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Tokens Taxonomy · avizmarlon | DecimalAI

securityby avizmarlon

Tokens Taxonomy

avizmarlon/tokens-taxonomy

Source avizmarlon/agent-skills ↗License MIT

API key and token strategy — one token per purpose, least-privilege separation, distinct scopes for CI/automation vs. manual operations vs. read-only access.

SkillScore100Maintained

Automatic

Security & AppSec pack

Last verified 8/3/2026

What it changes

Passed 22 of 22 test cases with the skill, and 15 of 22 without it.

Without skill68%

With skill100%

Checks it passed that the model alone missed

Recommends consolidating the pipeline tokens into a unified CI category token.
Recommends storing sysadmin operational tokens in a dedicated credential vault.
Recommends names adhering to functional bot roles like terraform-ci-bot and terraform-ops-bot.

and 6 more in the full report

7 fixed15 passed either way0 still failing0 broke

Pass-rate lift: +32 pp
Tokens: +16%
Agent turns: 0%
Response time: -29%

Model gemini-3.6-flashMeasured 8/3/2026v122 of 22 cases passed with skill

Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.

Use this skill

Save it into your project's skills folder. Claude Code picks it up in its next session.

curl -fsSL --create-dirs -o .claude/skills/avizmarlon-tokens-taxonomy/SKILL.md https://app.decimal.ai/s/avizmarlon-tokens-taxonomy/SKILL.md

Want it pinned and updatable? pip install "decimalai>=0.15", then decimalai skills add avizmarlon-tokens-taxonomy, and start Claude Code with claude --plugin-dir "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)/.agents"

1 · One-time — install the CLI (docs ↗)

pip install "decimalai>=0.15"

2 · Get the skill — writes .agents/skills/avizmarlon-tokens-taxonomy/ and pins it in .decimal/skills.lock

decimalai skills add avizmarlon-tokens-taxonomy

No CLI? Get the same file — curl · raw file

curl -fsSL --create-dirs -o .claude/skills/avizmarlon-tokens-taxonomy/SKILL.md https://app.decimal.ai/s/avizmarlon-tokens-taxonomy/SKILL.md

Raw file: /s/avizmarlon-tokens-taxonomy/SKILL.md ↗ · machine-readable summary at /s/avizmarlon-tokens-taxonomy.json ↗

Safety checks: 3 of 3 passed

Code scan CleanIntent PassedContent Clean

See it in action

One of 7 test cases the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.

1 of 7

Prompt

We are configuring Terraform Cloud API tokens for our organization. We have automated plan/apply runs in GitHub Actions, plus sysadmins who manually apply state fixes during incidents. How many tokens should we create and what should they be named?

What was checked, without and with the skill
Checked	Without skill	With skill
Recommends creating separate tokens for CI automation and manual ops tasks.	Passed	Passed
Recommends names adhering to functional bot roles like terraform-ci-bot and terraform-ops-bot.	Missed	Passed

case-15 · gemini-3.6-flash · 8/3/2026 · answers are capped and redacted

What's inside

The instructions your model reads when the skill loads.

SKILL.md62 linessingle file

Token Taxonomy — One Token Per Purpose — Hard Rule

Principle: Each API key or authentication token should have a single, well-defined purpose with a descriptive name. This is not binary ("broad vs. narrow") — it's 2–3 tokens with clearly demarcated scopes, one per category of use.

Why this matters:

Real least privilege, not theater. A broad token in a CI workflow that leaks via logs compromises everything. A narrow token leaks only that specific purpose.
Asymmetric blast radius. Tokens in CI/automation (GitHub Actions, scheduled workers, third-party scripts) have high leak surface. Tokens in ops (manual scripts, agent-driven tasks) live in local env vars or secure vaults — smaller surface.
Fast revocation velocity. A CI token leaks → revoke only that one, ops continues unaffected. Without separation, any leak breaks everything.
Zero cost. Every major platform supports multiple tokens per account; creating one takes 30 seconds.
Industry-standard IAM pattern. AWS IAM, GCP service accounts, GitHub Apps, and enterprise OAuth scopes all follow this structure.

How to Apply

Situation	Decision
Platform with one caller only (one manual script)	1 token with minimal scope. Acceptable.
Platform with 2+ different callers (CI + agent + scheduled job + manual ops)	Separate by caller category. Minimum 2: one for CI/automation + one for ops.
One "universal" token used everywhere	Anti-pattern. Refactor.
10+ fragmented tokens (one per workflow)	Anti-pattern. Consolidate into 2–3 categories.

Standard Token Categories

Adjust these for your platform, but the pattern is universal:

<service>-ci-bot — deploy, trigger, release actions only. Deployed to CI/automation systems (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, scheduled tasks, etc.).
<service>-ops-bot — full read/write for operational tasks. Stored securely for manual use, agent-driven operations, sysadmin scripts.
<service>-readonly-bot — read-only access. For dashboards, monitoring, audit logs. Optional; skip if not needed.

Documentation Requirements

Every project using multiple tokens must maintain an API inventory (suggested: docs/api-inventory.md or equivalent) listing:

Logical token name (e.g., github-ci-bot, slack-ops-bot)
Scope and permissions
Storage location (vault item ID, environment variable name, file path)
Which systems/scripts consume it
Last rotation date and rotation cadence

This inventory is your audit trail and your incident-response checklist.

Track record

Benchmark

22 / 22

test cases passed, vs 15 / 22 without

Adoption

Users: 0
Times used: 0

Safety and source details

SkillSafety

✓ 3 of 3 passed

Code scan15 of 15 checks clean

0 critical · 0 warning · 0 info — scanner v4 — 8/1/2026

View 15 scanner checks

live_secretremote_code_executionreverse_shelldata_exfiltrationssrf_metadataagent_snoopinganti_refusaldestructive_commandsobfuscated_unicodeunicode_homoglyphopaque_blobsuspicious_urltool_overreachtrigger_abuseprompt_injection_phrasing

IntentSafe

LLM judge · does the skill do what it claims

ContentClean

LLM judge · policy & harmful-content review

Source

Imported

avizmarlon / agent-skills

skills/tokens-taxonomy/SKILL.md

View on GitHub ↗

License MITImported 8/1/2026Version v1

More skills from the same source and nearby in the registry, with their headline benchmark lift.