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Oscal-Compass

Oscal-Compass is an open-source project under the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) that focuses on applying the NIST Open Security Controls Assessment Language (OSCAL) to cloud-native and enterprise

compliance workflows (security and compliance automation).

  • Implements and promotes use of NIST OSCAL for machine-readable security control and compliance data (security and compliance automation).
  • Provides community resources and reference materials to model compliance information in OSCAL for cloud-native environments (governance, risk, and compliance).
  • Facilitates interoperability of compliance artifacts across tools by aligning on a common OSCAL-based data representation (interoperability and data standards).
  • Targets use cases such as automated assessments, system security plans, and control catalogs using OSCAL formats (security documentation automation).
  • Operates as a CNCF community project focused on collaboration around OSCAL adoption in cloud-native ecosystems (open-source community and ecosystem).

More About Oscal-Compass

Oscal-Compass is a community project hosted by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) that centers on the use of the NIST Open Security Controls Assessment Language (OSCAL) for cloud-native security and compliance (security and compliance automation). The project focuses on how organizations can express security controls, assessments, and related compliance documentation in machine-readable OSCAL formats, enabling tool-based processing and integration with cloud-native platforms.

The project’s purpose is to help enterprises and other institutions model and manage compliance information using a structured, standardized data language (governance, risk, and compliance). By aligning with the NIST OSCAL specification, Oscal-Compass supports representation of artifacts such as control catalogs, system security plans, assessment plans, and assessment results. These artifacts can then be exchanged across systems and tools without relying on manual document handling.

Oscal-Compass activities focus on patterns, examples, and community guidance for using OSCAL with cloud-native technologies (security and compliance automation). This includes mapping cloud services and containerized workloads to OSCAL-based control descriptions, defining assessment data in OSCAL formats, and structuring security plans in a way that can be consumed by automated pipelines. The project serves as a focal point for aligning OSCAL usage with modern infrastructure practices common in CNCF ecosystems.

In enterprise environments, Oscal-Compass is relevant for teams responsible for compliance, audit readiness, and security documentation (governance, risk, and compliance). By modeling information in OSCAL, organizations can integrate compliance checks and evidence collection into Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) workflows, configuration management, and Policy as Code (PaC) systems. Machine-readable control definitions and assessment results support repeatable processes for generating reports and responding to regulatory requirements.

Technically, the project is anchored on the NIST OSCAL data models and formats, which use structured representations such as JSON, XML, and YAML (data standards and modeling). Oscal-Compass does not replace the OSCAL specification but instead concentrates on practical adoption within cloud-native contexts. It encourages interoperability between security and compliance tools by advocating a shared OSCAL-based representation for controls and assessment data.

Within a technical directory or catalog, Oscal-Compass fits under security and compliance automation, governance risk and compliance (GRC) tooling, and open standards implementation for security documentation (security and compliance automation). It is associated with the CNCF ecosystem and focuses on the intersection of cloud-native operations and NIST OSCAL-based control modeling. As a community initiative, it provides a forum and reference point for organizations that want to align cloud-native security and compliance workflows with a standardized, machine-readable approach.