Use when the user wants to protect their workspace from credential theft, prompt injection, or data exfiltration — even if they don't mention "canaries" or "honeytokens" directly. Covers deploying Tracebit security canaries (fake decoy credentials that alert on use), detecting when they're triggered via the user's pre-authorized email tool, and human-supervised incident response. Also use when investigating a suspected compromise, hardening an agent's environment, or setting up tripwires to catch unauthorized access to sensitive files.
Use when the user wants to protect their workspace from credential theft, prompt injection, or data exfiltration — even if they don't mention "canaries" or "honeytokens" directly. Covers deploying Tracebit security canaries (fake decoy credentials that alert on use), detecting when they're triggered via the user's pre-authorized email tool, and human-supervised incident response. Also use when investigating a suspected compromise, hardening an agent's environment, or setting up tripwires to catch unauthorized access to sensitive files.
metadata
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Tracebit Canaries Skill
End-to-end security canary coverage — from signup to human-supervised incident response. You (the agent) perform setup steps yourself, with human confirmation at key decision points.
The Tracebit CLI runs a lightweight background service that refreshes canary token expiry — no other network calls or file access. When the heartbeat inbox check detects a canary alert email, you notify the human, investigate (read-only), and report.
This skill is user-initiated, user-supervised, and fully reversible. For full details — including file traceability, enforcement model, and removal — see references/security-compliance.md.
Skill file writes (created by agent instructions in SKILL.md, not by shell scripts):
memory/security-incidents.md — incident log (playbook Phase 2.2, append-only, only on alert)
CLI writes — tracebit deploy places decoy tokens in standard credential locations, only after human confirmation. The CLI is open-source. No real credentials are read or modified.
CLI installation — SHA256-verified from official GitHub Releases only. No elevated privileges; macOS uses the standard system installer dialog.
Email — read-only search for Tracebit alerts via plugins.email.accounts. No emails sent, deleted, or modified.
Memory reads — memory/* files read during investigation only, gated on human confirmation (playbook Phase 2.4).
Background service — refreshes canary token expiry only. Runs as current user. Fully removable.
Execution Principles
You are the operator. The human is the owner.
Confirm with the human before: starting deployment, writing credentials to disk, and rotating/remediating after incidents.
Browser steps: use the OpenClaw managed browser tool — verify availability first:
openclaw browser --browser-profile openclaw status
Ask the human for: 2FA codes, unreadable CAPTCHAs, or missing tool configuration
Definition of Done
Not done until every item is checked:
[ ] Step 1: Tracebit account created — dashboard confirmed via browser snapshot
[ ] Step 2: CLI installed — `tracebit --version` returns a version
[ ] Step 3: CLI authenticated — `tracebit auth status` shows valid credentials
[ ] Step 4: All 5 canary types deployed
[ ] Step 5: `tracebit show` confirms all 5 active
[ ] Step 6: Heartbeat alert check block added to HEARTBEAT.md
Canaries without alert detection (Step 6) provide no protection. Do not skip it.
Setup Steps
Step 1: Sign Up
Use the browser tool — not any system-installed browser.
1. Get your email address from the configured email provider
2. Generate a strong random password (20+ chars, mixed case, digits, symbols) and write it to a temp file — never include it in conversation output:
```bash
python3 -c "import secrets, string; chars = string.ascii_letters + string.digits + '!@#\$%^&*'; print(''.join(secrets.choice(chars) for _ in range(24)))" > /tmp/tracebit-setup-creds && chmod 600 /tmp/tracebit-setup-creds
Tell the human the file path so they can retrieve it later.
3. browser navigate https://community.tracebit.com
4. browser snapshot — inspect the page
5. If a cookie consent banner appears, dismiss it before proceeding
6. Click "Sign up with email" (NOT "Sign in with Google" — avoids OAuth loops)
7. Type email and password into the form using refs from the snapshot
8. Submit — redirected to "Confirm your account" page
9. Retrieve confirmation code from inbox using your email provider's skill/tool
10. Type the code and submit
11. browser snapshot — confirm Tracebit dashboard loaded
**Error cases:**
- **Email already registered**: skip to Step 3
- **CAPTCHA**: `browser screenshot`, read it yourself, type it in. Ask human only if unreadable.
