Overview

Agents and engineers reach real infrastructure with real credentials. Someone has to decide what they can do. Hoop decides it at runtime, per command. The Sidecar is where you start. It is a proxy that runs next to your resource, decodes the wire protocol, and decides what reaches the database and what comes back, blocking destructive statements and masking sensitive values in responses. Nothing else to deploy and no database to run: one binary, one config file.

Install the Sidecar

The Sidecar ships in the hoop CLI.

MacOS
Linux
Windows
Windows WSL
Manual

Through homebrew:

brew tap hoophq/brew https://github.com/hoophq/brew.git
brew install hoop

To upgrade it:

brew update && brew upgrade hoop

To install or upgrade:

curl -s -L https://releases.hoop.dev/release/install-cli.sh | sh

Download

Download the latest release of the hoop command line for your architecture (usually hoop-windows-amd64) and save it in the Downloads folder.

Extract

Extract the file using winrar or winzip.

Place it in the right folder

Move the extracted file hoop.exe to the folder C:\Windows\System32\.

Check the installation

Open a terminal session and run hoop version. If it prints a version, you are installed.

Install the Windows Terminal
Install Ubuntu WSL
Open the Windows Terminal app
Install and open Ubuntu by typing ubuntu. The first run prompts you to create a user.

PS C:\Users\san> ubuntu
san@DESKTOP-BBQAAEG:~$

Gain root access:

sudo su -

Install or upgrade the CLI:

curl -s -L https://releases.hoop.dev/release/install-cli.sh | sh

Run it

One file describes a Sidecar: where it listens, what it sits in front of, and the rules it applies. This one masks emails in every response and refuses destructive statements.

config.yaml

log_level: info

admin:
  listen: 127.0.0.1:19000        # /healthz /stats /config /events

audit:
  file: "-"                      # JSON lines on stdout
  memory_buffer: 256             # last N events, readable at /events
  query_sessions: 500            # backs /api/sessions

pii:
  entities: [EMAIL_ADDRESS, US_SSN, CREDIT_CARD]

mask:                            # one Data Masking rule
  enabled: true
  rules:
    - {name: emails, entity: EMAIL_ADDRESS, strategy: redact}

policy:                          # one Guardrail
  enforce: true
  rules:
    - name: no-destructive-sql
      type: operation
      operations: [drop, delete, truncate]
      message: destructive statements are not permitted

listeners:
  - name: localdb
    protocol: postgres           # postgres | mssql | http
    listen: 127.0.0.1:15432      # where clients connect
    upstream: 127.0.0.1:5432     # your real resource
    connection: localdb

This file sits exactly at the free tier: one Data Masking rule, one Guardrail. Both features are free at that size, forever.

Start it:

hoop start sidecar --config config.yaml

That is the whole setup. Point a client at 127.0.0.1:15432 instead of the database, and every statement it sends is inspected against the rules above.

Next step

Quickstart

Watch the rules fire, read the audit trail, and reshape the file: other protocols, more listeners, and a rollout that denies nothing until you say so.
Start here

Core Concepts

Sidecar

The engine. A proxy beside your resource that reads the wire protocol and decides what gets through — with no external dependency.
Learn more

Control Plane

The brain. Centralizes every Sidecar you run and delivers rule sets to all of them from one place. An Enterprise feature.
Learn more

Features

Two ways a request can travel through the Sidecar, and two controls that apply on either path.

Direct Access

The straight-through path. Guardrails and Data Masking apply inline, deterministically, with no model call and no third party in the chain.
Learn more

Agentic Access

The AI Analyzer classifies the statement and the risk level picks a tool: block, allow, review, apply a guardrail, or mask the response.
Learn more

Data Masking

Rewrite sensitive values in the response, in memory, before they reach the client. Requests are never touched.
Learn more

Guardrails

An ordered deny list evaluated against every statement, refusing what should never run with a message you wrote.
Learn more

Getting Started

Core Concepts

Features

Control Plane Setup

Sidecar Reference

Install the Sidecar

Run it

Next step

Quickstart

Core Concepts

Sidecar

Control Plane

Features

Direct Access

Agentic Access

Data Masking

Guardrails

​Install the Sidecar

​Run it

​Next step

Quickstart

​Core Concepts

Sidecar

Control Plane

​Features

Direct Access

Agentic Access

Data Masking

Guardrails

Install the Sidecar

Run it

Next step

Core Concepts

Features