Credentials

A credential is anything Kody uses to reach a service for you: an API key, an OAuth connection, an MCP server, a webhook URL, a username and password, or a signing key. Credentials belong to an org (or to you, as personal credentials) and show up together on your org's Credentials page.

One rule holds for every kind: a credential's value never enters package code or your code. Code names a credential. Kody puts the value into the outgoing request at the network boundary, only for the hosts that credential allows, and only over HTTPS. Agents, packages, logs, and tool output never see it. The one thing code can get back is a signature from a signing credential: a token derived from the key, never the key. Treat it like any other bearer token.

The kinds

Secrets (the Key kind) and integrations (the OAuth kind) are both credentials. The kind names in manifests and APIs are secret, oauth, mcp, url, login, and signing.

Custom secret providers (vaults such as 1Password) are not a credential kind. Granting Kody access to a vault is a separate trust decision, so they have their own page; see Custom secret providers.

Every credential has:

• name: yours to choose, such as work or personal. Callers pick a credential by name.
• scope: org (shared with the org under its Use grants) or personal (yours, granted to an org one org at a time).
• provider: an optional slug such as github. Package needs match on it.
• hosts: the only hosts the value may be sent to, over HTTPS. Hosts live on the credential, never in a package manifest, so publishing or forking a package cannot widen them.
• inject (Keys used through credential()): where the value goes, a header, Basic auth, or a query parameter. The default is Authorization: Bearer {value}.

Keys and placeholders

A Key is a saved secret. Write {{secret:name}} anywhere in a fetch request: a header, the URL path or query, or a text body. When the request leaves Kody, the gateway checks it and fills in the value.

const response = await fetch('https://api.github.com/user/repos', {
	headers: { Authorization: 'Bearer {{secret:github}}' },
})

• The request must be HTTPS and its host must be one you approved for that secret. Otherwise it is refused with an error naming the secret and host; a placeholder is never sent unfilled.
• You approve a Key's hosts on the approval link your agent sends (/connect/secrets). A Key with no approved hosts sends nowhere.
• To change a Key's or an OAuth connection's hosts later, open it on the Credentials page and choose Edit hosts. Enter host names only (such as content.dropboxapi.com); Kody sends credentials only over HTTPS, with no wildcards, ports, or paths. An OAuth connection always keeps its API base and token hosts; a connection to a built-in app keeps the hosts Kody sets for it. Each change is recorded in the org audit log. Agents cannot edit hosts.
• If the remote service echoes the value back, the gateway replaces it with [REDACTED SECRET] before your code reads the response.
• {{integration-token:name}} works the same way for an OAuth connection, on the integration's own hosts.

The gateway fills those placeholders in the body too, not only in headers. Text this package did not write — a user message, an issue body, a comment — can quote {{secret:name}}. On a host that credential allows, the real value is sent. If that name is not saved, the fetch fails with Secret "name" was not found. When the body forwards someone else's text, set x-kody-secret-resolution: headers-only so only headers are filled:

await fetch('https://api.github.com/repos/acme/widgets/issues', {
	method: 'POST',
	headers: {
		Authorization: 'Bearer {{secret:github}}',
		'content-type': 'application/json',
		'x-kody-secret-resolution': 'headers-only',
	},
	body: JSON.stringify({ title: 'Widget broke', body: userReport }),
})

off sends every placeholder as written, including headers. Kody strips the header before the request leaves. kody dev check and a successful publish print a warning for a clear case: a fetch (or new Request) whose init object is a literal, whose body is not a literal (or JSON.stringify / new URLSearchParams of literals), and whose headers do not set x-kody-secret-resolution to headers-only or off. That includes helpers that build headers in a variable and header spreads — the scanner cannot see headers-only on those bags. Variable whole-init values (fetch(url, init)) are still skipped. The warning does not fail the check or block publish.

Each credential also stores an allowed fill placement (headers, optionally named; query; path; and/or body). Null means anywhere. New credentials default to headers-only. The per-request header intersects with that placement (it never widens it). Distinct from inject, which only steers a scoped credential() client. Edit fill placement on the credential detail page, via secretSet / credentialUpdate, or the account secret editor. The gateway logs would-block today and does not refuse yet; enforcement ships later.

Full placeholder rules (encodings, multipart, the inert {{secret:<name>}} mention form): Secrets and host approval (raw).

