If you're wiring MCP servers into an agent and want to check them for prompt injection, tool poisoning, or supply-chain risk before you trust them, there are now a handful of open-source options. This is a factual, no-benchmarks comparison of the three I could actually find and read the docs for: our own sentinel-scan-cli, Cisco's mcp-scanner, and what used to be Invariant Labs' mcp-scan.
One thing worth flagging up front: Invariant Labs' mcp-scan repo (github.com/invariantlabs-ai/mcp-scan) now redirects to github.com/snyk/agent-scan. The project has been absorbed into Snyk and rebranded as "Agent Scan" (package snyk-agent-scan). If you're comparing tools based on older blog posts that reference "Invariant Labs mcp-scan" as a standalone, no-account CLI, that's out of date — running it now requires a free Snyk account and an SNYK_TOKEN API key (export SNYK_TOKEN=...) before the CLI will scan anything. I'm comparing against the current Snyk Agent Scan README since that's what the repo actually ships today.
All claims below are pulled directly from each project's public README as of 2026-08-24. No invented features, no synthetic benchmarks — this is a "what does the doc actually say" comparison, not a lab test.
Feature comparison
| sentinel-scan-cli | Cisco mcp-scanner | Snyk Agent Scan (fka Invariant Labs mcp-scan) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| License | MIT | Apache 2.0 | source-available on GitHub; requires Snyk account/token to run |
| Install | zero dependencies, single Python file or pip install/npx github:...
|
uv tool install, Python 3.11+ |
uvx snyk-agent-scan or standalone binary |
| Signup / API key required to run at all | No (--demo needs nothing; scanning your own endpoint needs only your own endpoint's key) |
No (core YARA/static scanning works with zero keys; LLM/Cisco AI Defense/VirusTotal analyzers are opt-in extras) |
Yes — Snyk account + SNYK_TOKEN required before any scan runs |
| What it scans | Live LLM endpoint (prompt-injection/jailbreak suite) and static MCP tool manifests (mcp.json) |
Live MCP servers (remote + stdio): tools, prompts, resources, server instructions; plus PyPI/npm packages, source code, VirusTotal binary scans, CVE deps | Live MCP servers (auto-discovered from IDE/agent configs) and agent skills (e.g. Claude Skills) |
| Scanning engines | Static heuristics (regex/schema pattern matching) only | Multiple: YARA rules, LLM-based semantic analysis, Cisco AI Defense API, VirusTotal hash lookups, pip-audit CVE scanning, Docker-sandboxed behavioral analysis | Local checks + Snyk's hosted analysis API (component data is sent to Snyk's backend for scoring) |
| Executes/starts MCP servers to scan them | No — manifest scan is pure static text/JSON parsing, zero server execution | Yes, for live server scans (stdio/remote); also has a fully offline static subcommand for pre-generated JSON |
Yes — starts stdio MCP servers to retrieve tool descriptions (consent-gated by default, --dangerously-run-mcp-servers to skip) |
| OWASP LLM Top 10 mapping on findings | Yes, every finding tagged (LLM01, LLM02, LLM05, LLM06, LLM07 as applicable) | Not referenced in the README | Not referenced in the README |
| OWASP MCP Top 10 (beta) mapping | Yes, on the mcp manifest heuristics |
Not referenced in the README | Not referenced in the README |
| Number of distinct detections | 15 prompt-injection/jailbreak techniques (live-endpoint scan) + 10 manifest heuristics | Broadest surface: findings vary per engine (YARA rules + LLM findings + CVEs + malware hashes), not a fixed count | 15 distinct risk categories across MCP + skills (per current docs) |
| CI integration | GitHub Action with SARIF upload to the Security tab, markdown/JSON output | REST API server mode (mcp-scanner-api) for pipeline integration; static/offline mode built for CI/air-gapped use |
--ci flag exits non-zero on findings; no dedicated GitHub Action in the README |
| Auto-discovers configs across IDEs/agents (Cursor, Claude, VS Code, etc.) | No — you point it at a specific manifest or endpoint | Yes — --scan-known-configs covers well-known client config locations |
Yes — the most extensive of the three, with an explicit support matrix for Windsurf, Cursor, VS Code, Claude Desktop/Code, Gemini CLI, Amazon Q, Kiro, OpenCode, Antigravity, Codex, and more |
| Skill scanning (Claude Skills etc.) | No | No | Yes — dedicated skill scanning for prompt injection, malware payloads, secret detection |
| Malware/binary scanning | No | Yes, via VirusTotal hash lookups on bundled files | Not specified as a distinct capability in the README |
| Public dataset of findings | Yes — raw pilot scan JSON published in-repo (pilot_scan_results.json); live example report at ventrova.dev/sample-report
|
Not published as a standalone dataset in the README | Not published as a standalone dataset in the README |
| Where the data goes | Nowhere by default — --demo makes zero network calls; scanning your own endpoint talks only to that endpoint |
Depends on analyzer: pure YARA/static stays local; LLM/Cisco AI Defense/VirusTotal analyzers send data to those respective APIs | Component data (tool names, descriptions, server configs, skill content — secrets redacted) is sent to Snyk's analysis API for every scan; that's a hard requirement, not opt-in |
Where each one is actually stronger
Being fair about this matters more than making our tool look good, so here's the honest read.
