Your first baseline

Goal: save your own baseline in My Baselines and export a YAML copy. Nothing in this walkthrough deploys settings or audits a device. Use either edition of the installed app; no CLI, administrator access, or Azure subscription is required.

A baseline is a set of desired settings. A manifest is the YAML or JSON document describing them. Register means save it in ConfigForge.

Start from a Microsoft baseline

  1. Open ConfigForge. If the Welcome dialog appears, choose Author baselines anywhere.
  2. Open Microsoft Baselines in the sidebar.
  3. Choose a baseline to explore and select Use as Template. This opens an editable copy; you are not changing the bundled template.
  4. Give the copy a unique name, such as my-first-baseline.
  5. Review its settings in Visual or Code. You can save the unchanged copy first; you do not need to edit a security setting to complete this step.

Microsoft Baselines catalog

Register

  1. Select Register Baseline.
  2. Confirm the success message, then open My Baselines and find your copy.
  3. Open the baseline and select Export → YAML.
  4. Save the .osc.yaml file. Keep it for review or import into another ConfigForge workspace.

Success: your copy appears in My Baselines and the exported file contains a resources: list. Registration is local; it does not apply settings or publish to Azure. Not audited is expected for a new baseline.

If registration reports a schema error, correct it before continuing. A platform-mismatch or unsupported-type warning means the draft needs review before device use—not that the baseline has been tested.

Try one edit

Open your saved copy, select Edit, and use Visual to change a value. Select Save and record a short reason if prompted. Use History to review changes and Export to save the updated baseline. See the editor guide for typed values, keyboard navigation, and Code mode.

Visual baseline editor

Other starting points

In My Baselines, select Create new baseline. The setup page offers a custom Windows/Linux baseline, a library template, a baseline file, a settings spreadsheet, or a public URL. Create baseline opens the editor for review before registration.

Minimal Windows manifest

For a small example instead of a full template, choose Create my own baseline, select Windows, and select Create baseline. Give it the name hello, switch to Code/YAML, and replace the starter content with:

resources:
  - name: hello-cfs-registry
    type: Microsoft.Windows/Registry
    properties:
      keyPath: HKLM:\Software\ConfigForge
      valueName: HelloFromCFS
      valueType: REG_SZ
      value: "1"

Register and export it as above. This is an authoring example, not a recommended security control. Applying it later would change the registry. YAML uses spaces, not tabs; resources: must be a top-level array.

Minimal Linux manifest

For Linux, choose Create my own baseline → Linux and review the generated starter in Code or Visual. Alternatively, use the bundled Linux Security Baseline through Microsoft Baselines → Use as Template. Treat starter values as examples, not a deployment recommendation. You can author Linux settings on Windows or macOS without a Linux device.

Confirm via CLI (optional)

A registered baseline is saved in ConfigForge, not automatically in an oscfg namespace. oscfg get namespace is therefore not a check that this authoring walkthrough succeeded. Confirm the saved baseline in My Baselines and its exported YAML instead.

For a separate local lab evaluation, follow Authoring vs deploying.

Inspect the on-disk state

For a baseline registered as hello, ConfigForge stores:

~/.configforge/manifests/
├── hello.json              ← registration metadata
└── hello.source.yaml       ← source manifest

Prefer Export → YAML for moving a baseline to another computer, then import it there. Do not copy live registration metadata to simulate a deployment.

Next steps