PII

PII Guardrail

AgentM is a public repo. You must keep personal information out of it. This includes real email addresses, personal file paths, API keys, phone numbers, and private names. A layered guardrail protects your code. You use safe stand-ins while you write. You run an on-demand scan before you commit. A hard block stops you before every push. A final scan runs in CI. This page lists what to avoid and shows you how to check.

What not to commit

Don't commit	Use instead
Email addresses	the GitHub handle alexherrero, or @example.com / @example.org (RFC 2606) for fakes in docs
Personal paths — /Users/<name>/, C:\Users\<name>\, /home/<name>/	a <your-user>/ placeholder, or $HOME
API keys / tokens — sk-…, gho_…, ghp_…, glpat-…, AKIA…	<API_KEY>
Phone numbers	555-0100–555-0199 (reserved for fiction)
Private project names, internal hostnames, IP addresses	anything already public

The layers

Three layers keep personal information out. They range from interactive checks to absolute blocks.

Layer	What it is	When it fires
pii-scrubber skill	the agent-facing interactive layer, from the sibling crickets install	An agent runs it before a commit or push: it shows findings by file:line, offers redactions, and loops until clean.
Pre-push git hook	templates/hooks/pre-push — copy it in once: cp templates/hooks/pre-push .git/hooks/ && chmod +x .git/hooks/pre-push	On every git push. Scans the push range (or the whole tree for a new branch) and blocks the push before it leaves your machine.
CI gate (pii-guardrails)	check-no-pii.sh --all + gitleaks, in the Linux CI job	Every PR (and manual workflow_dispatch/full-battery runs), server-side — a plain push to main runs only the lightweight syntax job under the worktree-native flow (ratified 2026-07-06). A hit on a PR blocks the merge — the backstop you can't skip there.

How to test locally

bash scripts/check-no-pii.sh --all                    # the whole working tree (what CI runs)
bash scripts/check-no-pii.sh --staged                 # only staged changes
bash scripts/check-no-pii.sh --diff origin/main..HEAD # a git range (what the pre-push hook runs)
gitleaks detect --source . --config .gitleaks.toml    # the secret scan

False positives

The scanner may flag a false positive. This happens when a doc example looks like PII but is not.

1. Rephrase to dodge the match. Use alice@example.com, 555-0100, or <API_KEY>. This is the right fix.
2. Allowlist the value if it must look real. You might need this when you test the scanner itself. Add the value to ALLOWLIST_PATTERNS= in scripts/check-no-pii.sh. You can also add it to [allowlist].regexes or .paths in .gitleaks.toml. Add a comment explaining your reason. Note the reason in your commit message. The scanner has no silent suppression.

See also

• CI gates — The pii-guardrails gate backstops the scan.
• Repo layout — The guardrail scripts and hooks live here.

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