How to Secure AI Agents on Render

SafeClaw by Authensor adds deny-by-default action gating to AI agents deployed on Render. Every file operation, network request, and shell command your agent attempts is intercepted and evaluated against your YAML policy before execution proceeds. SafeClaw supports Claude, OpenAI, and all major LLM providers. Install with npx @authensor/safeclaw and deploy a safely gated agent on Render's managed infrastructure.

Prerequisites

• A Render account
• Node.js 18+ (auto-detected by Render)
• An AI agent codebase pushed to a Git repository

Step 1 — Install SafeClaw

npx @authensor/safeclaw

Zero dependencies, MIT-licensed, backed by 446 tests. This scaffolds your policy file and integrates into the agent runtime.

Step 2 — Define a Render-Specific Policy

version: 1
defaultAction: deny

rules:
  - action: "file:read"
    path: "/opt/render/project/src/**"
    effect: allow

- action: "file:write"
    path: "/tmp/**"
    effect: allow

- action: "file:write"
    path: "/var/data/**"
    effect: allow
    reason: "Render persistent disk mount"

- action: "network:request"
    host: "api.openai.com"
    effect: allow

- action: "network:request"
    host: "api.anthropic.com"
    effect: allow

- action: "network:request"
    host: "*.onrender.com"
    effect: allow
    reason: "Inter-service communication"

- action: "env:read"
    key: "DATABASE_URL"
    effect: deny
    reason: "Agent must not read database credentials"

- action: "env:read"
    key: "RENDER_*"
    effect: deny
    reason: "Block Render platform variables"

- action: "shell:execute"
    effect: deny

Render deploys your code to /opt/render/project/src/, so the file read rule is scoped to that path.

Step 3 — Configure Render Web Service

In your Render dashboard or render.yaml Blueprint:

services:
  - type: web
    name: ai-agent
    runtime: node
    buildCommand: npm ci && npx @authensor/safeclaw
    startCommand: node agent.js
    envVars:
      - key: SAFECLAW_AUDIT_SINK
        value: stdout
      - key: NODE_ENV
        value: production
    disk:
      name: agent-data
      mountPath: /var/data
      sizeGB: 1

The buildCommand installs dependencies and initializes SafeClaw. The persistent disk at /var/data stores the audit trail across deploys.

Step 4 — Deploy as a Background Worker

For agents that process queues rather than HTTP requests:

services:
  - type: worker
    name: ai-agent-worker
    runtime: node
    buildCommand: npm ci && npx @authensor/safeclaw
    startCommand: node worker.js
    envVars:
      - key: SAFECLAW_AUDIT_SINK
        value: file
      - key: SAFECLAW_AUDIT_PATH
        value: /var/data/audit.log
    disk:
      name: worker-data
      mountPath: /var/data
      sizeGB: 1

Step 5 — Deploy as a Private Service

If your agent should only be reachable by other Render services (not the public internet):

services:
  - type: pserv
    name: ai-agent-internal
    runtime: node
    buildCommand: npm ci && npx @authensor/safeclaw
    startCommand: node agent.js

Private Services get a *.onrender.com internal hostname. Combine this with SafeClaw's network policy to allow only internal traffic.

Step 6 — Use a Dockerfile on Render

FROM node:20-slim
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --production
COPY . .
RUN npx @authensor/safeclaw
CMD ["node", "agent.js"]

In render.yaml:

services:
  - type: web
    name: ai-agent
    runtime: docker
    dockerfilePath: Dockerfile

Step 7 — Persist and Verify Audit Logs

With a persistent disk mounted, SafeClaw writes the hash-chained audit trail to /var/data/audit.log. Verify integrity:

npx @authensor/safeclaw audit verify --file /var/data/audit.log --last 100

Every action — allowed or denied — is logged with a tamper-proof hash chain for compliance-grade auditability.

Step 8 — Connect Log Drains

Render supports log streams. If using audit.sink: stdout, route logs to Datadog, Papertrail, or any syslog endpoint via Render's log stream settings. This gives your security team real-time visibility into every action your AI agent attempts.

Related Pages

• Docker Compose Deployment Guide
• Hash-Chained Audit Logs Deep Dive
• Data Exfiltration Prevention
• Environment Variable Protection