Scoped clients: credential(key)

With a placeholder, the code decides where the value goes. With a scoped client, the credential decides: its hosts and inject rule say where the value is placed, and it is never placed in a request body. Code gets a client that holds an opaque handle, not a value.

import { credential } from 'kody:runtime'

const github = await credential('github')
const response = await github.fetch('https://api.github.com/user/repos')

The client has name, scope, kind, and hosts, plus one of:

• fetch for Key, OAuth, URL, and login credentials,
• callTool for MCP servers,
• sign for signing credentials.

A relative URL resolves against the credential's first exact host. An absolute URL must be on one of its hosts. If code sets the header the credential injects, the credential's value replaces it. Redirects are followed by the client, and the credential only travels to its own hosts. A 401 or 403 response carries an x-kody-credential-hint header naming the inject shape (for example header Authorization Bearer), never the value.

credentials(key) returns an array of clients for a need declared with multiple: true.

Declare needs in kody.credentials

A package lists the credentials it needs in package.json. Each need has a provider (which defaults to the key) and a required description that tells the person choosing a credential why the package wants it.

{
	"name": "@you/pr-digest",
	"exports": { "./summarize": "./src/summarize.ts" },
	"kody": {
		"description": "Summarize open pull requests every morning.",
		"credentials": {
			"github": { "description": "Read pull requests to summarize them" },
			"slack": { "description": "Post the summary to a channel" }
		}
	}
}

kind is optional. Without it, any credential for that provider that can make requests matches: a Key such as a personal access token, an OAuth connection, or a login. credential('github') picks the right path for whichever one is used (placing the Key's header, refreshing an OAuth token once on a 401, or running the login exchange), so the package code is identical for a PAT and for OAuth.

Declare kind only when the package needs a specific shape:

"credentials": {
	"github": { "description": "Read pull requests to summarize them" },
	"apple-music": { "kind": "signing", "description": "Sign developer tokens" },
	"linear": { "kind": "mcp", "description": "Create issues for failing checks" },
	"alerts-bot": { "kind": "url", "provider": "telegram", "description": "Post alerts" },
	"google": { "kind": "oauth", "multiple": true, "description": "Calendars to include" }
}

• signing for sign(), mcp for callTool(), url for a whole-URL secret, or oauth when the provider only works through OAuth (Google user data, for example).
• A second account from the same provider gets its own key with an explicit provider.
• Needs have no hosts or inject fields (those belong to the credential). An optional placement on a need is the reviewable default for package-scope secrets that need inserts as that name (Connect / secretSet when no row exists yet), instead of headers-only. Disconnect clears the value but keeps the row and placement; reconnect fills the same record so placement wins over the manifest default. Delete removes the credential entirely; a later Connect is a new insert. Package runtimes still cannot set placement themselves; the owner can edit it on the credential detail page.

Let app visitors use your credential

People who open an internet-visible app run it as themselves, or as no one when they are signed out or outside your org. A signed-in member with Use can still open org credentials they hold; everyone else cannot. To let the app use one for every visitor, add "ownerCredentialForVisitors": true to that need:

"credentials": {
	"rooms-db": {
		"kind": "secret",
		"description": "Database the room chart reads for every visitor",
		"ownerCredentialForVisitors": true
	}
}

The approval page then says that visitors can use that credential through the app, signed out or signed in as someone else, without seeing its value. After you approve, the app's credential('rooms-db') resolves with the approving owner's access for each visitor, limited to the credentials approved for that need. Other needs and placeholders still act as the visitor. Visitor use is rate-limited and recorded in the org activity log with who used it. See Packages (raw).

Each kind through credential()

Key

Any saved Key can be used through a client. Set its provider so needs match it, and its inject if the service does not take Authorization: Bearer. This is one-time setup from ad hoc execute or the API, not package code (package runtimes cannot change a credential's provider or inject). credentialList returns each credential's id:

import { kody } from 'kody:runtime'

await kody.credentialUpdate({
	credential_id: 'cred_…',
	provider: 'anthropic',
	inject: { kind: 'header', name: 'x-api-key', format: '{value}' },
})

import { credential } from 'kody:runtime'

const anthropic = await credential('anthropic')
const response = await anthropic.fetch(
	'https://api.anthropic.com/v1/messages',
	{
		method: 'POST',
		headers: {
			'content-type': 'application/json',
			'anthropic-version': '2023-06-01',
		},
		body: JSON.stringify({ model, max_tokens: 512, messages }),
	},
)

The inject options are { kind: 'header', name, format } (the format holds {value} once), { kind: 'basic', valueAs: 'password', other: 'api' } (the value is the password and other is a literal username, or the reverse), and { kind: 'query', param }. The same Key keeps filling {{secret:name}} placeholders; inject and provider only affect clients.

