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Free and open source · Law current to 18 October 2026

Ship South African apps that respect personal information

POPIA Kit plugs into Claude, Cursor, Lovable and the other AI tools you build with. It catches the common leaks before they ship and drafts the paperwork your Information Officer needs.

Free and passive. We don't store the URL or the results.

Get the kit on GitHub

MIT and CC BY 4.0 · 43 scanner rules · 8 AI tools · No account needed

POPIA Kit in 73 seconds

POPIA Kit explainer covering the local scanner, privacy components and document drafts.

Works with the tools you already use

  • Claude
  • Claude Code
  • Cursor
  • Lovable
  • OpenAI Codex
  • GitHub Copilot
  • Windsurf
  • Gemini
  • ChatGPT
  • any MCP client

Most POPIA problems start in the codebase

R10 million

Maximum administrative fine under POPIA

Source: POPIA s109

8,000+

Security compromise notifications to the Information Regulator since POPIA commenced

Source: Information Regulator briefing, 31 Aug 2026

1 April 2025

Since then, breach reports must go through the Regulator's eServices portal

Source: Information Regulator fact sheet, Aug 2025

Most leaks aren't legal failures. They're a table without row level security.

Why POPIA Kit

Privacy work that fits how you already build

Benefits

Catch exposures before they ship.

Open tables, leaked keys, trackers before consent and pre ticked boxes, each mapped to the POPIA section.

Fix with drop in components.

Consent banner, marketing opt in, privacy centre and Supabase migrations ready for React and Lovable.

Paperwork in minutes, not weeks.

Answer about 40 questions and get a draft privacy notice, cookie notice, ROPA and PAIA manual for review.

Stays inside your tools.

One rules file for Cursor, Codex, Copilot, Windsurf, Gemini and Lovable. A full skill for Claude. An MCP server for any agent.

How it works

Three steps from install to Information Officer

  1. 01

    Install

    Copy one rules file into your AI tool, or add the full skill to Claude.

    .cursor/rules/popia.mdc AGENTS.md .claude/skills/popia-compliance/
  2. 02

    Scan

    Run one command. Every finding cites the POPIA section and how to fix it.

    terminal
    uvx popia-kit scan .
    34 findings · 1 critical · 10 high
  3. 03

    Fix and document

    Drop in the components and generate drafts for your Information Officer.

    Privacy noticeDraft Cookie noticeDraft ROPADraft PAIA manualDraft

What it checks

43 rules across eight areas of the Act

Checks performed by POPIA Kit, with the POPIA sections they map to
Access control and secrets s19Tables without row level security, service keys in client code
Consent, trackers and cookies s11, s18Analytics scripts that load before the visitor agrees
Direct marketing opt in s69Pre ticked boxes and opt out only newsletter signups
Special personal information and biometrics s26, s27Health, religion or face data stored without a lawful basis
Children's information s34, s35No age check or guardian consent on signup
Cross border transfers and operators s20, s21, s72Data sent to offshore vendors with no operator agreement
AI and automated decisions s71Credit or hiring decisions made by a model with no human review
Notices, PAIA manual and data subject rights s18, s23, s24No privacy notice, no way to request or correct data

Install

Pick your tool. Paste one line.

No clone, no account, no API key. Runs on your machine.

terminal
uvx popia-kit scan .

No uv? pipx run popia-kit scan . or npx -y github:VenusOne-Lee/popia-compliance scan . Needs Python 3.8 or newer.

Start here: new project, existing project or Lovable

Download the repo and add it as a skill, or copy it into your skills folder.

terminal
cp -r popia-compliance .claude/skills/popia-compliance/

Open source

Built in the open. Kept current by the people who use it.

Legal reviewer wanted.

We're looking for South African attorneys with POPIA experience to review legal content. Small, focused reviews. You choose the scope. Credited by name. A review is not legal advice to users and creates no client relationship.

FAQ

Questions builders ask

Yes. Code is MIT and the guidance is CC BY 4.0. Use it in client work and credit Venus One and contributors.

Run one command with uvx, pipx or npx. Nothing to clone. It needs Python 3.8 or newer.

No tool can. It finds common problems, helps you fix them and drafts documents for review. Compliance also depends on your processes and contracts.

Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, Lovable, OpenAI Codex and other AGENTS.md tools, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf, Gemini and ChatGPT. Any MCP client can run the scanner.

No. It runs locally and makes no network calls.

It reflects POPIA and the Regulations as amended on 17 April 2025, current to 18 October 2026. A monthly watch flags Regulator updates.

No. It is engineering guidance. The project has no legal reviewer yet. Speak to a qualified privacy attorney for high risk processing.

Venus ARC (Pty) Ltd, trading as Venus One, in Centurion, Gauteng, with contributors.

Disclaimer

Engineering guidance, not legal advice.

POPIA Kit has no legal reviewer yet, and a clean scan is not a compliance certificate. Speak to a qualified South African privacy attorney before processing special personal information, children's information or biometrics, or before making automated decisions about people.

Start with one scan. Fix what it finds.

Free, open source and runs on your machine.

Get the kit on GitHubNeed hands on help? Venus One reviews systems for South African firms