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Security: talocode/skilllane

Security

docs/SECURITY.md

Security

SkillLane is designed with local-first, privacy-respecting security principles.

Local-First Architecture

All data is stored locally on your machine:

~/.skilllane/
├── config.json       # Your configuration
├── registry.json     # Installed skills index
├── skills/           # Skill files
└── runs/             # Run history
  • No telemetry
  • No external network calls by default
  • No data sent to third parties
  • You control your data

Secrets Detection

The validator scans all skill files for known secret patterns:

Pattern Example Detection
AWS Access Key AKIA1234567890ABCDEF Regex: AKIA[0-9A-Z]{16}
AWS Secret Key aws_secret_access_key=... Regex: aws[_\-]?secret...
Private Key -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY----- Regex: -----BEGIN...PRIVATE KEY-----
API Key api_key=abc123... Regex: api[_\-]?key...
Password password=secretpass Regex: password...
Bearer Token bearer eyJhbG... Regex: bearer...
GitHub Token ghp_abc123... Regex: gh[ps]_...
Slack Token xoxb-12345-abcde Regex: xox[bpsar]-...

If a secret is detected:

  • The validation fails with a score penalty of -15 per secret
  • The error message identifies the file and secret type
  • The skill cannot be installed until the secret is removed

API Authentication

When running the API server, you can enable authentication:

SKILLLANE_REQUIRE_AUTH=true \
SKILLLANE_API_AUTH_TOKEN=my-secret-token \
skilllane serve

Protected routes

Write operations require a Bearer token when auth is enabled:

Authorization: Bearer my-secret-token

Public routes

Read-only operations remain public:

  • GET /health
  • GET /v1/skilllane/skills
  • GET /v1/skilllane/skills/:name
  • GET /v1/skilllane/registry
  • GET /v1/skilllane/registry/stats
  • GET /v1/skilllane/doctor

File Size Limits

Individual skill files are limited to 1MB. Files exceeding this limit generate a warning during validation. This prevents accidental inclusion of large binary data.

Git Clone Security

When installing from a git URL, SkillLane:

  1. Clones with --depth 1 (shallow clone only)
  2. Clones to a temporary directory
  3. Validates the content before copying
  4. Cleans up the temporary directory

No git history is retained in the installed skill.

Best Practices

  1. Never commit secrets to skills. Use the validator to catch them.
  2. Enable auth for production API servers. Set SKILLLANE_REQUIRE_AUTH=true.
  3. Review skills before installing. Read SKILL.md and tools.json to understand what a skill does.
  4. Use --strict validation in CI. Catch issues before publishing.
  5. Keep ~/.skilllane/ private. It may contain your installed skills and run history.

There aren't any published security advisories