Cisco mcp-scanner is the most feature-dense of the three by a wide margin. If you want one tool that does YARA pattern matching, LLM-based semantic analysis, CVE dependency auditing, VirusTotal malware scanning, and sandboxed behavioral analysis of PyPI/npm packages, nothing else here comes close. It also supports 10+ languages for its behavioral analysis (per the README) and ships both a CLI and a REST API server mode. The tradeoff is setup complexity: several of its best capabilities (LLM analysis, Cisco AI Defense inspect API, VirusTotal) are only as good as the third-party API keys you're willing to configure.
Snyk Agent Scan has by far the broadest auto-discovery. It knows about install paths for a dozen-plus coding agents and IDEs across three OSes, and it scans agent skills as well as MCP servers — a surface sentinel-scan-cli and mcp-scanner don't touch at all. If your threat model includes malicious Claude Skills or you want one command to sweep an entire dev machine for every agent config on it, this is the tool built for that. The tradeoff: it requires a Snyk account and API token before it will run at all, and it sends component data (tool descriptions, server configs, skill content) to Snyk's hosted analysis API as a hard requirement, not an opt-in. That's a real cost if you need to scan something before you have outbound network access approved, or you want a fully offline/air-gapped check.
sentinel-scan-cli is deliberately narrower. It doesn't execute or connect to live MCP servers, doesn't do behavioral/sandboxed analysis, and doesn't scan packages or binaries for malware. What it does do: run entirely offline with zero signup and zero API key for the --demo and mcp manifest paths, tag every single finding against both the OWASP LLM Top 10 and the OWASP MCP Top 10 (beta), and publish the raw output of a real scan run in the repo instead of asking you to trust a marketing claim. It's a five-minute smoke test you can run with curl and one Python file, not a platform.
Our actual edge
Three things we think are genuinely differentiated, not just "different":
OWASP-mapped output on every finding. Neither Cisco mcp-scanner nor Snyk Agent Scan's public docs reference OWASP LLM Top 10 or OWASP MCP Top 10 category tags on their findings. Every sentinel-scan-cli finding — from the live-endpoint prompt-injection suite and from the static
mcpmanifest scan — carries an explicit OWASP LLM Top 10 category and, for the MCP heuristics, an OWASP MCP Top 10 (beta) category too. If you need to hand a finding to a compliance reviewer or map it onto a framework they already recognize, that mapping is built in rather than something you do by hand afterward.Zero-dependency, zero-signup, offline-capable install.
curlone file and run it, orpip install,pipx run, ornpx github:...— no Snyk account, no API token, no Docker, nouv. The--demoandmcp --demopaths make no network calls at all. That matters if you want to try a tool before deciding whether to trust it with your endpoint, or if you're in an environment where you can't get a new third-party API key approved before you need to check something.We publish our own scan output. The pilot scan results are unedited JSON from a real run against a disposable local model, and the sample report is the exact, unedited
--demooutput — not a curated screenshot. We'd rather you look at raw findings than take our word for it.
What we don't do, honestly: no live MCP server connections, no LLM-based semantic analysis, no malware/binary scanning, no CVE dependency auditing, and no auto-discovery across IDE configs. If you need any of those, Cisco mcp-scanner or Snyk Agent Scan are the better fit — and there's nothing stopping you from running more than one of these; they check different things.
Sources
- sentinel-scan-cli README, fetched 2026-08-24
- Cisco mcp-scanner README, fetched 2026-08-24
-
Snyk Agent Scan README, fetched 2026-08-24 (accessed via redirect from
github.com/invariantlabs-ai/mcp-scan)
Disclosure: sentinel-scan-cli is built by Ventrova. We tried to be as fair to the other two tools here as we'd want someone being fair to us.
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