• Never commit API keys.
• Prefer IMAGEGEN_API_KEY or a custom environment variable named by provider.api_key_env.
• .env and .imagegen.toml are ignored by Git. The example files contain no real credentials.
• The CLI never accepts an API key as a command-line flag, so keys do not leak into shell history or process listings.
• imagegen-agent config --json reports only whether a key is present; it never prints the key.

A custom base_url receives prompts, input images, request headers, and any other data sent for generation or editing. Only configure endpoints you trust. Provider-specific headers can contain secrets, so prefer IMAGEGEN_HEADERS_JSON over committing headers to TOML.

The CLI refuses to overwrite output files unless --force is supplied. If an API returns image URLs instead of base64 data, the CLI downloads those URLs with a bounded timeout. Treat generated files as untrusted input when feeding them to other tools.

Report security concerns privately to the repository owner rather than opening a public issue that could expose users before a fix is available.

Prefer npm Trusted Publishing through the repository's publish-npm.yml workflow. If an NPM_TOKEN is used for the initial publish, store it only as a GitHub Actions secret or in the local npm credential store. Never commit .npmrc files containing authentication tokens.