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    <title>DEV Community: idwispera</title>
    <description>The latest articles on DEV Community by idwispera (@idwispera).</description>
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      <title>An open-source credential manager for AI agents</title>
      <dc:creator>idwispera</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Fri, 13 Feb 2026 19:31:33 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/idwispera/an-open-source-credential-manager-for-ai-agents-11gj</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/idwispera/an-open-source-credential-manager-for-ai-agents-11gj</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;If you're running AI agents that call external APIs, you probably have API keys scattered across .env files, config directories, and maybe a Slack DM or two. It works — until it doesn't.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;When running agents across OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS, and GitHub simultaneously, there are some difficult questions that cannot be answered: Which agent has access to which key? Has anything expired? When one agent delegates a key to another agent in a chain, who's actually accountable?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As an experiment, I built &lt;a href="https://id.wispera.ai" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;ID Wispera&lt;/a&gt; — an open-source tool that treats agent credentials like passports.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  The idea
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Every credential gets a structured "passport" with:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Scope and classification&lt;/strong&gt; — is this an access-level key or a privileged admin credential?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Expiry tracking&lt;/strong&gt; — when does it expire, and who gets notified?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Delegation chain&lt;/strong&gt; — if Human → Agent A → Agent B, that chain is recorded with optional scope narrowing at each hop&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Audit trail&lt;/strong&gt; — every access, share, revoke, and policy check is logged&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The passport/visa metaphor sounds weird at first, but it maps well. Passports have issuers, validity periods, visa classifications, and stamps showing where they've been used. Agent credentials need the same things.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  What it actually does
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Credential detection&lt;/strong&gt; — Point it at a project directory and it scans for API keys across 47 vendor-specific patterns. It detects OpenAI keys (&lt;code&gt;sk-proj-*&lt;/code&gt;), Anthropic keys (&lt;code&gt;sk-ant-*&lt;/code&gt;), AWS access keys (&lt;code&gt;AKIA*&lt;/code&gt;), GitHub tokens (&lt;code&gt;ghp_*&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;gho_*&lt;/code&gt;), JWTs, connection strings, private keys, and more. Each match gets a confidence score so you can filter out noise.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight shell"&gt;&lt;code&gt;idw detect ./my-project &lt;span class="nt"&gt;--min-confidence&lt;/span&gt; 0.8
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Encrypted vault&lt;/strong&gt; — Credentials are stored in AES-256-GCM encrypted vaults with Scrypt key derivation. Not plaintext. The vault format is cross-SDK compatible, so you can write in TypeScript and read in Python or Go.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Policy engine&lt;/strong&gt; — Declarative rules inspired by Cedar. Set constraints like "no credential with admin scope can be delegated more than 2 hops" or "require a named human owner on every passport."&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight typescript"&gt;&lt;code&gt;&lt;span class="k"&gt;import&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="p"&gt;{&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;evaluatePolicy&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="p"&gt;}&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="k"&gt;from&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;@id-wispera/core&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;;&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="kd"&gt;const&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;decision&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nf"&gt;evaluatePolicy&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nx"&gt;passport&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;exec&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;);&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span class="k"&gt;if &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nx"&gt;decision&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nx"&gt;allowed&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="p"&gt;{&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="nx"&gt;console&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nf"&gt;log&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;Blocked by:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;decision&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nx"&gt;rules&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;);&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span class="p"&gt;}&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Subprocess injection&lt;/strong&gt; — &lt;code&gt;idw exec&lt;/code&gt; wraps any command and injects the right credentials as environment variables, matched to each platform's expected variable names. Your agents never see the raw key.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight shell"&gt;&lt;code&gt;idw &lt;span class="nb"&gt;exec&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nt"&gt;--platform&lt;/span&gt; openai &lt;span class="nt"&gt;--&lt;/span&gt; python my_agent.py
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MCP server&lt;/strong&gt; — For Claude and other MCP-compatible clients, there's a dedicated MCP server with 5 tools. Instead of reading .env files directly, Claude calls &lt;code&gt;get_credential&lt;/code&gt; through the governance layer.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight shell"&gt;&lt;code&gt;npx @id-wispera/mcp-server
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  The stack
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;TypeScript, Python, and Go SDKs — same type system, same vault format, same patterns across all three&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;13 CLI commands (init, add, detect, import, exec, share, audit, provision, etc.)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;8 provisioning providers — can auto-create scoped credentials on OpenAI, AWS, GCP, Azure, GitHub, Twilio, SendGrid, and Anthropic&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;MIT licensed&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Install
&lt;/h2&gt;



&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight shell"&gt;&lt;code&gt;&lt;span class="c"&gt;# TypeScript&lt;/span&gt;
npm &lt;span class="nb"&gt;install&lt;/span&gt; @id-wispera/core

&lt;span class="c"&gt;# Python&lt;/span&gt;
pip &lt;span class="nb"&gt;install &lt;/span&gt;id-wispera

&lt;span class="c"&gt;# Go&lt;/span&gt;
go &lt;span class="nb"&gt;install &lt;/span&gt;github.com/gecochief/id.wispera/packages/go/cmd/idw@latest

&lt;span class="c"&gt;# MCP Server&lt;/span&gt;
npx @id-wispera/mcp-server
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Where it's at
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is a v0.1. The core modules (detection, vault, policy, audit, delegation, and sharing) are tested and working. The provisioning providers connect to real APIs. The MCP server works with Claude Desktop.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It's not perfect — there are rough edges, the LangChain integration is thin, and I haven't set up Homebrew yet. But the foundation is solid and I'm iterating based on feedback.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Website:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href="https://id.wispera.ai" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;id.wispera.ai&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Repo:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href="https://github.com/gecochief/id.wispera" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;github.com/gecochief/id.wispera&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Docs:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href="https://docs.id.wispera.ai" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;docs.id.wispera.ai&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;npm:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/@id-wispera/core" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;@id-wispera/core&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;PyPI:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href="https://pypi.org/project/id-wispera/" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;id-wispera&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you're dealing with credential sprawl across your agent workflows, I'd genuinely appreciate feedback on whether this approach makes sense or if I'm overcomplicating things.&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>opensource</category>
      <category>security</category>
      <category>ai</category>
      <category>typescript</category>
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