feat: env var passthrough for skills and user config (#2807)

* feat: env var passthrough for skills and user config

Skills that declare required_environment_variables now have those vars
passed through to sandboxed execution environments (execute_code and
terminal).  Previously, execute_code stripped all vars containing KEY,
TOKEN, SECRET, etc. and the terminal blocklist removed Hermes
infrastructure vars — both blocked skill-declared env vars.

Two passthrough sources:

1. Skill-scoped (automatic): when a skill is loaded via skill_view and
   declares required_environment_variables, vars that are present in
   the environment are registered in a session-scoped passthrough set.

2. Config-based (manual): terminal.env_passthrough in config.yaml lets
   users explicitly allowlist vars for non-skill use cases.

Changes:
- New module: tools/env_passthrough.py — shared passthrough registry
- hermes_cli/config.py: add terminal.env_passthrough to DEFAULT_CONFIG
- tools/skills_tool.py: register available skill env vars on load
- tools/code_execution_tool.py: check passthrough before filtering
- tools/environments/local.py: check passthrough in _sanitize_subprocess_env
  and _make_run_env
- 19 new tests covering all layers

* docs: add environment variable passthrough documentation

Document the env var passthrough feature across four docs pages:

- security.md: new 'Environment Variable Passthrough' section with
  full explanation, comparison table, and security considerations
- code-execution.md: update security section, add passthrough subsection,
  fix comparison table
- creating-skills.md: add tip about automatic sandbox passthrough
- skills.md: add note about passthrough after secure setup docs

Live-tested: launched interactive CLI, loaded a skill with
required_environment_variables, verified TEST_SKILL_SECRET_KEY was
accessible inside execute_code sandbox (value: passthrough-test-value-42).
This commit is contained in:
Teknium
2026-03-24 08:19:34 -07:00
committed by GitHub
parent ad1bf16f28
commit 745859babb
11 changed files with 527 additions and 6 deletions

View File

@@ -428,15 +428,28 @@ def execute_code(
# Build a minimal environment for the child. We intentionally exclude
# API keys and tokens to prevent credential exfiltration from LLM-
# generated scripts. The child accesses tools via RPC, not direct API.
# Exception: env vars declared by loaded skills (via env_passthrough
# registry) or explicitly allowed by the user in config.yaml
# (terminal.env_passthrough) are passed through.
_SAFE_ENV_PREFIXES = ("PATH", "HOME", "USER", "LANG", "LC_", "TERM",
"TMPDIR", "TMP", "TEMP", "SHELL", "LOGNAME",
"XDG_", "PYTHONPATH", "VIRTUAL_ENV", "CONDA")
_SECRET_SUBSTRINGS = ("KEY", "TOKEN", "SECRET", "PASSWORD", "CREDENTIAL",
"PASSWD", "AUTH")
try:
from tools.env_passthrough import is_env_passthrough as _is_passthrough
except Exception:
_is_passthrough = lambda _: False # noqa: E731
child_env = {}
for k, v in os.environ.items():
# Passthrough vars (skill-declared or user-configured) always pass.
if _is_passthrough(k):
child_env[k] = v
continue
# Block vars with secret-like names.
if any(s in k.upper() for s in _SECRET_SUBSTRINGS):
continue
# Allow vars with known safe prefixes.
if any(k.startswith(p) for p in _SAFE_ENV_PREFIXES):
child_env[k] = v
child_env["HERMES_RPC_SOCKET"] = sock_path