ClawHub

Tracebit Canaries

Prompts

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 canary tokens (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.

Install

openclaw skills install tracebit-canary-honeytokens

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.

Tracebit Community Edition is free at https://community.tracebit.com

Security & Transparency

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):

  • /tmp/tracebit-setup-creds — temporary signup password (Step 1, chmod 600, deleted after use)
  • HEARTBEAT.md — canary alert check block (Step 6, append)
  • 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 auth > /tmp/tracebit-auth.log 2>&1 &
TRACEBIT_PID=$!
sleep 3
cat /tmp/tracebit-auth.log

Then:

  1. browser navigate https://community.tracebit.com/cli-login
  2. browser snapshot — find the "Authorise" button
  3. Click Authorise using the ref from the snapshot
  4. Callback completes automatically — log shows Successfully logged into Tracebit

Verify: tracebit auth status

Fallback (if OAuth callback fails): browser navigate https://community.tracebit.com → Settings → API Keys → Create token → tracebit auth --token

Step 4: Deploy All Canaries

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:

echo "<generated-password>" > /tmp/tracebit-setup-creds && chmod 600 /tmp/tracebit-setup-creds

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:

  1. Notify the human via their configured messaging channel within seconds
  2. Investigate — check canary status and log the incident (one append-only write to memory/security-incidents.md); reading memory files requires human confirmation
  3. Report findings to the human within 5 minutes
  4. 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

FileWhen to Read
references/incident-response-playbook.mdWhen a canary fires — full IR procedure
references/canary-types.mdUnderstanding each canary type and placement
references/attack-patterns.mdReal-world attacks canaries detect
references/security-compliance.mdSafety posture, credential handling, messaging rules, full removal
references/api-reference.mdOnly if CLI unavailable — API fallback
references/troubleshooting.mdWhen something isn't working
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