secret-scanner

secret-scanner is a cursor rule for Cursor from GktuOktay/ai-skills. It costs 0 tokens per session (667 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A guide to finding exposed API keys, passwords, tokens, certificates, and other secrets in source code and Git history. It also covers environment files, pre-commit checks, and continuous integration scans.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to scan repositories and their history, configure secret checks, and keep sensitive settings out of tracked code.
Why use it?
It helps prevent private credentials from being committed or remaining exposed in old commits.

Cursor rule for Cursor

Written for Cursor: a Cursor rule (.mdc).

Good fit Use it to scan repositories and their history, configure secret checks, and keep sensitive settings out of tracked code.

Compare 6 cursor rules from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/gktuoktay/ai-skills/secret-scanner
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/GktuOktay/ai-skills

Made for: Cursor.

Wrote 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.

agentmods badge for secret-scanner

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/gktuoktay/ai-skills/secret-scanner/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/rules/gktuoktay/ai-skills/secret-scanner)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/gktuoktay/ai-skills/secret-scanner"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/gktuoktay/ai-skills/secret-scanner/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.

agentmods 80×15 button for secret-scanner

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/gktuoktay/ai-skills/secret-scanner"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/gktuoktay/ai-skills/secret-scanner.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 0 Nothing until a file matches its globs; then the whole rule loads.
When invoked 667 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

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.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00000 $0.00667
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.00333
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00133
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00067

Measured 7d ago against content hash 3e00e3216b50, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-10, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

secret-scanner 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 7d 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.

agents/cursor/rules/secret-scanner.mdc · 59 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 59 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Secret Scanning and Management

Overview

This skill focuses on detecting, managing, and preventing the leakage of sensitive information such as API keys, passwords, tokens, and certificates within the codebase and version control history.

Core Principles

1. No Hardcoded Secrets

Source code should never contain sensitive data.

  • Separation of code and config: Store configuration (including secrets) in the environment, separate from the application code (as per 12-Factor App principles).
  • Environment Variables: Use .env files for local development but ensure they are strictly ignored in version control (.gitignore).

2. Secret Scanning

Actively scan the repository for accidentally committed secrets.

  • CI/CD Integration: Integrate tools like TruffleHog, Gitleaks, or GitHub Advanced Security into your CI pipeline to scan commits before they are merged.
  • Historical Scanning: Scan the entire git history, not just the current state of the code, because deleted secrets in previous commits are still compromised.

3. Pre-commit Hooks

Prevent secrets from ever entering the git history.

  • Client-side checks: Set up tools like pre-commit to run secret scanners locally before a developer can successfully commit code.

4. Secret Managers

Use dedicated systems to store and inject secrets at runtime.

  • Centralized Management: Use solutions like AWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault, Azure Key Vault, or Google Secret Manager.
  • Dynamic Secrets: Where possible, prefer short-lived, dynamically generated credentials over long-lived static keys.

5. Remediation

If a secret is leaked, it must be considered compromised immediately.

  • Revoke and Rotate: Never just delete the secret from the code. You must revoke the leaked key at the provider and generate a new one.

Code Examples

Setting up a Pre-commit Hook for Gitleaks

Create a .pre-commit-config.yaml in your repository root:

repos:
  - repo: https://github.com/zricethezav/gitleaks
    rev: v8.18.1
    hooks:
      - id: gitleaks

Read the full file on GitHub · 59 lines

Changes

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.

  1. 7d ago First seen · 59 lines · 667 tokens per session scan A 3e00e3216b50

Subscribe to this mod's changes

secret-scanner is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository GktuOktay/ai-skills (2 stars, last pushed 7d ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 667 tokens. 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 2026-09-03.