Trestle poam

Skill ethanolivertroy/compliance-trestle-skills/skills/trestle-poam

Knowledge about the OSCAL Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M) model in Compliance Trestle. Use when users ask about POA&M, plan of action, milestones, remediation, findings tracking, risk management, or managing security finding remediation workflows.From its SKILL.md

Install

npx -y skills add ethanolivertroy/compliance-trestle-skills --skill trestle-poam

Assembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.

2 things to look at

15 stars15 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.
runs commandsInstructs the agent to run 4 commands, including `trestle import -f poam.json -o my-system-poam` and 3 more.

SKILL.md

5.6 KB, ~1.4k tokens by cl100k_base, as published. Nobody here has run it

OSCAL Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M) in Trestle

Overview

The POA&M model tracks security findings that need remediation. It documents:

What weaknesses were found
What risks they pose
What actions will be taken to remediate them
When remediation milestones are expected to be completed

POA&M Structure

{
  "plan-of-action-and-milestones": {
    "uuid": "...",
    "metadata": {
      "title": "System POA&M",
      "version": "1.0"
    },
    "import-ssp": { "href": "#..." },
    "system-id": { "id": "..." },
    "poam-items": [
      {
        "uuid": "...",
        "title": "AC-1 Finding",
        "description": "Access control policy not fully documented",
        "related-observations": [],
        "related-risks": [],
        "origins": [],
        "remarks": "..."
      }
    ],
    "local-definitions": {
      "components": [],
      "inventory-items": []
    },
    "observations": [],
    "risks": []
  }
}

Key Components

POA&M Items

Each POA&M item represents a finding requiring remediation:

Field	Purpose
`title`	Short description of the finding
`description`	Detailed description of the weakness
`related-observations`	Links to observations from assessment
`related-risks`	Links to associated risk entries
`origins`	Who/what identified this item
`remarks`	Additional notes or context

Observations

Observations provide evidence and context for findings:

{
  "uuid": "...",
  "title": "AC-1 Observation",
  "description": "Policy document was last updated 3 years ago",
  "methods": ["EXAMINE", "INTERVIEW"],
  "types": ["finding"],
  "subjects": [{ "subject-uuid": "...", "type": "component" }],
  "collected": "2024-01-15T00:00:00Z"
}

Assessment Methods

Method	Description
`EXAMINE`	Review of documentation, records, configurations
`INTERVIEW`	Discussion with personnel
`TEST`	Hands-on testing of systems and controls

Risks

Risk entries document the risk associated with findings:

{
  "uuid": "...",
  "title": "Outdated Access Control Policy",
  "description": "...",
  "statement": "Without current policy, access controls may not meet requirements",
  "status": "open",
  "characterizations": [
    {
      "origin": {},
      "facets": [
        { "name": "likelihood", "value": "moderate", "system": "..." },
        { "name": "impact", "value": "high", "system": "..." }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "mitigating-factors": [],
  "remediations": [
    {
      "uuid": "...",
      "lifecycle": "planned",
      "title": "Update access control policy",
      "description": "...",
      "required-assets": [],
      "tasks": [
        {
          "uuid": "...",
          "type": "milestone",
          "title": "Draft updated policy",
          "timing": {
            "within-date-range": {
              "start": "2024-02-01",
              "end": "2024-03-01"
            }
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Risk Status Values

Status	Meaning
`open`	Finding is active, not yet remediated
`investigating`	Under investigation
`remediating`	Actively being remediated
`deviation-requested`	Requesting deviation/risk acceptance
`deviation-approved`	Deviation approved (risk accepted)
`closed`	Finding has been remediated and verified

Remediation Lifecycle

Lifecycle	Meaning
`recommendation`	Suggested action
`planned`	Approved remediation plan
`completed`	Remediation action completed

Workspace Location

plan-of-action-and-milestones/
└── my-system-poam/
    └── plan-of-action-and-milestones.json

Trestle Operations

Import

trestle import -f poam.json -o my-system-poam

Validate

trestle validate -t plan-of-action-and-milestones -n my-system-poam

Split and Merge

trestle split -t plan-of-action-and-milestones -n my-system-poam -e 'plan-of-action-and-milestones.poam-items'
trestle merge -t plan-of-action-and-milestones -n my-system-poam -e 'poam-items'

Relationship to Other Models

Assessment Results → POA&M
       ↑                ↓
      SSP          Remediation Tracking

POA&M references an SSP via import-ssp
POA&M items typically originate from Assessment Results findings
Each not-satisfied finding in Assessment Results should have a corresponding POA&M item
Milestones track the remediation progress over time

Common Workflows

Create from Assessment: Extract findings from Assessment Results into POA&M items
Track Remediation: Update risk status and add milestones as work progresses
Close Findings: Mark risks as closed when remediated and verified
Report: Generate POA&M reports showing open items, progress, and timelines

Important: JSON-Based Workflow

The POA&M model does not have trestle author generate/assemble commands. Unlike catalogs, profiles, component definitions, and SSPs, POA&M uses a JSON-based workflow:

create → split → edit JSON → merge → validate

Direct JSON editing via the split/merge cycle is the correct approach for POA&M.

Additional Resources

For worked examples and step-by-step walkthroughs, see examples.md

What ships with it: 1 file

10.3 KB alongside SKILL.md

examples.md10.3 KB