Show HN: Secure Agent Starter – A minimal template for building safer AI agents

2 points

3 months ago

I’ve been exploring how to make AI agents safer to use in real applications, especially as they start interacting with tools, APIs, and real systems. One recurring problem is that agents can hallucinate actions, call tools they shouldn’t, or over‑reach in ways that make them hard to trust in production.

To experiment with better patterns, I put together a small starter repo: Secure Agent Starter https://github.com/timbuctoo/secure-agent-starter

It’s intentionally minimal — not a full SDK — but it demonstrates a simple structure for: - Capability‑based permissions - An “action firewall” pattern - Example capability + policy files - A tiny agent example - A mock authorization step (no backend required) - A folder layout you can drop into any agent project

The goal is to give developers a mental model for agent security before wiring up real tools or APIs. Think of it as a conceptual starting point for designing safer agent architectures.

I’d love feedback on: - What security patterns you’d want to see next - Whether this structure makes sense for real‑world agent projects - Any missing pieces that would make this more useful

Thanks for taking a look.

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