OAuth

Connect the service once (your agent sends a /connect/oauth link). Kody keeps the token fresh. Code looks exactly like the Key example:

const github = await credential('github')
const response = await github.fetch('https://api.github.com/user')

On a 401 the client refreshes the token and retries once. OAuth connections always use Authorization: Bearer. createAuthenticatedFetch and {{integration-token:name}} also resolve the same OAuth connection.

MCP server

An MCP server you added to the org is a credential with callTool:

const linear = await credential('linear')
const result = await linear.callTool('create_issue', {
	title: 'Nightly build failed',
	teamId: 'ENG',
})

The need must declare kind: "mcp". Set the server's provider with credentialUpdate so it auto-resolves.

URL

For services whose secret is the URL itself, such as a Telegram bot (https://api.telegram.org/bot<token>) or a chat webhook. Code passes only a path and query; Kody appends them to the stored URL.

const alerts = await credential('alerts-bot')
await alerts.fetch('/sendMessage', {
	method: 'POST',
	headers: { 'content-type': 'application/json' },
	body: JSON.stringify({ chat_id: chatId, text: 'Deploy finished' }),
})

The stored URL must be HTTPS and on one of the credential's hosts. A path cannot name another origin or climb out of the stored path. A URL client returns redirects as they are instead of following them.

Login

For services that trade a username and password for a session token. Kody stores the login fields, runs the exchange itself, and places only the session token (in a header by default, or a query parameter). The login response never reaches code.

const reports = await credential('acme-reports')
const response = await reports.fetch('https://api.acme.example/v1/reports')

The credential's login_exchange says how to log in: the exchange url (on one of the credential's hosts), bodyFormat (json or form), a body template where {field} is replaced by a login field, and tokenPath, the dot path to the token in the JSON response.

Signing

For APIs that want a signed JWT or an HMAC. Code gets the signature, never the key. Declare kind: "signing" for JWT key material. HMAC also works through sign({ type: "hmac", ... }) on an ordinary Key (secret) — the same Key a webhook verification.secretName already uses — so you do not need to re-kind a webhook consumer secret as signing.

const appleMusic = await credential('apple-music')
const token = await appleMusic.sign({
	type: 'jwt',
	algorithm: 'ES256',
	header: { kid: keyId },
	claims: { iss: teamId, iat: now, exp: now + 3600 },
})
await fetch('https://api.music.apple.com/v1/catalog/us/songs/203709340', {
	headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${token}` },
})

const signature = await partner.sign({
	type: 'hmac',
	algorithm: 'hmac-sha256',
	message: body,
	encoding: 'hex',
	prefix: 'sha256=',
})

JWTs support RS*, PS*, ES*, EdDSA (PKCS#8 PEM private keys), and HS256 / HS384 / HS512. Kody signs only for one of the credential's hosts; pass host to pick one, or it uses the first exact host.

Creating credentials

Your agent sends a creation link, and you paste the value into the page, never into chat. Links carry your org in the path:

https://kody.codes/@acme/-/credentials/new?kind=url&name=alerts-bot&provider=telegram&allowedHosts=api.telegram.org

kind preselects a kind; add kindMode=required to lock it. name, provider, description, and allowedHosts prefill the form. The page saves Key, URL, login, and signing credentials in place, and hands OAuth and MCP servers to their own connect flows. The Add credential button on the Credentials page opens the same form.

Code that already holds a value (a key the package just minted) can store it with secretSet, which also takes kind, hosts, login_exchange, provider, and inject. Whoever supplies a value decides where it may go, so kind and hosts are set together with the value.

Picking a credential

You can have several credentials for the same provider, such as work and personal. When code calls credential(key), Kody uses the first of these that applies:

1. The caller's credentials map for this run.
2. A stored mapping for the trigger that started the run.
3. Your default mapping for the package, then the org's default.
4. The one credential you can Use that matches the need.

Kody never guesses between two matches. Zero matches is credential_unbound and two or more is credential_ambiguous.

Pass a map on execute, for ad hoc code or an invoke:

{
	"invoke": "kody:@you/pr-digest/summarize",
	"credentials": {
		"github": "work",
		"slack": { "name": "work", "scope": "org" }
	}
}

A string picks by name, and an object adds scope when an org and a personal credential share a name. For a multiple need, an array picks several for credentials(key) ("google": ["work", "personal"]), and [] picks none on purpose. In an invoke, a key that no package in the run declares fails the run with credential_need_unknown; ad hoc code only gets a warning. The CLI takes the same picks:

npx @kodycodes/cli execute --invoke kody:@you/pr-digest/summarize \
  --credential github=work --credential slack=org:work

A pick grants nothing. It chooses only among credentials you can already Use. Running code through a client needs your Use on the credential; a package's identity never grants access on its own.

