Developer Builds Local-Only Secret Manager to Stop AI Coding Assistants Leaking API Keys

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AI coding assistants read entire repositories to function, which means API keys stored in .env files can inadvertently end up in chat transcripts, logs, or model context windows. A developer identified this growing security gap and built an open-source tool called Concealer to address it. Concealer is a single Python script that encrypts secrets locally on the user's machine, allowing AI agents to use credentials without ever seeing their actual values. Unlike cloud vaults or password managers, it requires no account, no network connection, and is portable across machines with a single password. The project is publicly available on GitHub and targets solo developers and teams who rely heavily on AI-assisted coding workflows.

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