Safeguard Gold Artificial Intelligence Catalogues: Models, Model Context Protocol (MCP) Servers and Agent Skills

IntermediateFree5 modules · 15 lessons · ~2 min

About this course

Safeguard Gold Explore extends its unified catalogue beyond packages and Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) into the artefacts an Artificial Intelligence (AI) engineer now ships: open-weight and frontier models, Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers and agent skills. You will learn to evaluate a model by licence and provenance rather than benchmark score alone, recognise the specific risks that make an MCP server dangerous, treat a skill as a supply chain artefact rather than a text file, and assemble an Artificial Intelligence Bill of Materials (AI-BOM) that a reviewer can actually act on.

What you'll learn

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Catalogue in Explore

Why Artificial Intelligence (AI) Models, Model Context Protocol (MCP) Servers and Skills Belong in a Security Catalogue
How Unified Search Surfaces Artificial Intelligence (AI) Entities and Their Cross-Links
Reading a Model Catalogue Entry End to End

Evaluating Open-Weight and Frontier Models

Licences: Open-Weight Is Not Open Source
Provenance and Model Cards: Who Trained This, On What, And How Do You Know
The Unsafe Deserialisation Problem: Pickle, PyTorch and Safe Formats

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server Catalogue and Its Risks

What a Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server Is and Why It Is a New Trust Boundary
Tool Poisoning and Malicious Tool Descriptions
Excessive Agency: When a Server Can Do More Than It Should
Missing Authentication, Data Exposure and Vetting a Server Before You Connect

01The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Catalogue in Explore3 lessons

Why Artificial Intelligence (AI) Models, Model Context Protocol (MCP) Servers and Skills Belong in a Security Catalogue
How Unified Search Surfaces Artificial Intelligence (AI) Entities and Their Cross-Links
Reading a Model Catalogue Entry End to End

02Evaluating Open-Weight and Frontier Models3 lessons

Common questions

How much does Safeguard Academy cost?

Nothing. Every course, exam, and certificate on the catalog is free — including retakes. All you need is a free Safeguard account.

What are the prerequisites?

None. The flagship course, Safeguard Certified Practitioner, is a beginner-level course — basic familiarity with how software is built helps, but every exam question is answerable from the lessons themselves.

Agent Skills as Supply Chain Artefacts

What an Agent Skill Is and Why It Is Code, Not Configuration
Vetting, Provenance and Updates for Skills

Assembling an Artificial Intelligence Bill of Materials (AI-BOM)

What an Artificial Intelligence Bill of Materials (AI-BOM) Records That a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) Does Not
A Worked Artificial Intelligence Bill of Materials (AI-BOM): Model, Model Context Protocol (MCP) Servers and Skills for One Agent
Keeping the Artificial Intelligence Bill of Materials (AI-BOM) Current and Acting on Catalogue Changes

Licences: Open-Weight Is Not Open Source
Provenance and Model Cards: Who Trained This, On What, And How Do You Know
The Unsafe Deserialisation Problem: Pickle, PyTorch and Safe Formats

03The Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server Catalogue and Its Risks4 lessons

What a Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server Is and Why It Is a New Trust Boundary
Tool Poisoning and Malicious Tool Descriptions
Excessive Agency: When a Server Can Do More Than It Should
Missing Authentication, Data Exposure and Vetting a Server Before You Connect

04Agent Skills as Supply Chain Artefacts2 lessons

What an Agent Skill Is and Why It Is Code, Not Configuration
Vetting, Provenance and Updates for Skills

05Assembling an Artificial Intelligence Bill of Materials (AI-BOM)3 lessons

What an Artificial Intelligence Bill of Materials (AI-BOM) Records That a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) Does Not
A Worked Artificial Intelligence Bill of Materials (AI-BOM): Model, Model Context Protocol (MCP) Servers and Skills for One Agent
Keeping the Artificial Intelligence Bill of Materials (AI-BOM) Current and Acting on Catalogue Changes2 min

What happens if I fail the exam?

You can retake it after a 24-hour cooldown, as many times as you need. Retakes are free, and each attempt draws a fresh random set of questions.

How long is a certificate valid?

The Safeguard Certified Practitioner credential is valid for 24 months from issue. The expiry date is printed on the certificate and shown live on its public verification page. Renewing means passing the current exam again.