How to Generate Baselines

Generating a baseline creates the YAML file that defines which security rules apply to your environment. This file is required before you can generate guidance documents, configuration profiles, or compliance scripts.

Generate a Baseline

List available baselines
Terminal window
```
./scripts/generate_baseline.py -l
```

Generate your baseline

./scripts/generate_baseline.py -k BASELINE_NAME

Example:

./scripts/generate_baseline.py -k 800-53r5_moderate

Find your file

The baseline is saved to:
```
build/baselines/BASELINE_NAME.yaml
```

Customize with Tailoring

Add the -t flag to customize the baseline for your organization:

./scripts/generate_baseline.py -k 800-53r5_moderate -t

This starts an interactive process where you can:

Include or exclude specific rules
Set organization-specific values (like password length or timeout periods)

Custom values are saved to custom/rules/ for reuse.

Command Reference

Flag	Description
`-h`	Show help message
`-l`	List all available baselines
`-k NAME`	Generate baseline for the specified framework
`-t`	Enable interactive tailoring
`-c`	Show NIST 800-53 controls covered by the baseline

Output Files

Directorymacos_security/
- Directorybuild/
  - Directorybaselines/
    BASELINE_NAME.yaml - The generated baseline file
- Directorycustom/
  - Directoryrules/
    *.yaml - Custom values (if you used -t)

Next Steps

Tailoring a Baseline - Detailed guide on customization
Baseline File Layout - Understand the YAML structure
How to Generate Guidance - Create outputs from your baseline