Confidant
Receive secrets from humans securely — no chat exposure, no copy-paste, no history leaks.
🚨 CRITICAL FLOW — Read This First
This is a human-in-the-loop process. You CANNOT retrieve the secret yourself.
- Run the script → you get a secure URL
- SEND the URL to the user in chat ← THIS IS MANDATORY
- WAIT for the user to open the URL in their browser and submit the secret
- The script handles the rest (receives, saves to disk, confirms)
❌ DO NOT curl/fetch the secret URL yourself — it's a web form for humans
❌ DO NOT skip sharing the URL — the user MUST receive it in chat
❌ DO NOT poll the API to check if the secret arrived — the script does this
❌ DO NOT proceed without confirming the secret was received
✅ Share URL → Wait → Confirm success → Use the secret silently
🔧 Setup (once per environment)
Run this once to install the CLI globally (avoids slow
npx
calls):
bash {skill}/scripts/setup.sh
{skill}
is the absolute path to the directory containing this
SKILL.md
file. Agents can resolve it at runtime:
SKILL_DIR=$(find "$HOME" -name "SKILL.md" -path "*/confidant/skill*" -exec dirname {} \; 2>/dev/null | head -1)
# Then use: bash "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/setup.sh"
⚡ Quick Start
You need an API key from the user? One command:
bash {skill}/scripts/request-secret.sh --label "OpenAI API Key" --service openai
The script handles everything:
- ✅ Starts server if not running (or reuses existing one)
- ✅ Creates a secure request with web form
- ✅ Detects existing tunnels (ngrok or localtunnel)
- ✅ Returns the URL to share with the user
- ✅ Polls until the secret is submitted
- ✅ Saves to
~/.config/openai/api_key
(chmod 600) and exits
If the user is remote (not on the same network), add
--tunnel
:
bash {skill}/scripts/request-secret.sh --label "OpenAI API Key" --service openai --tunnel
This starts a localtunnel automatically (no account needed) and returns a public URL.
Output example:
🔐 Secure link created!
URL: https://gentle-pig-42.loca.lt/requests/abc123
(tunnel: localtunnel | local: http://localhost:3000/requests/abc123)
Save to: ~/.config/openai/api_key
Share the URL above with the user. Secret expires after submission or 24h.
Share the URL → user opens it → submits the secret → script saves to disk → done.
Without --service
or --save
, the script still polls and prints the secret to stdout (useful for piping or manual inspection).
Scripts
request-secret.sh
— Request, receive, and save a secret (recommended)
# Save to ~/.config/<service>/api_key (convention)
bash {skill}/scripts/request-secret.sh --label "SerpAPI Key" --service serpapi
Save to explicit path
bash {skill}/scripts/request-secret.sh --label "Token" --save ~/.credentials/token.txt
Save + set env var
bash {skill}/scripts/request-secret.sh --label "API Key" --service openai --env OPENAI_API_KEY
Just receive (no auto-save)
bash {skill}/scripts/request-secret.sh --label "Password"
Remote user — start tunnel automatically
bash {skill}/scripts/request-secret.sh --label "Key" --service myapp --tunnel
JSON output (for automation)
bash {skill}/scripts/request-secret.sh --label "Key" --service myapp --json
| Flag | Description |
|---|
--label <text>
| Description shown on the web form (required) |
--service <name>
| Auto-save to ~/.config/<name>/api_key
|
--save <path>
| Auto-save to explicit file path |
--env <varname>
| Set env var (requires --service
or --save
) |
--tunnel
| Start localtunnel if no tunnel detected (for remote users) |
--port <number>
| Server port (default: 3000) |
--timeout <secs>
| Max wait for startup (default: 30) |
--json
| Output JSON instead of human-readable text |
check-server.sh
— Server diagnostics (no side effects)
bash {skill}/scripts/check-server.sh
bash {skill}/scripts/check-server.sh --json
Reports server status, port, PID, and tunnel state (ngrok or localtunnel).
⏱ Long-Running Process — Use tmux
The
request-secret.sh
script
blocks until the secret is submitted (it polls continuously). Most agent runtimes (including OpenClaw's
exec
tool) impose execution timeouts that will
kill the process before the user has time to submit.