Defaults and trigger mappings are stored per package. Agents propose changes with credentialMappingPropose; you approve them on the package's approval page or its Credentials tab.

Errors

Every credential error is structured: it has a code, a message, and retryWith, a list of ready-to-retry picks.

When a need has no usable credential, or more than one, the error carries createUrl: a link to the creation page prefilled for that need, so an agent can hand you a link instead of a bare error. A name that matches nothing (credential_not_found) carries one too.

try {
	const github = await credential('github')
} catch (error) {
	if (error.code === 'credential_ambiguous') {
		// error.options: [{ name: 'work', scope: 'org', … }, { name: 'personal', … }]
		// error.retryWith: [{ credentials: { github: { name: 'work', scope: 'org' } } }, …]
	}
	if (error.code === 'credential_unbound') {
		// error.createUrl: https://kody.codes/@acme/-/credentials/new?provider=github&…
	}
	throw error
}

credential.named(name) picks by exact name in ad hoc code and in unshared packages in your personal org. Shared packages declare needs instead.

Webhook verification

Inbound webhooks verify the sender before any package code runs. Declare it on the webhook in kody.webhooks.

A provider that signs deliveries with a signing secret it issued (Sentry, Stripe) uses a Key named by secretName:

"verification": {
	"type": "hmac-sha256",
	"header": "sentry-hook-signature",
	"secretName": "sentryWebhookSecret",
	"encoding": "hex"
}

Omit secretName for GitHub-style hooks where Kody mints the signing secret onto the webhook URL itself. A sender that cannot sign uses the secret path segment of the minted URL as its credential:

"verification": { "type": "url-secret" }

Treat a minted webhook URL like any other credential. Details: Inbound webhooks.

Personal credentials

A Key, OAuth connection, or MCP server in your personal org is a personal credential. Grant it to a team org with credentialOrgGrant. It then works in that org only in your own runs, through credential(key); nobody else there can use it, Owners included, and {{secret:name}} placeholders never resolve it. credentialOrgRevoke removes the grant.

Not available yet

• Using a personal MCP server through credential(). Add the MCP server to the org instead.
• A credential picker for visitors of a package app. Apps auto-resolve the signed-in visitor's single match; grant Use to the role that needs it.
• A verify operation on signing credentials for inbound webhooks. Keys verify webhooks.
• Declaring OAuth scopes on a need. A missing scope shows up as a 401 or 403 with x-kody-credential-hint.

Leftover secret mounts

Older packages declared kody.secretMounts and read them with packageSecrets.get. That call returns an opaque {{secret:…}} ref. A dependent that statically imported the package bundled that call. The bundled copy still resolves the alias against the dependency's current published manifest, not the commit it was built from.

Publish may keep those mount declarations when the package's own source uses kody.credentials and does not call packageSecrets.get. Keeping a mount is a compatibility lane for those stale bundles. It grants nothing new:

• Resolution still reads only the mounts on the current manifest. There is no alias fallback, no history of old mounts, and no commit-pinned lookup.
• The mounted secret name must also be a kody.credentials slot of kind secret or signing (or a slot with no kind). The alias is not a stamp key. A kept mount whose name is not declared fails closed (credential_need_undeclared) once the package has a credential stamp. A package or session scope on the mount does not skip that check.
• Actor Use, package approval, and a fresh secret lookup still run. Deleting the secret cuts off old code on its next call. Old code cannot keep using a deleted secret.
• New source that calls packageSecrets.get or packageSecretGet still fails the publish gate. A newly published dependent cannot borrow the dependency's mount: its own packageSecrets.get runs as the dependent, which does not declare that mount.

The credentials check says which aliases were kept. Publish results, static_dependents, locked-publish approval, and the approve-publish page name the stale static dependents that still read each mount. They also warn when a publish removes an alias those dependents bundled: removing the mount or deleting the secret will break those named packages.

Retire a mount only after static_dependents shows no stale bundle still calling packageSecrets.get for it (dependents republish onto the credential slot). Then delete the mount. Deleting the underlying secret is the other revocation lever and works even while the mount declaration remains.

Where to go next

• Secrets: the Key kind in depth, host and package approval, and expiry.
• Secrets and host approval: MCP-level reference for placeholders, secretSet fields, and personal grants.
• Packages: the full kody.credentials and credential() reference.
• OAuth and MCP servers: connect each kind.
• ADR 0068: the design record for the credentials model.