aiguard

Stop AI coding tools from leaking your secrets.

Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, and Windsurf write fast — and regularly sneak API keys, session tokens, and crypto seed phrases into your public repos and npm packages. aiguard catches them before npm publish or git push.

npm install -g @rimenko-dev/aiguard
aiguard

Real-world findings

We scanned 50,000 public GitHub repositories for AI tool artifacts. Results:

| Metric | Count | |--------|-------| | Files analyzed | 362 | | Unique secrets found | 138 | | Crypto seed phrases (12-word mnemonics) | 45 | | Database connection strings | 40 | | Generic API keys | 22 | | Plaintext passwords | 16 | | Anthropic API keys | 3 | | AWS access keys | 2 | | SSH private keys | 4 |

The #1 leak vector: CLAUDE.md. Developers paste credentials into Claude Code's context file (CLAUDE.md) so the AI can reference them — then commit it to a public repo. We found over 63 CLAUDE.md variants containing live secrets.

45 crypto seed phrases were exposed in project files. That's 45 wallets — potentially drained.

The problem

Your AI assistant stores credentials in hidden folders:

| Tool | Folder | What's stored | |------|--------|---------------| | Claude Code | .claude/ | API keys, MCP server tokens, CLAUDE.md context | | Cursor | .cursor/ | OAuth tokens, MCP configs, API keys | | Windsurf | .windsurf/ | Auth tokens, workspace credentials | | Aider | .aider/ | Model API keys, git credentials | | Continue | .continue/ | LLM provider keys, embeddings tokens | | Codeium | .codeium/ | Authentication tokens |

These folders are not excluded by default from npm publish or git push. One missing .npmignore line, or a CLAUDE.md with a seed phrase committed to a public repo, and secrets are exposed — forever cached by GitHub.

What it catches

AI tool folders in your publish — .claude/, .cursor/, .windsurf/, etc. included in npm tarball or git commit.

Known AI context files with secrets — CLAUDE.md, mcp.json, settings.local.json.

Secrets in published files — 55+ patterns across every major provider:

| Category | Services | |----------|----------| | AI providers | Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI/Grok, Gemini, Groq, HuggingFace, Replicate, Mistral | | Cloud | AWS, GCP service accounts, Azure, DigitalOcean, Cloudflare | | Source control | GitHub (classic / OAuth / Actions / fine-grained PAT), GitLab | | Payments | Stripe, PayPal, Braintree | | Messaging | Slack, Discord, Telegram bots, Twilio | | Email | SendGrid, Mailgun, Resend, Postmark | | Databases | PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, Supabase, PlanetScale, Neon, Pinecone | | Hosting | Vercel, Netlify, Heroku, Railway, Fly.io, npm tokens | | Monitoring | Sentry, Datadog | | Crypto | BIP39 12-word mnemonics, Ethereum private keys, Bitcoin WIF keys | | Keys | RSA / EC / SSH private keys, JWT secrets | | Catch-all | Any PASSWORD=, SECRET=, API_KEY=, TOKEN= longer than 8 chars |

Usage

# Scan current directory
aiguard

# Scan a specific project
aiguard /path/to/project

Exit codes:

• 0 — clean or warnings only
• 1 — CRITICAL or HIGH findings (publish blocked)

Example output:

aiguard — AI secret leak scanner
Project: /my-package

🚨 CRITICAL — publish blocked (1):
   .claude/settings.local.json
   This file contains API keys and tokens — it will be included in your npm package!

⚠️  HIGH RISK — publish blocked (1):
   CLAUDE.md
   Crypto mnemonic (12 words): abandon abandon ***...*** 

❌ Publish blocked: 1 critical + 1 high findings.
Add to .npmignore:
  .claude
  .cursor
  .env
  *.local

Use as a pre-publish hook

Add to your package.json to block every npm publish automatically:

{
  "scripts": {
    "prepublishOnly": "aiguard"
  }
}

Use as a Claude Code hook

Runs before every Bash command inside Claude Code — catches secrets before they land in committed files.

Add to .claude/settings.json:

{
  "hooks": {
    "PreToolUse": [
      {
        "matcher": "Bash",
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "npx @rimenko-dev/aiguard"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Or copy the included config:

cp node_modules/@rimenko-dev/aiguard/claude-hook/settings.json .claude/settings.json

Severity levels

| Level | Meaning | Blocks publish? | |-------|---------|-----------------| | 🚨 CRITICAL | AI secret file will be included in the package | ✅ Yes | | ⚠️ HIGH | Known secret pattern found in a file that will be published | ✅ Yes | | 💡 WARN | Potential risk (file exists locally, .npmignore gap) | ❌ No |

How it works

For npm projects (has package.json):

1. Resolves exactly which files npm publish would include — respects files field and .npmignore
2. Scans only those files — no false positives from files that won't be published
3. Blocks publish on CRITICAL or HIGH findings

For non-npm projects (Go, Python, Rust, etc.):

1. Scans all non-gitignored files
2. Reports findings before git push

Recommended .npmignore

.claude
.cursor
.windsurf
.continue
.aider
.codeium
.env
.env.*
*.local
CLAUDE.md

Install

npm install -g @rimenko-dev/aiguard

Or run without installing:

npx @rimenko-dev/aiguard

Contributing

Pull requests welcome. To add new secret patterns, edit src/patterns.js — each entry needs a name and a regex with the g flag.

License

MIT — github.com/RimenKo/aiguard