'Numbat': Perplexity's open-source tool can track rogue AI agents
What's the story
Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity has highlighted Numbat, an open-source tool that tracks AI agents. The software aims to monitor suspicious behavior and assist in investigating security threats. Srinivas emphasized the importance of detecting harmful behavior as AI agents become more capable. He said, "Detecting malicious intent of agents and performing forensics is going to be crucial considering what's recently happened with rogue agents escaping sandboxes and attacking third-party sites."
Tool features
How Numbat works
Numbat is designed to monitor AI agents on desktops, command lines, IDEs, and gateways. It collects activity through local hooks and plugins.
The tool also records information via OTLP/HTTP logs and local session files for investigation purposes.
This capability addresses the "unmanaged crisis of AI agent and MCP server sprawl," where these systems have high access but are hard to track.
Security enhancement
Other features of the tool
Numbat comes with detection rules for secrets, data exfiltration, execution, reconnaissance, privilege escalation, lateral movement, persistence, and tampering.
Users can create timelines of an agent's activity to understand what happened during a particular session.
For instance, if an AI agent performs network scanning activity, it can be flagged as a security finding for further investigation.
Software details
Numbat can be installed via Go
Numbat is built using Go and is compatible with macOS, Linux, and Windows. Users can download a standalone binary or install it using Go.
The tool can also be deployed in larger enterprise environments through managed configurations and MDM systems.
Perplexity positions Numbat as a solution to improve visibility as AI agents become more capable and connected to enterprise systems.
Twitter Post
An open-source tool to help defenders
Detecting malicious intent of agents and performing forensics is going to be crucial considering what’s recently happened with rogue agents escaping sandboxes and attacking third-party sites. Numbat is Perplexity’s open-source tool that can help defenders. https://t.co/BWMQBEIsjq
— Aravind Srinivas (@AravSrinivas) September 5, 2026