Always run Confidant inside a tmux session:
# 1. Start server in tmux
tmux new-session -d -s confidant
tmux send-keys -t confidant "confidant serve --port 3000" Enter
2. Create request in a second tmux window
tmux new-window -t confidant -n request
tmux send-keys -t confidant:request "confidant request --label 'API Key' --service openai" Enter
3. Share the URL with the user (read from tmux output)
tmux capture-pane -p -t confidant:request -S -30
4. After user submits, check the result
tmux capture-pane -p -t confidant:request -S -10
Why not exec
? Agent runtimes typically kill processes after 30-60s. Since the script waits for human input (which can take minutes), it gets SIGKILL before completion. tmux keeps the process alive independently.
If your agent platform supports long-running background processes without timeouts,
exec
with
request-secret.sh
works fine. But when in doubt,
use tmux.
Rules for Agents
- NEVER ask users to paste secrets in chat — always use this skill
- NEVER reveal received secrets in chat — not even partially
- NEVER
curl
the Confidant API directly — use the scripts
- NEVER kill an existing server to start a new one
- NEVER try to expose the port directly (public IP, firewall rules, etc.) — use
--tunnel
instead
- ALWAYS share the URL with the user in chat — this is the entire point of the tool
- ALWAYS wait for the script to finish — it polls automatically and saves/outputs the secret; do not try to retrieve it yourself
- Use
--tunnel
when the user is remote (not on the same machine/network)
- Prefer
--service
for API keys — cleanest convention
- After receiving: confirm success, use the secret silently
Exit Codes (Scripts)
Agents can branch on exit codes for programmatic error handling:
| Code | Constant | Meaning |
|---|
0
| — | Success — secret received (saved to disk or printed to stdout) |
1
| MISSING_LABEL
| --label
flag not provided |
2
| MISSING_DEPENDENCY
| curl
, jq
, npm
, or confidant
not installed |
3
| SERVER_TIMEOUT
/ SERVER_CRASH
| Server failed to start or died during startup |
4
| REQUEST_FAILED
| API returned empty URL — request not created |
≠0
| (from CLI) | confidant request --poll
failed (expired, not found, etc.) |
With
--json
, all errors include a
"code"
field for programmatic branching:
{ "error": "...", "code": "MISSING_DEPENDENCY", "hint": "..." }
Example Agent Conversation
This is what the interaction should look like:
User: Can you set up my OpenAI key?
Agent: I'll create a secure link for you to submit your API key safely.
[runs: request-secret.sh --label "OpenAI API Key" --service openai --tunnel]
Agent: Here's your secure link — open it in your browser and paste your key:
🔐 https://gentle-pig-42.loca.lt/requests/abc123
The link expires after you submit or after 24h.
User: Done, I submitted it.
Agent: ✅ Received and saved to ~/.config/openai/api_key. You're all set!
⚠️ Notice: the agent SENDS the URL and WAITS. It does NOT try to access the URL itself.
How It Works
- Script starts a Confidant server (or reuses existing one on port 3000)
- Creates a request via the API with a unique ID and secure web form
- Optionally starts a localtunnel for public access (or detects existing ngrok/localtunnel)
- Prints the URL — agent shares it with the user in chat
- Delegates polling to
confidant request --poll
which blocks until the secret is submitted
- With
--service
or --save
: secret is saved to disk (chmod 600
), then destroyed on server
- Without
--service
/--save
: secret is printed to stdout, then destroyed on server
Tunnel Options
| Provider | Account needed | How |
|---|
| localtunnel (default) | No | --tunnel
flag or npx localtunnel --port 3000
|
| ngrok | Yes (free tier) | Auto-detected if running on same port |
The script auto-detects both. If neither is running and
--tunnel
is passed, it starts localtunnel.
Advanced: Direct CLI Usage
For edge cases not covered by the scripts:
# Start server only
confidant serve --port 3000 &
Start server + create request + poll (single command)
confidant serve-request --label "Key" --service myapp
Create request on running server
confidant request --label "Key" --service myapp
Submit a secret (agent-to-agent)
confidant fill "<url>" --secret "<value>"
Check status of a specific request
confidant get-request <id>
Retrieve a delivered secret (by secret ID, not request ID)
confidant get <secret-id>
If
confidant
is not installed globally, run bash {skill}/scripts/setup.sh
first, or prefix with npx @aiconnect/confidant
.
⚠️ Only use direct CLI if the scripts don't cover your case.
