The problem

You've done this. Everyone has.

print("API key:", api_key)          # ...now it's in your terminal history
logger.info("Token: %s", token)     # ...now it's in your log files
API_KEY = "sk-live-abc123..."       # ...now it's about to get committed

One print() left in from debugging. One log line that dumps a config dict. One hardcoded key that slips past code review. That's usually all it takes.

The fix

pip install secretshield

import secretshield

api_key = "sk-example1234567890abcdefFAKEKEY"
print("API key:", api_key)

API key: ********
⚠ secretshield: Potential secret detected and redacted.

No configuration. No code changes. Just pip install and import. The moment you import it, your terminal output, your logs — protected.

Demo

See SecretShield in action:

▶ Watch the full demo on YouTube

Quick start

pip install secretshield

Protect a running script:

import secretshield   # that's it — stdout, stderr, and logging are now protected

Scan an entire project for hardcoded secrets:

secretshield scan .

Set a whole project up in one step (config file + Git hook + CI):

secretshield init

Typing secretshield a lot? Every command also works with the short alias ss — ss scan ., ss init, ss --fix, all identical to their secretshield equivalents.

What SecretShield does

SecretShield isn't just one trick — it's five layers that cover the whole path a secret takes from your keyboard to a place you can't take it back from:

All of it: zero required dependencies, no telemetry, no network calls, nothing sent anywhere. Everything happens locally, in your own process.

Why star this repo

If SecretShield has ever caught something before it hit your terminal or your Git history — that's the whole point of the project working. Starring it costs nothing and helps the next developer who's about to print() an API key by accident actually find this before it's too late.

Installation

pip install secretshield

Requires Python 3.10+. No required third-party runtime dependencies (a tiny tomli backport is pulled in automatically, but only on Python 3.10).

Basic usage

import secretshield

password = "hunter2-example-not-real"
print("Using password:", password)

Using password: ********
⚠ secretshield: Potential secret detected and redacted.

Toggle protection manually if you need to:

import secretshield

secretshield.disable()
secretshield.enable()      # idempotent, safe to call repeatedly
secretshield.is_enabled()

Or use detection/redaction directly, without touching stdout at all:

from secretshield import detect, redact

detect("aws_key=AKIAABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP")
# [Match(start=8, end=28, value='AKIA...', kind='aws_access_key_id')]

redact("aws_key=AKIAABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP")
# ("aws_key=********", True)

CLI reference

(Every command below also works via the shorter ss alias — ss scan . is identical to secretshield scan ..)

secretshield init — set a project up in one step

secretshield init

Detects your project, then interactively offers to create a config file, install the Git hook, and generate the GitHub Actions workflow — all in one pass instead of discovering each command separately.

secretshield scan — find hardcoded secrets

secretshield scan .                       # scan a directory
secretshield scan app.py                  # scan a single file
secretshield scan . --json                # machine-readable, CI-safe
secretshield scan . --fix                 # interactively move secrets to .env
secretshield scan --staged                # would this commit introduce a secret?
secretshield scan --diff HEAD~1           # did my changes introduce a secret?
secretshield scan . --baseline            # adopt SecretShield without fixing everything today

Scans Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, HTML, CSS, Vue, Svelte, JSON, YAML, TOML/INI, .env files, shell scripts, and more — treating each as text and running the same detection engine regardless of language. Automatically skips .git/, node_modules/, .venv/, binary files, and obvious documentation placeholders like your_api_key_here.

SecretShield scan

✗ src/app.js:82
  Potential secret: Bearer token
  Type: token

✓ 143 files scanned
✗ 1 potential secret(s) found

Exit code: 1

secretshield run — protect a script without editing it

secretshield run app.py

secretshield install-hook / uninstall-hook — stop secrets before they're committed

secretshield install-hook

Scans staged content (not your whole working tree) before every commit and blocks it if something looks like a secret. Never destroys an existing pre-commit hook — backs it up and wraps it instead.

secretshield github-action — catch what slips past locally

secretshield github-action

Generates .github/workflows/secretshield.yml, scanning every push and pull request automatically.

Configuration file

Project-wide scan settings live in secretshield.toml (generate one with secretshield init):

[scan]
entropy_threshold = 4.2

[scan.ignore]
paths = ["tests/fixtures/", "docs/examples/"]

[scan.include]
patterns = ["*.py", "*.js"]

[output]
format = "text"

CLI flags always override the file.

Runtime configuration

import secretshield

secretshield.configure(
    enabled=True,             # master on/off switch
    redact_with="********",   # placeholder used in place of a secret
    entropy_threshold=4.2,    # bits/char threshold for generic detection
    notify=True,              # print the "potential secret" warning
)

Detection methods

SecretShield combines two strategies:

1. Known-format pattern matching — AWS keys, GitHub tokens, OpenAI-style keys, Slack tokens, Stripe keys, Google API keys, JWTs, bearer tokens, PEM private-key blocks, and labeled generic secrets (password =, api_key:, etc.)
2. High-entropy detection — catches random-looking secrets that don't match a known format, used as a conservative supplement (not the primary mechanism) to keep false positives low.

Architecture

secretshield/
├── patterns.py, detector.py, redactor.py   # detection & redaction engine
├── guardian.py                              # stdout/stderr + logging protection
├── config.py, notifications.py               # runtime settings & safe warnings
├── project_config.py, baseline.py              # secretshield.toml, --baseline
├── cli.py                                        # command-line interface
├── autofix/                                        # interactive scan --fix
├── git/                                              # pre-commit hook
└── github/                                             # Actions workflow generation

Testing

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest

176+ tests covering detection, redaction, runtime protection, static scanning across languages, Auto-Fix, Git hooks, and CI integration. All secrets used in tests and examples are fake.

Limitations

Be honest about what this is and isn't:

• Runtime protection covers this Python process's stdout, stderr, and logging — not screenshots, clipboard, arbitrary file writes, other applications, or network traffic.
• Auto-Fix (--fix) only rewrites Python, and only unambiguous simple assignments (checked via Python's own ast module, not a regex). Anything less certain is reported but left untouched.
• The pre-commit hook needs secretshield resolvable on PATH at commit time — keep your virtual environment active.

Treat SecretShield as a strong defense-in-depth safety net, not a replacement for proper secret management (vaults, least-privilege credentials, secret scanning in CI, etc.).

Security considerations

No network calls. No telemetry. Nothing sent anywhere — detection and redaction happen entirely locally, in-process.

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome. Please add tests for new detection patterns or behavior changes, use only fake credentials in tests/examples, and run pytest before opening a PR.

☕ Get me a coffee

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License

MIT — see LICENSE.