---
title: How risk is calculated
description: Where the 0 to 10 risk score comes from, what the levels mean, and how scores from each endpoint combine into a company-wide score.
---

Every AI asset has a **risk level**, and every assessed asset has a **risk score** from 0 to 10. The score comes from one thing only: the policies the asset breaks. No guesswork, no hidden reputation list. You can always click an asset and see the exact failed policies behind its number.

```mermaid
flowchart LR
  T[AI asset on an endpoint] --> P["Checked against ~200 policies"]
  P --> F[Failed policies]
  F --> S[Score 0 to 10]
  S --> L[Low / Medium / High / Critical]
```

## The levels

| Level | Score | What to do |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Critical** | 8.1 to 10 | Act now. Block unless you have a good reason to allow it |
| **High** | 6.1 to 8 | Review soon. Warn or block |
| **Medium** | 4.1 to 6 | Keep an eye on it. Warn |
| **Low** | 0 to 4 | Fine under normal rules. Allow |
| **Unknown** | No score | Not assessed yet. You can still allow, warn, or block it |

An asset that breaks no policy is **Low** with a score of **0**, but only when the scanner could check at least half of the policies for its kind. If it checked fewer, or its kind has no policies yet, the asset is **Unknown**: it has no score, and the console shows a dash where the number would be. Unknown means "not assessed", which is not the same as "checked and found safe".

## How the score is built

1. **Matching policies become failed policies**

    Each policy is a condition Surface checks for in a kind of asset, and carries a score for how serious it is. When an asset meets the condition, that policy is a **failed policy** for the asset. The asset panel lists them under **Violations**. See [Asset Policies](/surface/policies/asset-policies).

2. **Similar failed policies count once**

    When several failed policies describe the same underlying problem, only the worst of them counts, so an asset is not punished three times for one problem.

3. **The worst problem matters most**

    Failed policies are sorted from worst to least bad. The worst counts fully, the second 60%, the third 30%, and the rest 10% each. One serious problem gives a high score on its own. Many small ones push it up, but slowly.

4. **The result lands on a 0 to 10 curve**

    The curve rises fast at first and flattens near 10. An asset can get close to 10 but never above it.

### A worked example

An MCP server breaks three policies:

| Policy | Score |
| --- | --- |
| Project MCP servers are auto-approved | 9.0 |
| MCP server uses a shell wrapper (sh -c) | 7.0 |
| MCP server uses npx -c / --call (shell execution) | 7.0 |

The two shell policies describe the same problem, so only one 7.0 counts. That leaves 9.0 and 7.0. The worst counts fully and the second at 60%, which lands at **7.3, High**. Fix the auto-approval problem and the score drops to about **5.0, Medium**.

## What does not change the score

- **Your action.** Allowing an asset marks it Governed. It does not lower the score. The score describes the asset; the action is yours.
- **Who made the asset.** Surface uses its knowledge of known assets to identify them and pick the right policies, not to add or remove points.
- **Tags and Framework badges** on policies. These help you filter and report.

## Which assets get a score

Policies exist for the Agent, MCP Server, Skill, Browser Extension, IDE Extension, Memory, and Tool asset types. Two gaps to know about:

- **Model** assets and some agent kinds (SaaS agents, local model runners, browser agents, autonomous agents) have no policies yet, so they are Unknown. You can still allow, warn, or block them.
- **Memory** and **Tool** assets have policies, but the scanner does not yet collect the details those policies need, so they are Unknown.

## Severity versus risk level

**Severity** belongs to a policy: how bad that one situation is. **Risk level** belongs to an asset: the result of every policy it breaks, combined. Use severity to pick which failed policy to fix first, and risk level to pick which asset to deal with first.

## Next steps

- [Risk across endpoints](/surface/overview/risk-across-endpoints) for how endpoint scores combine into company-wide numbers, and the exact formula
- [Asset Policies](/surface/policies/asset-policies) to read every policy assets are checked against