CRACI vs Snyk

Two different questions

If you already run Snyk, you have a good answer to one question: which of the open-source packages my project declares have known vulnerabilities or license issues, and how do I fix them? Snyk is a software composition analysis (SCA) tool at heart, and it does that job well. It also covers first-party code, container images and infrastructure as code.

CRACI answers a different question: what did this build actually pull in, from where, and can I prove that the artifact I shipped came from it? CRACI is a CI runner. Your GitHub Actions jobs run on it, and while they run it records every external dependency they fetch. The SBOM, the provenance and the compliance evidence all come from that record.

The two tools sit at different points of the pipeline, which is why this is less a head-to-head and more a map of who covers what.

What Snyk does well

Snyk is built for developers. It runs in the IDE, in the CLI, against your repositories through SCM integrations, and in CI. For open-source dependencies it prioritizes findings with factors such as reachability, exploit maturity and EPSS and CVSS scores, and it can open pull requests that apply the upgrade for you. It monitors projects for newly disclosed vulnerabilities and supports license policies.

Beyond dependencies, Snyk Code (SAST), Snyk Container and Snyk Infrastructure as Code cover ground CRACI does not touch at all. CRACI is not a static analysis tool and does not scan your Terraform. If you need those, Snyk or a similar tool stays in your stack.

Snyk also starts earlier, from the dependencies your project declares, and wraps its fixes in upgrade pull requests, prioritization, IDE feedback and license policies. If you want developers nudged toward upgrades from the editor onward, that is squarely Snyk territory.

Where CRACI differs

It records the build instead of reading the manifest

Snyk builds its dependency tree from the manifest and lockfiles in your project. That works well when the manifest tells the whole story. Builds often do more: they run install scripts, download toolchains, restore caches, pull base images and fetch release binaries with curl.

CRACI sees that activity because it is the runner. A package-aware proxy observes traffic to package sources while the job runs. Detected ecosystems include npm, PyPI, RubyGems, Cargo, Go, Nix and OCI, plus OS packages and source or download presets. Dependency evidence travels with CI caches, so a package restored from a cache is still accounted for.

CRACI also tells you how complete each SBOM is. Completeness is stated per job and per cache, in five states: Complete, Complete with connections, Incomplete, Unavailable and Not recorded. You know when the record has a gap, instead of assuming it does not.

It controls the build network

Because the build runs on CRACI, you can set an egress policy for it. Policies are default deny or default allow, with 24 built-in software-source presets and typed custom sources for npm, PyPI, apt, apk, the Go proxy, Nix, Cargo, OCI registries and Git. Policies are validated before the job starts and fail closed. CRACI can email you when a job violates its policy.

A scanner reviews what a project declares. A runtime control limits what the build can reach while it runs. These are complementary layers.

It links the artifact to the build

CRACI generates the SBOM inside its own runner, so the artifact you ship is provably the artifact the SBOM describes. Signed provenance links each artifact, including OCI artifacts, to the build that produced it. Signatures are Ed25519 over SHA-512. Through the API you can go from an artifact to its producing build, its CycloneDX SBOM and the job network trace.

It produces compliance evidence from the same record

For regulations like the EU Cyber Resilience Act, you need to show what is in each release and how you track vulnerabilities in it. CRACI aggregates vulnerabilities across builds and repositories, keeps re-evaluating monitored SBOMs, and exports reports in PDF, HTML, CSV, Excel and JSON. It automates a significant part of the software supply chain visibility and evidence that companies need for their wider CRA compliance process. Read more on compliance reports and CRA compliance.

A note on SBOM access

Snyk can export SBOMs in CycloneDX and SPDX with the snyk sbom command. According to Snyk's documentation, that command is available only to customers on Snyk Enterprise plans. With CRACI, every build on the runner produces an SBOM, and the Pro plan includes one actively monitored SBOM. See pricing for the current terms.

When to use both

A common setup looks like this:

• Snyk in the IDE and on pull requests, catching vulnerable dependencies, code issues and IaC misconfigurations before merge, and opening fix pull requests.
• CRACI as the runner for your GitHub Actions workflows, recording what each build fetched, enforcing egress policy, producing the SBOM and provenance for each artifact, and holding the evidence for audits.

Snyk's GitHub Actions can run on CRACI runners like any other step. CRACI replaces the runner, not GitHub Actions, and runs still appear in the GitHub UI.

Snyk alone fits best if you do not ship software into a regulated market, your builds are simple and manifest-driven, and your priority is fixing known issues quickly. Consider adding CRACI when you need evidence of what went into each release, control over what builds can reach, or SBOMs you can stand behind in an audit.