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 skills add TheArchitectit/agent-guardrails-template --skill canary-tokensgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/TheArchitectit/agent-guardrails-templateWrote 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/thearchitectit/agent-guardrails-template/canary-tokens)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/thearchitectit/agent-guardrails-template/canary-tokens"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/thearchitectit/agent-guardrails-template/canary-tokens/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/skills/thearchitectit/agent-guardrails-template/canary-tokens"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/thearchitectit/agent-guardrails-template/canary-tokens.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>- NVIDIA SkillSpector warn
SkillSpector: 2 findings, up to high
These are SkillSpector’s own severities. On a checked sample its high-severity flags on skills were ~96% false positives — a documented command, a public API, a “never do X” rule — so we show them as a caution to read, not a verdict. Why →
- high Privilege Escalation · line 24 Code accesses credential files (SSH keys, AWS credentials, etc.). This could indicate credential theft attempts.Fix: Remove references to credential paths. Use environment variables or secrets managers. For docs, use placeholder paths (e.g., /path/to/config). Never load .env or token files in production code paths.
- high Privilege Escalation · line 24 Code accesses credential files (SSH keys, AWS credentials, etc.). This could indicate credential theft attempts.Fix: Remove references to credential paths. Use environment variables or secrets managers. For docs, use placeholder paths (e.g., /path/to/config). Never load .env or token files in production code paths.
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 | $0.00022 | $0.00772 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00011 | $0.00386 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00004 | $0.00154 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00002 | $0.00077 |
Grade A, and why
Canary Tokens 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 12d 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 — 66 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Canary Tokens
Canary tokens are unique identifiers inserted into sensitive files. If an agent's output contains a canary token, it indicates potential data exfiltration — the agent has leaked file contents that should have stayed private.
How Canary Tokens Work
- Insert: A unique token (e.g.,
CANARY_A3F8B2D1E9C4...) is placed in a sensitive file - Monitor: Every tool result is scanned for canary token matches
- Detect: If a canary appears in output, it means the agent read the file and leaked its contents
- Alert: The violation is logged and the agent is notified
When To Use Canary Tokens
Use canaries when working with:
- Credentials files (
.env,config/credentials.yml,secrets.json) - Private key files (
.pem,.key, SSH keys) - Database configurations (connection strings, migration files)
- Internal documentation (architecture diagrams, security policies)
- Any file the user flags as sensitive
Automatic Enforcement
When canary tokens are configured, the output validation handler automatically scans tool results for triggered canaries. Since tool_result handlers are side-effect only, the content will still reach you — but the violation is detected and flagged:
- The violation is logged with severity "critical"
- A status bar alert warns of possible data exfiltration
- The triggered canary is marked as triggered in the tracking store
What To Do When a Canary Is Triggered
- STOP — do not continue sending output that contains file contents
- Inform the user that a canary token was triggered (indicates data exfiltration risk)
- Do not reveal the canary token value itself
- Log the violation with
guardrail_log_violationif not auto-logged - Suggest remediation — the file may need to be excluded from agent access
MCP Bridge
When connected, guardrail_mcp provides canary management:
action: canary_insert— Insert a new canary into a file pathaction: canary_check— Check text for triggered canariesaction: canary_list— List all active and triggered canaries
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.
- 12d ago First seen · 66 lines · 22 tokens per session scan A 92dfbfd7404f
Canary Tokens is a skill published in the GitHub repository TheArchitectit/agent-guardrails-template (79 stars, last pushed 3d ago), licensed BSD-3-Clause. It adds 22 tokens to every session and 772 once invoked, about $0.0001 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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