Borrowing it
Nothing to install: this file belongs to ashlrai/phantom-secrets. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ashlrai/phantom-secrets/main/.github/copilot-instructions.mdgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ashlrai/phantom-secretsWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/ashlrai/phantom-secrets/copilot-instructions)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/ashlrai/phantom-secrets/copilot-instructions"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/ashlrai/phantom-secrets/copilot-instructions/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/ashlrai/phantom-secrets/copilot-instructions"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/ashlrai/phantom-secrets/copilot-instructions.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>What it costs to keep this loaded
Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00489 | $0.00489 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00196 | $0.00196 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00098 | $0.00098 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00049 | $0.00049 |
Grade A, and why
phantom-secrets copilot-instructions.md scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 1mo ago.
A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.
Nothing flagged
None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.
What it actually says
Copilot Instructions
This project uses Phantom Secrets to protect API keys from AI leaks.
Key Rules
- The
.envfile contains phantom tokens (phm_...), NOT real secrets - Real secrets are stored in an encrypted vault (OS keychain or encrypted file)
- NEVER hardcode API keys in source code
- NEVER ask the user to paste real API key values into code files
- NEVER attempt to read, log, or display real secret values
Commands
phantom list— See available secrets (never shows values)phantom add <name>— Add a new secret transactionally through the hidden trusted-terminal prompt; runphantom init --emptyfirst in a new project, and never put the value in argv or chatphantom remove <name>— Remove a secret from the vaultphantom exec -- <command>— Run code with real credentials injected via proxyphantom init— Protect .env secrets (stores real values in vault, rewrites .env with phm_ tokens)phantom status— Show project status, vault backend, secret countphantom doctor— Health check for config, vault, and .env
How It Works
phantom initreads.env, stores real secrets in encrypted vault, rewrites.envwithphm_tokensphantom exec -- <cmd>starts a local proxy that injects only a matched route's vault value into its fixed authentication header; client headers and bodies never resolve phantom tokens- AI agents see only worthless
phm_tokens — real keys are never in the AI context window
When You See API Keys
If a user pastes a real API key (starts with sk-, ghp_, xoxb-, etc.):
- Treat the pasted value as exposed and recommend rotating it at the provider
- Suggest
phantom add <KEY_NAME>so the replacement value is entered only in the hidden trusted-terminal prompt - Reference the key by name or its phantom token (
phm_...) in code, not the real value - Never write the real key value into any file
What this file has done since we first saw it
Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.
- 1mo ago Changed · +1 lines · +62 tokens per session a7fa036566dd
- 1mo ago First seen · 35 lines · 427 tokens per session scan A 30e511a9adec
phantom-secrets copilot-instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository ashlrai/phantom-secrets (18 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 489 tokens to every session, about $0.0020 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.
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