Managing Panther Content via Github Actions

Manage detections and schemas in Panther with a CI/CD workflow using GitHub Actions
Overview
You can configure GitHub Actions to automate testing, customize detections, and upload your detection pipeline from your GitHub repository to your Panther Console. This guide will walk you through the following:
Creating a custom workflow via GitHub Actions
Testing your custom schemas and detections
Uploading the schemas and detections to your Panther Console
Customizing your GitHub Actions workflow to fit your organization's needs
See CI/CD for Panther Content for information on starting your CI/CD workflow with Panther.
Prerequisites
To get started with managing your Panther detections and schemas using GitHub Actions, you will need:
A Panther API Token
Follow our documentation for Creating an API Token and ensure it has the correct permissions for each command.
You will pass this API token as an argument to the panther_analysis_tool command for operations such as uploading/deleting detections, custom schemas, saved queries, and more. See this section for usage examples.​
Your Panther API Host Name
Your Panther API hostname will look like this: 
https://api.<your-panther-instance-name>.runpanther.net/public/graphql
Your Panther API Token added as a GitHub secret under the name  PANTHER_API_TOKEN
To add the token to Secrets, follow Github's documentation: Creating encrypted secrets for a repository. This secret is shown later in this document as secrets.PantherApiToken.
This guide explains how to upload to your Panther Console via GitHub Actions using Panther API keys and Github secrets. This is the recommended method if you are using GitHub Actions. You can also upload to your Panther Console directly via the panther_analysis_tool. For more information, see Panther Analysis Tool Overview.​
Configure GitHub Actions for Panther
Step 1: Make use of the Panther-managed detections in the panther-analysis GitHub repo
Follow the documentation to make use of Panther-managed detections in the panther-analysis GitHub repo: Using the Panther detections repo.
Step 2: Create a new GitHub workflow
1.Navigate to the GitHub repository where you would like to set up automation.
2.Within the GitHub repository, navigate to Actions.
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3.Click New Workflow.
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4.Click Set up a workflow yourself →.
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5.On the next page, replace the default filename (main.yml) with a descriptive name, e.g., panther-workflow.yml.
Step 3: Build a workflow to test detections and upload data
Note: This workflow assumes you have added your Panther API token as a GitHub secret under the name  PANTHER_API_TOKEN. If you have not yet done this, please follow the instructions under the prerequisites.
Add the following code to the YAML file:
GitHub workflow YAML
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name: Panther Analysis CI/CD workflow
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​
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permissions:
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  id-token: write
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  contents: read
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​
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on:  
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  push:
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    paths:
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      - 'data_models/**'
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      - 'lookup_tables/**'
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      - 'policies/**'
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      - 'queries/**'
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      - 'rules/**'
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      - '.github/workflows/**'
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​
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jobs: 
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  run_unit_tests:    
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    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
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    name: Run unit tests on detections using the panther_analysis_tool
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    steps:
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      - name: Check out the repo
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        uses: actions/[email protected]
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      - name: Set python version  
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        uses: actions/[email protected]
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        with:
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          python-version: '3.9'
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      - name: Install pipenv
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        run: pip install pipenv
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      - name: Install python dependencies and panther_analysis_tool
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        run: make install
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      - name: Run unit tests for all rule detections
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        run: pipenv run panther_analysis_tool test --filter AnalysisType=rule
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      - name: Run unit tests for all scheduled rule detections
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        run: pipenv run panther_analysis_tool test --filter AnalysisType=scheduled_rule
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      - name: Run unit tests for all policy detections
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        run: pipenv run panther_analysis_tool test --filter AnalysisType=policy
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  panther_analysis_tool_upload:        
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    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
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    name: Upload detections to panther console using panther_analysis_tool
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    needs: [run_unit_tests]
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    env:
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      PANTHER_API_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.PANTHER_API_TOKEN }}
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      PANTHER_API_HOST: "https://api.<your-panther>.runpanther.net/public/graphql"
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    steps:
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      - name: Checkout the repo
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        uses: actions/[email protected]
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      - name: Set python version  
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        uses: actions/[email protected]
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        with:
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          python-version: '3.9'
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      - name: Install pipenv
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        run: pip install pipenv
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      - name: Install python dependencies and panther_analysis_tool
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        run: make install
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      - name: Upload detections to your Panther instance
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        run: pipenv run panther_analysis_tool upload --skip-tests
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​
Make sure to change the environment variable PANTHER_API_HOST on line 51 to your Panther Instance's public GraphQL URL by replacing <your-panther>. 
This will run the tests you have created on your detections and then upload all your Panther content (Lookup Tables, Data Models, and detections) if they passed. 
Step 4: Push changes
Run git push.
