Secret Scanning Now Available in AI Coding Agents

GitHub has extended its secret scanning capabilities to AI coding agents by integrating detection directly into the GitHub MCP Server. This allows developers working with MCP-compatible IDEs and AI assistants to identify exposed secrets in real-time as they write code, before changes are committed or pushed.

How It Works

When you prompt an AI coding agent to scan for secrets in an MCP-enabled environment, the agent invokes secret scanning tools on the GitHub MCP Server. Code is sent to GitHub's secret scanning engine, which returns structured results identifying the location and details of any detected secrets.

Getting Started

To enable this feature:

1. Set up the GitHub MCP Server in your developer environment
2. (Optional) Install the GitHub Advanced Security plugin for enhanced secret scanning:
   • In GitHub Copilot CLI: Run /plugin install advanced-security@copilot-plugins
   • In Visual Studio Code: Install the advanced-security agent plugin
3. Invoke secret scanning with a prompt like: "Scan my current changes for exposed secrets and show me the files and lines I should update before I commit"

Integration Points

• GitHub Copilot CLI: Use copilot --add-github-mcp-tool run_secret_scanning to enable the tool
• Visual Studio Code: Use /secret-scanning in Copilot Chat to trigger scanning

Prerequisites

This feature requires repositories to have GitHub Secret Protection enabled. It is currently in public preview.