Manage Providers

Provider management skill for plan-marshall. Stores credentials outside LLM reach in ~/.plan-marshall/credentials/ (under the machine-global home root, overridable via the PLAN_MARSHALL_HOME env var), handles all user interaction via Python scripts (the LLM never sees secrets), and provides a RestClient for authenticated HTTP requests.

Enforcement

Execution mode: Route to appropriate subcommand script via credentials.py dispatcher.

Prohibited actions:

• Never print, log, serialize, or expose credentials to stdout, stderr, or TOON output
• Never read credential files directly — all access goes through _providers_core.py
• Never bypass HTTPS enforcement when auth headers are configured
• Never pass secrets as CLI arguments or through the LLM — secrets go into files directly by the user

Constraints:

• Primary security boundary is chmod 700 on ~/.plan-marshall/credentials/
• Deny rules are defense-in-depth only — fundamentally incomplete blocklist
• All file creation uses atomic os.open() with mode 0o600 (no umask race)
• All path resolution validates via os.path.realpath() (symlink protection)
• All project names sanitized via re.sub(r'[^a-zA-Z0-9._-]', '', name) (path traversal protection)

Architecture

Provider discovery uses a two-phase approach based on marshal.json declarations:

1. Setup time (discover-and-persist): Scans PYTHONPATH for *_provider.py files, calls get_provider_declarations() on each, and persists the combined declarations to marshal.json under the providers key. The marshall-steward wizard runs this during project setup.
2. Runtime (list-providers): Reads provider declarations directly from marshal.json. No filesystem scanning occurs at runtime.

Each provider module exports get_provider_declarations() returning a list of declaration dicts. Five fields are persisted to marshal.json (skill_name, category, verify_command, url, description); all other fields (display_name, default_url, header_name, header_value_template, verify_endpoint, verify_method, extra_fields) are wizard-time only and not stored. The default_url declaration field is mapped to url on persist; git providers resolve url from git remote get-url origin. The skill_name field uses bundle-prefixed format (e.g., plan-marshall:workflow-integration-sonar).

providers[].skill_name stays bundle-prefixed, but the credentials_config storage key is canonicalized to the prefix-stripped form (e.g. workflow-integration-sonar), matching the credential filename under ~/.plan-marshall/credentials/. Writes always key the block by that canonical form and drop any pre-existing key whose canonical form is the same, so a re-configure never leaves two shadow blocks for one provider; reads accept either spelling — an exact skill_name match first, then a canonical-equality scan.

Stale prefixed credentials_config keys written before this normalization are canonicalized transparently by _providers_core on the next credentials_config access — no operator action, no migration subcommand. The pass is idempotent: once every key is canonical it performs no write. When two source keys collapse onto one canonical key with differing bodies, the pass leaves both keys untouched rather than merging them, so no block is ever lost silently.

Subcommands

Subcommand	Description
configure	Create credential file with placeholder secrets
check	Check if credential is complete (no placeholders remaining)
discover-and-persist	Scan PYTHONPATH for provider modules and persist declarations to marshal.json
list-providers	List available credential providers from marshal.json
edit	Update non-secret fields (URL, auth type)
verify	HTTP connectivity test, writes verified_at timestamp into the credential file
list	List configured skills by scanning ~/.plan-marshall/credentials/ (no secrets in output)
remove	Remove credential file
ensure-denied	Add deny rules to the host platform's settings
migrate-home	Explicitly run the lazy legacy-path migration (~/.plan-marshall-credentials/ → ~/.plan-marshall/credentials/); reports migrated, already_migrated, or conflict

Script Notation

plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials

Workflows

Configure New Credentials

Three-step workflow — the LLM collects non-secret values, the script creates a file with placeholder secrets, and the user edits the file directly:

1. LLM phase: Collect provider, URL, and auth type via AskUserQuestion
2. Run configure to create credential file with placeholders:

   python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials configure \
     --skill {skill} --url {url} --auth-type {auth_type} [--scope global|project] \
     [--extra KEY=VALUE ...]

3. If warnings is present: relay each warning string to the user. A warning means a supplied --extra value (e.g. organization) disagreed with the project's pom.xml Sonar property; the script kept the supplied value but surfaces the mismatch so the user can reconcile it.
4. If needs_editing: true: Tell user to open the file path and replace placeholders with real secrets
5. After user confirms: Run check to verify completeness:

   python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials check \
     --skill {skill} [--scope global|project]

6. Optionally verify connectivity:

   python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials verify \
     --skill {skill} [--scope global|project]

CLI args:

• --skill <name> — Required. Skill name matching a credential extension
• --url <url> — Base URL (uses provider default if omitted)
• --auth-type none|token|basic — Auth type (uses provider default if omitted)
• --extra KEY=VALUE ... — Extra fields (e.g., --extra organization=cuioss project_key=cuioss_repo)

For the Sonar provider on a Maven project, configure auto-derives organization and project_key from the project's pom.xml <sonar.organization> / <sonar.projectKey> properties when they are not supplied via --extra. When such a value IS supplied via --extra and disagrees with the pom-derived value, the supplied value is kept and a non-fatal mismatch warning is surfaced (see warnings / mismatches below).

