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Using with Claude Code

Claude Code is an AI-powered coding assistant that can help you work with OSCAL CLI more effectively.

Claude Code plugins provide specialized skills for:

  • OSCAL document validation - Validating catalogs, profiles, SSPs, and other OSCAL artifacts
  • Format conversion - Converting between XML, JSON, and YAML formats
  • Profile resolution - Resolving profiles to produce baseline catalogs
  • Metapath queries - Writing expressions to query OSCAL content
  • CLI assistance - Running commands and interpreting output
  1. Install Claude Code

Skills for working with OSCAL documents:

Skill Description
oscal:oscal-basics OSCAL document types and structure

Skills for using the CLI:

Skill Description
oscal-tools:using-oscal-cli Running oscal-cli commands

Skills for understanding OSCAL's underlying structure:

Skill Description
metaschema:metaschema-basics Introduction to Metaschema concepts
metaschema:metapath-expressions Writing Metapath queries

Ask Claude:

“Validate my SSP at ssp.json and explain any errors”

Claude will run the validation and help you understand and fix issues.

Ask Claude:

“Convert my catalog from XML to JSON”

Claude will guide you through the conversion process.

Ask Claude:

“Help me resolve my NIST 800-53 profile to a baseline catalog”

Claude will explain profile resolution and run the appropriate command.

Ask Claude:

“Write a Metapath expression to find all controls with a specific label”

Claude will construct the expression and show how to use it with the CLI.

Ask Claude:

“I'm getting validation errors on my component definition. Can you help?”

Claude will analyze the errors and suggest fixes.

  1. Be specific - Mention file paths and exact error messages
  2. Provide context - Share the OSCAL document type you're working with
  3. Ask for explanations - Claude can explain OSCAL concepts and requirements
  4. Request examples - Ask for sample OSCAL snippets or CLI commands

Here are CLI commands that Claude can help you with:

# Validate OSCAL content
oscal-cli validate document.json

# Convert formats
oscal-cli convert --to=json catalog.xml catalog.json

# Resolve a profile
oscal-cli resolve-profile profile.xml resolved-catalog.xml

# Evaluate Metapath expressions
oscal-cli metapath eval -e "//control" catalog.json

For more information about Claude Code, OSCAL, and the CLI, see these resources: