Knostic
Security for AI coding agents and assistants: inline policy enforcement, MCP and extension scanning, and shadow AI discovery on the endpoint
Last checked October 15, 2026Quick facts: Knostic is an AI compliance vendor founded in 2023 and headquartered in Herndon, United States. The vendor publicly documents coverage for SOC 2. Pricing is tiered. Profile last checked October 15, 2026; sources are cited at the bottom of this page.
About Knostic
Knostic is an AI security company founded in 2023 by Gadi Evron (CEO) and Sounil Yu (CTO). It is based in Herndon, Virginia. It started out selling need-to-know access controls for enterprise AI assistants such as Microsoft 365 Copilot and Glean, which keep answers from exposing data a user shouldn't see. Its website now calls it "the control plane for agentic AI on the endpoint", and it sells two products for AI coding assistants and agents. Kirin runs alongside Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf, Codex, JetBrains, Devin Desktop and Gemini CLI, and supports Claude Cowork through a plugin. It checks each tool call against policy before it runs and blocks it, downgrades it or sends it to a human. It also validates MCP connections, scans dependencies for hallucinated, vulnerable or malicious packages, and finds and redacts secrets before they reach the model. It audits agent instruction files such as CLAUDE.md and .cursorrules. Kirin installs as a lightweight user-space client that admins can roll out with MDM scripts, on macOS and Windows; Linux is in beta. Its Shadow AI Discovery reports unsanctioned AI use but doesn't block it. AgentMesh scans agent skills, MCP servers and VS Code extensions and labels each one dangerous, risky or clean. In June 2026 VirusTotal added AgentMesh analysis of VS Code extensions. Knostic also publishes an open-source scanner, OpenAnt. Knostic still has a page that pairs it with Microsoft Purview against Copilot oversharing, and its AWS Marketplace listing is still the Copilot Readiness product. Its homepage, product and pricing pages no longer describe that product. It raised a $3.3 million pre-seed round in April 2024 and an $11 million round led by Bright Pixel Capital in March 2025. In 2025 it also received a $5 million investment as an RSAC Innovation Sandbox finalist. In June 2025 Virginia Business put its total funding at $19 million and its headcount at about 30. In October 2025 Gartner named Knostic a Cool Vendor in AI Cybersecurity Governance, for its controls on AI oversharing. **AI compliance coverage** Knostic doesn't map its products to the EU AI Act, the NIST AI RMF or ISO 42001. Its trust center lists a SOC 2 Type 2 report and GDPR, its FAQ offers a compliance package with the SOC 2 report and pen test results, and its Enterprise plan includes compliance reporting. **Who it's for** Security teams at companies whose developers use AI coding agents, agent skills and MCP servers. It is not a governance, model inventory or model testing platform.
Attestations held
Third-party security attestations and certifications Knostic documents on their own materials. These are point-in-time auditor opinions, not regulatory compliance. Always request the current report or certificate directly from the vendor before relying on it.
Attestation · United States (AICPA)
Knostic features
Capabilities Knostic markets publicly. Inclusion means the feature is documented on the vendor's site — not that it's best-in-class. Last checked October 15, 2026.
Shadow AI Detection
Discovery of unsanctioned AI tools and model usage across an organization.
AI Discovery
Inventory of AI assets, models, prompts, and datasets across an enterprise environment.
Policy Enforcement
Mechanism for applying organizational and regulatory policies to AI usage at runtime.
Runtime Enforcement
Inline policy enforcement on AI inputs and outputs at request time.
Prompt Injection Defense
Detection and mitigation of malicious prompts intended to bypass system instructions or exfiltrate data.
Data Leakage Prevention
Inspection of LLM outputs to block PII, secrets, and regulated data from leaving the boundary.
AI Supply Chain Risk
Assessment of risks from third-party models, datasets, and AI service providers.
Behavioral Monitoring
Continuous observation of AI system behavior for drift, anomalies, and policy violations.
Human-in-the-Loop
Workflows that require human review or approval for AI decisions.
Audit Logging
Tamper-evident logging of governance events (approvals, model changes, policy decisions) required by EU AI Act Article 12 and similar regulations.
Integrations
Documented by Knostic in public product materials.
- Slack
- AWS Marketplace
Knostic pricing
Kirin has three plans. Free is $0 a month for 1-5 users. Team is $15 per user per month for 5+ users and adds a dashboard, organization policy, role-based access and audit logs; advanced contextual detection costs extra. Enterprise is custom-priced for 10+ users and adds policy groups, SSO, SIEM and Slack integrations and compliance reporting. Team and Enterprise come with a 14-day free trial. AgentMesh threat intelligence has three plans: Free ($0 a month, login required), Premium ($15 per user per month, Kirin included) and Pro ($850 per user per month, unlimited API, Kirin included). AWS Marketplace still lists the older Copilot Readiness product at $50,000 per 12 months for the 'Knostic Tier', with usage above the base limit at $0.01 per unit.
Vendor changelog
Durable events we've independently sourced — acquisitions, certification milestones, product launches. Each entry cites a primary or trusted secondary source.
- funding
Raised $11M led by Bright Pixel Capital
With Silicon Valley CISO Investments, DNX Ventures and Seedcamp; total funding reached $14M.
Dark Reading - funding
Raised $3.3M pre-seed
Investors included Shield Capital, Pitango First, DNX Ventures and Seedcamp.
FinTech Global
Pros and cons of Knostic
Pros
- Published per-seat prices: free for up to five users, and the Team plan is $15 per user per month with a 14-day trial.
- Supports a wide range of coding agents (Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf, Codex, JetBrains, Devin Desktop, Gemini CLI) and enforces policy before a tool call runs.
- Scans the agent supply chain (MCP servers, skills, VS Code extensions and packages). VirusTotal uses its AgentMesh engine to analyze VS Code extensions.
- Its trust center offers a SOC 2 Type 2 report, and its FAQ describes a compliance package with pen test results and a data flow diagram.
Cons
- The product line has changed: the Copilot and Glean access controls Knostic was funded on are no longer on its homepage or pricing page, but its AWS Marketplace listing still sells the older Copilot Readiness product. Confirm which product you are buying.
- No named customers or case studies on its website.
- No mapping to AI regulations or standards such as the EU AI Act, the NIST AI RMF or ISO 42001. SSO, SIEM and Slack integrations and compliance reporting require the quoted Enterprise plan.
- Its FAQ lists fewer supported agents than its product pages (Claude Code, Claude Desktop and Cowork, Cursor, Windsurf, and VS Code with GitHub Copilot) and says IntelliJ IDEA support is on the roadmap, so check support for your tools. Linux is in beta, and Shadow AI Discovery reports unsanctioned AI use without blocking it.
Alternatives to Knostic
Frequently asked
What is Knostic?+
Knostic is an AI security company in Herndon, Virginia, founded in 2023 by Gadi Evron and Sounil Yu. It sells Kirin, which enforces security policy on AI coding agents such as Cursor, Claude Code and GitHub Copilot, and AgentMesh, which scans agent skills, MCP servers and VS Code extensions for threats.
What does Knostic Kirin do?+
Kirin runs alongside AI coding agents and checks each tool call against policy before it runs, then blocks it, downgrades it or sends it to a human. It also validates MCP connections, scans dependencies for vulnerable or hallucinated packages, redacts secrets before they reach the model, and logs agent activity.
How much does Knostic cost?+
Kirin is free for 1-5 users. The Team plan is $15 per user per month, and Enterprise is custom-priced. Team and Enterprise come with a 14-day free trial. AgentMesh has a free plan, a $15 per user per month Premium plan and an $850 per user per month Pro plan. AWS Marketplace lists the older Copilot Readiness product at $50,000 per 12 months.
Does Knostic still sell access controls for Microsoft 365 Copilot and Glean?+
Knostic's homepage, product and pricing pages now cover only agent and coding-assistant security. A page that pairs Knostic with Microsoft Purview against Copilot oversharing is still online, and the AWS Marketplace listing is still the Copilot Readiness product, so ask Knostic whether that product is still sold and supported.
Has Knostic been acquired?+
No. We found no acquisition of Knostic as of October 2026. Its investors include Bright Pixel Capital, DNX Ventures, Pitango, Seedcamp, Shield Capital and Silicon Valley CISO Investments.
Sources
- Knostic: Homepage (Kirin, AgentMesh, platform capabilities)
- Knostic: Pricing (Kirin and AgentMesh plans)
- Knostic: Kirin product page
- Knostic: Secure coding assistants, agents and MCP servers
- Knostic: FAQ (deployment, supported agents, compliance package, pricing)
- Knostic: About (founders, investors)
- Knostic: Stop Copilot data oversharing with Knostic and Purview (older product page)
- Knostic Trust Center (SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR)
- Knostic: AgentMesh (scans skills, MCP servers and VS Code extensions; dangerous, risky or clean)
- Knostic: Named a 2025 Gartner Cool Vendor in AI Cybersecurity Governance (October 17, 2025)
- Knostic: Top 10 finalist in RSAC 2025 Innovation Sandbox, $5 million investment (April 8, 2025)
- AWS Marketplace: Knostic AI - Copilot Readiness - Enterprise AI Security
- FinTech Global: Knostic secures $3.3M pre-seed (April 2024)
- Dark Reading: Knostic nabs $11M (March 2025; $14M total, Herndon)
- SiliconANGLE: Knostic raises $11M led by Bright Pixel Capital (March 5, 2025)
- Virginia Business: Herndon startup Knostic ($19M total, about 30 employees, June 2025)
- VirusTotal changelog: Knostic AgentMesh analysis of VS Code extensions (June 2026)
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