API Credentials Skill for Claude

API Credentials Management

🚨 DEPRECATED: This skill is no longer needed for hosted skills environments.

New approach: Skills now read credentials directly from project knowledge files:

• ANTHROPIC_API_KEY.txt, GOOGLE_API_KEY.txt, GITHUB_API_KEY.txt (recommended)
• Or API_CREDENTIALS.json (combined file)

See updated skill documentation:

• orchestrating-agents
• invoking-gemini
• invoking-github

Legacy use only: This skill may still be useful for local development environments or backward compatibility.

⚠️ WARNING: This is a PERSONAL skill - DO NOT share or commit with actual credentials!

This skill provides secure storage and retrieval of API credentials for multiple providers. It serves as a dependency for other skills that need to invoke external APIs programmatically.

Supported Providers

• Anthropic (Claude API)
• Google (Gemini API, Vertex AI, etc.)
• GitHub (GitHub API, Personal Access Tokens)
• Extensible for additional providers

Purpose

• Centralized credential storage for multiple API providers
• Secure retrieval methods for dependent skills
• Clear error messages when credentials are missing
• Support for multiple credential sources (config file, environment variables)

Usage by Other Skills

Skills that need to invoke APIs should reference this skill:

Anthropic Claude API

import sys
sys.path.append('/home/user/claude-skills/api-credentials/scripts')
from credentials import get_anthropic_api_key

try:
    api_key = get_anthropic_api_key()
    # Use api_key for Claude API calls
except ValueError as e:
    print(f"Error: {e}")

Google Gemini API

import sys
sys.path.append('/home/user/claude-skills/api-credentials/scripts')
from credentials import get_google_api_key

try:
    api_key = get_google_api_key()
    # Use api_key for Gemini API calls
except ValueError as e:
    print(f"Error: {e}")

GitHub API

import sys
sys.path.append('/home/user/claude-skills/api-credentials/scripts')
from credentials import get_github_api_key

try:
    api_key = get_github_api_key()
    # Use api_key for GitHub API calls
except ValueError as e:
    print(f"Error: {e}")

Setup Instructions

Option 1: Configuration File (Recommended)

• Copy the example config:

cp /home/user/claude-skills/api-credentials/assets/config.json.example \
   /home/user/claude-skills/api-credentials/config.json

• Edit config.json and add your API keys:

{
  "anthropic_api_key": "sk-ant-api03-...",
  "google_api_key": "AIzaSy...",
  "github_api_key": "ghp_..."
}

• Ensure the config file is in .gitignore (already configured)

Option 2: Environment Variables

Set environment variables for the providers you need:

# Anthropic Claude
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-api03-..."

# Google Gemini
export GOOGLE_API_KEY="AIzaSy..."

# GitHub
export GITHUB_TOKEN="ghp_..."
# or
export GITHUB_API_KEY="ghp_..."

Add to your shell profile (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc) to persist.

Priority

Credential retrieval follows this priority for each provider:

• config.json in the skill directory (highest priority)
• Environment variable (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or GOOGLE_API_KEY)
• ValueError raised if neither is available

Security Notes

• Never commit config.json with real credentials
• The config.json file should be in .gitignore
• Only config.json.example should be version controlled
• Consider using environment variables in shared/production environments
• Rotate API keys regularly
• Skills should never log or display full API keys

File Structure

api-credentials/
├── SKILL.md              # This file
├── config.json           # YOUR credentials (gitignored)
├── scripts/
│   └── credentials.py    # Credential retrieval module
└── assets/
    └── config.json.example  # Template for users

Error Handling

When credentials are not found, the module raises ValueError with clear guidance:

• Where to place config.json
• How to set environment variables
• Links to provider consoles for key generation

Skills should catch ValueError exceptions and handle appropriately.

Available Functions

get_anthropic_api_key() → str

• Returns Anthropic API key
• Raises ValueError if not configured

get_google_api_key() → str

• Returns Google API key
• Raises ValueError if not configured

get_github_api_key() → str

• Returns GitHub API token (Personal Access Token)
• Raises ValueError if not configured

get_api_key_masked(api_key) → str

• Returns masked version for safe logging
• Example: "sk-ant-...xyz"

verify_credential(provider) → bool

• Checks if provider is configured
• Returns True/False without raising exceptions
• Providers: 'anthropic', 'google', 'github'

Adding New Providers

To support additional providers:

• Add field to assets/config.json.example
• Add getter function to scripts/credentials.py:

   def get_provider_api_key() -> str:
       # Follow existing pattern with config file + env var
       pass

• Add to verify_credential() mapping
• Update this documentation

Token Efficiency

This skill uses ~300 tokens when loaded but saves repeated credential management code across multiple skills that invoke external APIs. It provides a single, consistent pattern for all credential handling.