drop

    droprun.sh

    A rootless Linux sandbox for developers, built on user namespaces with optional gVisor isolation, that confines coding agents and third-party packages without leaving your normal work environment.

  • Compliance Posture

    complianceposture.com

    A free, searchable directory that tracks the security and compliance certifications, such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and GDPR, of over 400 SaaS vendors across twenty categories, with side-by-side comparisons.