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read.credential.host
Read credentials stored where it runs. Verb read, object credential, reach host, family identity. Its effect is no: cannot be undone.
In 4 of 9 published shapes
| Deployment shape | Barrier there | Known by | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ● | Claude Code on the web (a remote session container) | none (not a control) | observed | the credential-shaped paths present are the SESSION'S OWN: its commit-signing key and its vault keystore. No user credential is in the container; presence cannot tell whose a key is, so this is the operator's account |
| ● | Claude Code (the CLI, on your own machine) | none (not a control) | documented | a published read-only audit tool enumerates exactly this class in a home directory |
| ● | Claude Code (the CLI, on your own machine) | none (not a control) | documented | a published read-only audit tool enumerates exactly this class in a home directory |
| ● | Claude Desktop (a desktop app with local tools) | none (not a control) | documented |
| Barrier | What stands in the way | Is it a control | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ● | none | nothing in the way | no |
| ◉ | expectation | a rule in prose, enforced by nobody | no |
| ◐ | setting | a switch the agent's own account can flip | no |
| ○ | boundary | enforced above the grant, out of the agent's reach | yes |
What the starting mandates say about it
| The mandate says | Which mandates |
|---|---|
| authorised | none |
| refused | A coding assistant on my machine, The desktop app, with local tools switched on, Chat in the browser, nothing connected, A CI job on a hosted runner |
| unstated | A coding assistant in a container on the web, Chat, with connectors switched on, A browser extension I installed, A scheduled job under a service account |
Unstated is not authorised. A mandate that never mentioned a capability did not authorise it, and the delta on every example page counts it as excess and says which kind it was.
What would move it to the fourth barrier
| What | What it costs | The barrier afterwards |
|---|---|---|
| keep credentials out of the account the agent runs as: a credential helper, a separate account, or a container without your home mounted | an afternoon, and re-authenticating where the agent needs a credential of its own | boundary |
This is a published reduction, not a recommendation. Whether it is worth doing depends on the assets and the consequences, which are not in this document and are not this site's to guess.