ChronoGuard: Zero‑Trust for Browser Automation – The Missing Piece in CI/CD Security

The Automation Blind Spot

Browser automation has become the backbone of modern testing, data scraping, and market analysis. Yet, most CI/CD pipelines treat automation like a black box: agents can reach any URL, and the only visibility comes from ad‑hoc logs or third‑party monitoring. This opacity is a compliance nightmare for regulated sectors and a security risk for any organization that exposes internal data to the open internet.

Enter ChronoGuard – an open‑source zero‑trust proxy that sits between your automation stack and the wider web. By forcing every outbound request to pass through a mTLS‑authenticated Envoy forward proxy, ChronoGuard guarantees that only authorized agents can reach allowed domains, and every decision is recorded in a cryptographic hash chain.

“The core value proposition: ‘Know not just WHERE your automation goes, but WHEN – with network‑enforced controls that can’t be bypassed.’” – ChronoGuard documentation

Architecture That Leaves No Leaks

ChronoGuard’s design is a textbook example of Domain‑Driven Design coupled with Clean Architecture and CQRS. The stack is split into six micro‑services:

The flow is simple yet powerful:

Agent → Envoy (mTLS) → OPA → Target Domain
      ↘︎          ↘︎          ↘︎
      FastAPI      FastAPI      PostgreSQL

Each request is evaluated by OPA against domain allowlists, blocklists, and temporal windows. The decision is sent back to Envoy and simultaneously logged by FastAPI. The audit entry is hash‑chained, ensuring tamper‑evidence – a feature that matters when you’re under regulatory scrutiny.

Why mTLS, OPA, and Immutable Logs Matter

• mTLS guarantees that only registered agents can even reach the proxy. It eliminates the “unknown client” problem that plagues many reverse proxies.
• OPA brings policy as code to the forefront. Policies can be versioned, reviewed, and deployed in a CI pipeline, ensuring that changes are auditable.
• Immutable audit logs with cryptographic verification satisfy compliance frameworks like GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI‑DSS. The logs are not only write‑once but also verifiable, a critical requirement for forensic investigations.

“Every request is logged in the audit trail with cryptographic hash chaining for tamper detection.” – ChronoGuard docs

Plug‑and‑Play for Your Automation Stack

ChronoGuard ships with a Python SDK, a JavaScript/TypeScript SDK, and a Go SDK. The integration is as simple as pointing your browser agent at the proxy and supplying a client certificate:

# Playwright example
from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright

with sync_playwright() as p:
    browser = p.chromium.launch(
        proxy={"server": "https://chronoguard-proxy:8080"},
        client_cert="./certs/agent-cert.pem",
        client_key="./certs/agent-key.pem",
    )
    page = browser.new_page()
    page.goto("https://example.com")

The same pattern applies to Puppeteer, Selenium, and any browser automation framework that supports custom proxies and client certificates.

A Roadmap That Keeps Security in the Lead

ChronoGuard’s roadmap is driven by real‑world needs:

The project is already battle‑tested in production‑like environments: e‑commerce intelligence teams, fintech research labs, and healthcare data operations use ChronoGuard to satisfy strict compliance mandates.

Community and Contribution

ChronoGuard is released under Apache 2.0, making it safe to embed in commercial products. The repository follows rigorous code quality standards:

• 95 %+ test coverage
• MyPy type hints
• Ruff linting and formatting
• Bandit security scans

Contributors are welcomed via pull requests, and the issue tracker is open for feature requests and bug reports. The project’s documentation is comprehensive, covering architecture, deployment, and troubleshooting.

Final Thoughts

In an era where automated workflows are the norm, the absence of a zero‑trust layer is a blind spot that can cost time, money, and compliance. ChronoGuard fills that gap with a well‑architected, open‑source solution that turns browser automation from a black box into a transparent, auditable process.

If your organization relies on Playwright, Puppeteer, or Selenium in CI/CD pipelines, consider adding ChronoGuard to your security perimeter. The combination of mTLS, policy‑as‑code, and immutable audit logs gives you the control and visibility that modern compliance demands.

Source: https://github.com/j-raghavan/ChronoGuard