Return statuses:

• created — New file created. If needs_editing: true, user must edit the file to add secrets. May carry warnings (list of human-readable mismatch strings — relay each to the user) and mismatches (structured {field, supplied, pom_value} entries) when a supplied --extra value disagrees with the project's pom.xml Sonar property.
• exists_complete — File already exists with real secrets. LLM asks user whether to reuse.
• exists_incomplete — File exists but has placeholder secrets. LLM tells user to finish editing.

Check Credential Completeness

python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials check \
  --skill {skill} [--scope global|project]

Returns complete, incomplete, or not_found. Use after the user edits a credential file.

Discover and Persist Providers

Run during project setup (typically by the marshall-steward wizard) to scan for provider modules and populate marshal.json:

python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials discover-and-persist

Scans all PYTHONPATH directories (set by the executor) for *_provider.py files, loads each module, calls get_provider_declarations(), and writes the combined list to marshal.json under the providers key.

Return fields: status, action, count, providers (list of skill names).

List Available Providers

python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials list-providers

Reads the providers list from marshal.json (populated by discover-and-persist). Returns available credential providers (what CAN be configured), not what IS configured. Use this in wizard/menu workflows to discover providers.

If no providers are found, the output includes a hint to run discover-and-persist first.

List Configured Skills

python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials list [--scope global|project|all]

Edit Existing Credentials

Updates non-secret fields (URL, auth type) via CLI args, and idempotently upserts extra provider-config fields (e.g. organization, project_key) via --extra KEY=VALUE ... without dropping the stored token. For secret changes, the user edits the credential file directly.

python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials edit \
  --skill <name> [--url <url>] [--auth-type none|token|basic] [--scope global|project] \
  [--extra KEY=VALUE ...]

Returns path and needs_editing status, plus extras_upserted (the list of extra-field keys written) when --extra was supplied. If secrets need updating, tell the user to edit the file at the returned path.

Verify Connectivity

python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials verify [--skill <name>] [--scope global|project]

Remove Credentials

python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials remove [--skill <name>] [--scope global|project]

Add Deny Rules

python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials ensure-denied [--target global|project]

Security Model

See standards/security-considerations.md for full threat model and implementation constraints.

Testing

Tests override the credentials directory via the PLAN_MARSHALL_CREDENTIALS_DIR environment variable (read at module import time in _providers_core.CREDENTIALS_DIR). This is a testing-only knob — not a user-facing setting. Tests should set it via monkeypatch.setenv before importing _providers_core, or patch _providers_core.CREDENTIALS_DIR directly and reload as needed.

Canonical invocations

The canonical argparse surface for credentials.py. The plugin-doctor analyzer (_analyze_manage_invocation.py) reads this section as source-of-truth for the manage-invocation-invalid and missing-canonical-block rules. Consuming docs xref this section by name instead of restating the command inline. See `pm-plugin-development:plugin-script-architecture` cross-skill-integration.md § "Script invocation in documentation".

configure

python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials configure \
  [--skill SKILL] [--scope {global,project}] [--url URL] [--auth-type {none,token,basic}] \
  [--extra KEY=VALUE ...]

edit

python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials edit \
  [--skill SKILL] [--scope {global,project}] [--url URL] [--auth-type {none,token,basic}] \
  [--extra KEY=VALUE ...]

check

python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials check \
  --skill SKILL [--scope {global,project}]

verify

python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials verify \
  [--skill SKILL] [--scope {global,project}]

discover-and-persist

python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials discover-and-persist \
  [--providers PROVIDERS]

list-providers

python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials list-providers

find-by-category

python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials find-by-category \
  --category CATEGORY

list

python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials list \
  [--scope {global,project,all}]

remove

python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials remove \
  [--skill SKILL] [--scope {global,project}]

ensure-denied

python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials ensure-denied \
  [--target {global,project}]

migrate-home

python3 .plan/execute-script.py plan-marshall:manage-providers:credentials migrate-home

Related

Skill	Purpose
plan-marshall:marshall-steward	Invokes credential management via wizard and menu
plan-marshall:workflow-integration-sonar	First consumer of credential extension API
plan-marshall:extension-api	Discovery pattern reference
plan-marshall:tools-permission-doctor	Deny rule manipulation reference