After the Github Actions workflow is complete, the following will occur the next time you use git push to make changes to the folders in the paths section of the workflow:
Custom detections are tested with panther_analysis_tool.
Upon success, detections are uploaded to your Panther Console.
Optional: Build a workflow for custom schemas
If you are building custom schemas, use the following YAML code to include the schemas in your workflow:
GitHub workflow YAML with schemas
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name: Panther Analysis CI/CD workflow
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​
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permissions:
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  id-token: write
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  contents: read
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​
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on:  
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  push:
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    paths:
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      - 'data_models/**'
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      - 'lookup_tables/**'
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      - 'policies/**'
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      - 'queries/**'
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      - 'rules/**'
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      - 'schemas/**'
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      - '.github/workflows/**'
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​
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jobs: 
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  download_pantherlog_tool:
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    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
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    name: Download the pantherlog tool to use for schema tests
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    steps: 
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      - name: Download pantherlog & unzip 
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        run: curl -sSO "https://panther-community-us-east-1.s3.amazonaws.com/v1.46.0/tools/linux-amd64-pantherlog.zip" && unzip linux-amd64-pantherlog.zip
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      - name: Create a pantherlog artifact
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        uses: actions/[email protected]
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        with:
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          name: pantherlog
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          path: pantherlog
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          retention-days: 1
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  run_schema_tests:    
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    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
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    name: Run schema tests with pantherlog
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    needs: [download_pantherlog_tool]
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    steps:
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      - name: Check out the repo
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        uses: actions/[email protected]
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​
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      - name: Download Pantherlog tool from artifacts
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        uses: actions/[email protected]
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        with: 
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          name: pantherlog
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      - name: Make pantherlog executable
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        run: sudo chmod +x pantherlog
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​
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      - name: Perform schema tests with pantherlog
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        run: ./pantherlog test ./schemas
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  run_unit_tests:    
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    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
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    name: Run unit tests on detections using the panther_analysis_tool
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    steps:
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      - name: Check out the repo
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        uses: actions/[email protected]
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      - name: Set python version  
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        uses: actions/[email protected]
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        with:
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          python-version: '3.9'
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      - name: Install pipenv
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        run: pip install pipenv
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      - name: Install python dependencies and panther_analysis_tool
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        run: make install
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      - name: Run unit tests for all rule detections
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        run: pipenv run panther_analysis_tool test --filter AnalysisType=rule
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      - name: Run unit tests for all scheduled rule detections
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        run: pipenv run panther_analysis_tool test --filter AnalysisType=scheduled_rule
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      - name: Run unit tests for all policy detections
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        run: pipenv run panther_analysis_tool test --filter AnalysisType=policy
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  panther_analysis_tool_upload:        
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    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
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    name: Upload detections to panther console using panther_analysis_tool
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    needs: [download_pantherlog_tool, run_schema_tests, run_unit_tests]
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    env:
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      PANTHER_API_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.PANTHER_API_TOKEN }}
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      PANTHER_API_HOST: "https://api.<your-panther>.runpanther.net/public/graphql"
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    steps:
86
      - name: Checkout the repo
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        uses: actions/[email protected]
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      - name: Set python version  
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        uses: actions/[email protected]v4
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        with:
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          python-version: '3.9'
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​
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      - name: Install pipenv
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        run: pip install pipenv
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​
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      - name: Install python dependencies and panther_analysis_tool
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        run: make install
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      - name: Upload detections to your Panther instance
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        run: pipenv run panther_analysis_tool upload --skip-tests
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      - name: Upload custom schemas to your Panther Instance
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        run: pipenv run panther_analysis_tool update-custom-schemas --path schemas/
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​
Make sure to change the environment variable PANTHER_API_HOST on line 84 to your Panther Instance's public GraphQL URL by replacing <your-panther>. 
This workflow assumes you have added your Panther API token as a GitHub secret under the name  PANTHER_API_TOKEN. Please follow the instructions under the prerequisites if you have not done that.
Push changes
Run git push.
Now, the following will occur the next time you use git push to make changes to the folders in the paths section of the workflow:
Custom log schemas are tested with pantherlog.
Custom detections are tested with panther_analysis_tool.
Upon success, schemas and detections are uploaded to your Panther Console.
Optional: Customize your GitHub Actions workflow in Panther
Optionally, you can extend or customize this workflow to better fit your organization. The following are common workflow customizations with Panther:
Perform Python Linting against .py files.
Trigger from an approved Pull Request (PR) instead of a Push to a specific folder.
If you fork the panther-analysis repository by the latest tag, learn how syncing a fork can help keep Panther Detections up-to-date. We recommend syncing weekly by tag.
For more information on GitHub Actions, please see Github's documentation.
Managing Panther Content via CircleCI
Next - Panther Developer Workflows
Panther API
Last modified 1mo ago