openclaw/docs/reference/secret-placeholder-conventions.md

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summary	read_when	title
Secret-scanner-safe placeholder conventions for docs and examples	Writing docs that include tokens, API keys, or credential snippets Updating examples that may be scanned by secret-detection tooling	Secret Placeholder Conventions

Secret placeholder conventions

Use placeholders that are human-readable but do not resemble real secrets.

Recommended style

• Prefer descriptive values like example-openai-key-not-real or example-discord-bot-token.
• For shell snippets, prefer ${OPENAI_API_KEY} over inline token-like strings.
• Keep examples obviously fake and scoped to purpose (provider, channel, auth type).

Avoid these patterns in docs

• Literal PEM private-key header or footer text.
• Prefixes that resemble live credentials, for example sk-..., xoxb-..., AKIA....
• Realistic-looking bearer tokens copied from runtime logs.

Example

# Good
export OPENAI_API_KEY="example-openai-key-not-real"

# Better (when the doc is about env wiring)
export OPENAI_API_KEY="${OPENAI_API_KEY}"