Argus Console — AI Agent Test Lab

Argus Agent Test Lab — public proof layer

Adversarial testing for AI agents that move money · argus-lab.tech

The lab breaks AI agents that spend, receive and settle money — buyer and merchant agents, and the SDKs, protocols and rails that sign and settle on their behalf — then seals every verdict in a public, hash-chained registry.

This repository is the public proof layer of Argus: the sealed, hash-chained evidence registry, the verification tooling, and the source of argus-lab.tech. It exists so that every public claim the lab makes can be checked by anyone, without trusting anyone:

git clone https://github.com/igor-vii/Argus-Agent-Test-Lab

cd Argus-Agent-Test-Lab node tools/registry/verify-registry.mjs

→ registry intact: N records, chain head …

Verification uses only the Node.js standard library — no npm install, no network access, no trust in this README.

MCP server (runnable, zero-dependency)

This repository also ships a working MCP server: mcp-server.mjs is a stdio bridge (Model Context Protocol, JSON-RPC 2.0 over stdin/stdout) that connects any MCP client — Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code — to the hosted Argus Console endpoint at https://console.argus-lab.tech/mcp.

Pure Node.js 18+ stdlib. No npm install, no build step.

ARGUS_MCP_KEY=argmcp_yourkey node mcp-server.mjs

ARGUS_MCP_URL overrides the remote endpoint (default is the hosted console). initialize and tools/list work without a key (per the MCP spec — clients can inspect the server before signing up); tools/call requires your personal connector key: Argus Console → Agents → cheat sheet → MCP.

Claude Desktop:

{

"mcpServers": { "argus": { "command": "node", "args": ["/absolute/path/to/mcp-server.mjs"], "env": { "ARGUS_MCP_KEY": "argmcp_yourkey" } } } }

Tools: argus_verify_agent, argus_list_agents, argus_run_simulation (free simulation stand — nothing touches your agent), argus_run_engine (live battery against your agent's public URL, money-guard gate + fault probes, x402-ready), argus_get_run_report (sealed PASS / FAIL / HOLD / OBSERVED / DX verdicts with evidence).

The testing engine itself runs server-side at console.argus-lab.tech; this bridge is the protocol layer that speaks MCP on its behalf.

What is sealed here

Records in attestations/records/ are Ed25519-signed and hash-chained (prev_record_hash → chain head). Each record pins the sha256 of its evidence files. A seal attests run validity and findings completeness — never bug-freeness.

• attestations/INDEX.md — human-readable index
• attestations/records/ — the signed records
• attestations/keys/ — public key argus-lab-2026q4r2
• CI (.github/workflows/latest-seal.yml) re-verifies the whole registry on every push; a tampered or broken seal turns the build red, publicly.

Repository boundary (record 0013)

As of sealed record #0013, the product layer — the testing engine, scenario library, SUT harnesses, rail adapters and engagement archives — is developed in a private repository. The public repository retains the proof layer only. The exact moment of the split and the last public snapshot are themselves sealed and hash-pinned:

• Record: argus-seal-0013 (see attestations/records/)
• Manifest: attestations/evidence/0013-boundary/product-layer-manifest.json — sha256 of every file that moved, pinned at the last public snapshot efbf51ef8604040c74aa1d40593af9a08fa553de

The split is forward-only: no history rewrite, no force-push. Versions up to the snapshot commit remain public history, and everything referenced from public threads (e.g. docs/block-b/fixtures/S-BS-06/ on branch block-b/v1-scenarios, referenced from x402 issue #3866) stays public and byte-identical. Sealed evidence paths pinned by records #0000–#0012 are permanent and were retained.

Repository layout

attestations/        signed, hash-chained records + public key + index

tools/registry/ sign / verify tooling (node stdlib only) mcp-server.mjs runnable MCP server: stdio bridge to the hosted console (Node 18+ stdlib only) package.json manifest for the MCP bridge (bin: argus-mcp) tools/paypal-adapter/evidence/ sealed live-run evidence (records 0001–0002) site/ argus-lab.tech source (Next.js; prebuild re-verifies the registry) docs/block-b/ sealed fixtures and evidence (S-BS series, records 0003+) docs/inngest-battery/ sealed evidence + repro harness (record 0005) docs/t1-mcp-tool-idempotency/ sealed external verification (record 0009) sut-x402-pr3920/ sealed SUT evidence, x402 PR #3920 cycles (records 0008, 0012) src/tests/blockb/SBS19_BlockRunNano.test.ts sealed evidence (record 0006) .github/ CI: verify registry → OG cover → IndexNow → Vercel deploy

About Argus

Argus is an independent black-box testing laboratory for AI agents and agent-based payment systems. It runs controlled failure scenarios against observable systems under test (SUTs), captures evidence at protocol boundaries, evaluates explicit assertions, and produces evidence-backed verdicts — the public ones are the sealed records above.

Agent → Scenario → SUT → Evidence → Verdict

• Sealed case work: x402 (#3866, PR #3920), Inngest (#5091), BlockRun (blockrun-nano-client #18), Nevermined, mcp-tool-idempotency
• Commercial engagements (scenario conformance runs, release verification): argus-lab.tech

Argus lives in a repository separate from the systems it tests and interacts with SUTs through defined external interfaces and observable behavior only.

Status

Public case studies and production-capability claims are added only when supported by verified run evidence — the registry is the source of truth, not this README.