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.
npx agentmods add skills/redhatproductsecurity/prodsec-skills/avoid-api-keysnpx skills add RedHatProductSecurity/prodsec-skills --skill avoid-api-keysgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/RedHatProductSecurity/prodsec-skillsWrote 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/skills/redhatproductsecurity/prodsec-skills/avoid-api-keys)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/redhatproductsecurity/prodsec-skills/avoid-api-keys"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/redhatproductsecurity/prodsec-skills/avoid-api-keys.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" 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 | $0.00035 | $0.00656 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00017 | $0.00328 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00007 | $0.00131 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00003 | $0.00066 |
Grade A, and why
avoid-api-keys 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 4d 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.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 69 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Avoid API Keys in Production
Security Recommendation
API keys SHOULD NOT be used in production environments. Short-lived, scoped bearer tokens issued by an identity provider are preferable.
Why API Keys Are Problematic
| Issue | Impact |
|---|---|
| Long-lived | Extended exposure window if compromised |
| Difficult to rotate | Rotation requires coordination across all consumers |
| Lack fine-grained scoping | Cannot limit permissions per request or context |
| No sender binding | Any holder of the key can use it from anywhere |
| No standard revocation | No instant revocation mechanism across distributed systems |
| Poor audit trail | API keys don't carry identity claims about the caller |
Preferred Alternative
Use short-lived, scoped bearer tokens from an OIDC Identity Provider:
| Property | API Key | IdP-Issued Token |
|---|---|---|
| Lifetime | Long-lived (months/years) | Short-lived (≤15 minutes) |
| Scoping | Broad or none | Per-request scopes |
| Revocation | Manual, slow | Instant via IdP + local blacklist |
| Identity | Opaque | Rich claims (sub, iss, aud, scope) |
| Rotation | Manual | Automatic via refresh tokens |
| Sender binding | None | DPoP or mTLS certificate binding |
Migration Path
For systems currently using API keys:
- Deploy an API gateway that accepts API keys from legacy clients
- Gateway exchanges API keys for short-lived IdP tokens
- Backend services only accept IdP tokens (never raw API keys)
- Set deprecation timeline for API key consumers
- Migrate consumers to OIDC flows
- Retire API key support
Credential Storage
Credentials (API keys, tokens, secrets) MUST NEVER be stored in source code. This applies to all credentials including those used to connect to third-party model endpoints. Credentials must be managed and stored securely using:
- Secret management systems (e.g., HashiCorp Vault, Kubernetes Secrets, AWS Secrets Manager)
- Environment variables injected at runtime (not baked into images)
- Encrypted configuration files with access controls
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.
- 4d ago First seen · 69 lines · 35 tokens per session scan A ee39c92c17cd
avoid-api-keys is a skill published in the GitHub repository RedHatProductSecurity/prodsec-skills (52 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 35 tokens to every session and 656 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 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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