adding-a-new-detector.md

Adding a New Detector

Adding a new type of detector to detect-secrets-suite is a multi-stage process. You must:

• Understand the secret signature and use cases; What is it's format and how does it appear in code?
• Understand the secret verification, owner resolution, and revocation process.
• Develop a detector which becomes part of IBM/detect-secrets
• Enable the new detector in IBM/detect-secrets-stream by supporting verification, owner resolution, and with the approval of the token type's internal service owner, revocation.
• [optional] Contribute the new detector to the upstream project Yelp/detect-secrets on github.com.

Skills Required

• Python
• Python test frameworks
• Regular expressions
• Knowledge of the secret type, its specification & its usage
• Git

Instructions

For detailed instructions on developing a new secret detector, see:

• IBM/detect-secrets CONTRIBUTING.md - Process for Adding a New Secret Detector to detect-secrets
• IBM/detect-secrets-stream CONTRIBUTING.md - Process for Supporting a New Secret Type in detect-secrets-stream

Please open one or more PRs using the instructions above.