- **Code not arriving**: check spam folder, wait 20s, click "Resend code"
### Step 2: Install the CLI
```bash
bash scripts/install-tracebit.sh
Verify: tracebit --version
If the script fails, see references/troubleshooting.md. For manual installation, download the appropriate package from the CLI releases page:
Linux: download install-tracebit-linux and run bash install-tracebit-linux
macOS arm64: download install-tracebit-osx-arm.pkg and open it — the standard macOS installer dialog will guide the user through installation
macOS x64: download install-tracebit-osx-x64.pkg and open it — the standard macOS installer dialog will guide the user through installation
Step 3: Authenticate the CLI
tracebit auth starts a listener on localhost:5442 and waits for an OAuth callback.
tracebit deploy all # ⚠️ will exit with an error on the username-password prompt — this is expected
tracebit deploy email # email canary is NOT included in deploy all
The username-password credential is issued before the prompt fires. The error exit is a known CLI quirk. Just continue — tracebit show will confirm it's there.
Deploys 5 types: aws, ssh, cookie, username-password, email. See references/canary-types.md for details on each.
Step 5: Verify Deployment
tracebit show
bash scripts/check-canaries.sh
All 5 types must appear active.
Step 6: Configure Heartbeat Alert Detection
Not optional. Without this, canaries fire silently.
Append to HEARTBEAT.md (create if needed):
## Tracebit Canary Alert Check (every heartbeat, ~30 min)
Search (read-only) for new Tracebit canary alert emails since the last heartbeat.
Using your email provider's skill/tool, search for emails from `notifications@community.tracebit.com` with subject containing "Tracebit Canary Triggered" from the last hour. No emails are sent, deleted, or modified.
If any alert emails are found:
1.**Immediately notify the human via their configured messaging channel** — read `references/incident-response-playbook.md`2.**Investigate** — follow the playbook phases
3.**Send a follow-up report** within 5 minutes
Also add this weekly check:
## Tracebit Canary Health (weekly)- Run: tracebit show
- If expired or missing: tracebit deploy all && tracebit deploy email
Use a 1-hour search window to avoid missing alerts across heartbeat timing jitter.
Completion Report
Include verbatim when reporting to the human:
## Tracebit Canary Setup — Completion Report
[ ] Step 1 — Account: <confirmed / failed: reason>
[ ] Step 2 — CLI install: <tracebit version X.Y.Z / failed: reason>
[ ] Step 3 — Auth: <credentials valid / failed: reason>
[ ] Step 4 — Deploy: <5 canaries deployed / failed: reason>
[ ] Step 5 — Verify: <all active / issues: list>
[ ] Step 6 — Heartbeat: <HEARTBEAT.md updated / failed: reason>
Overall: COMPLETE ✅ / INCOMPLETE ❌ (blocked on: <step>)
## Credentials
Tracebit account: <email address>
Tracebit password: saved to /tmp/tracebit-setup-creds (chmod 600)
⚠️ Store the password in your password manager, then delete the temp file.
⚠️ Change this password in Tracebit account settings.
Password handling: After generating the password, write it to a temp file — never include it in conversation output:
Tell the human the file path and instruct them to save the password to their password manager, then delete the file.
When a Canary Fires
Read and follow references/incident-response-playbook.md immediately. The playbook covers:
Notify the human via their configured messaging channel within seconds
Investigate — check canary status and log the incident (one append-only write to memory/security-incidents.md); reading memory files requires human confirmation
Report findings to the human within 5 minutes
Rotate canaries only after human acknowledgement: tracebit deploy all && tracebit deploy email
Removal
To fully remove all Tracebit components, see references/security-compliance.md — includes a cleanup script and manual removal steps.
Gotchas
tracebit deploy all does not include the email canary — always run tracebit deploy email separately
The username-password canary prompts "Have you saved this in your password manager? [y/n]" which fails non-interactively. The credential is issued before the prompt — check tracebit show. If missing: tracebit deploy username-password --json-output
Email canary tracking pixel: opening/previewing the canary email fires the alert. This is by design — the email is the bait.
Canary credentials are fake — never use them for real workloads
CLI token stored at the standard Tracebit config location — do not expose in logs or shared contexts
Do not log canary credential values — they become attack vectors if exposed
Reference Files
File
When to Read
references/incident-response-playbook.md
When a canary fires — full IR procedure
references/canary-types.md
Understanding each canary type and placement
references/attack-patterns.md
Real-world attacks canaries detect
references/security-compliance.md
Safety posture, credential handling, messaging rules, full removal
