Flyingduck Security Assistant

A VS Code extension and bundled MCP server that flag vulnerable Python dependencies and hardcoded secrets while you, or your coding agent, write code.

• Plugin: watches requirements.txt, pyproject.toml, uv.lock, poetry.lock, Pipfile.lock and requirements.lock, and scans the files you are going to commit for secrets. Findings appear as diagnostics, hovers and a "Flyingduck Security" panel in the Explorer. It catches changes made by hand, by agents and by CLI tools.
• MCP server: exposes two advisory tools, check_dependencies and check_secrets, so agents can check before they write.

Privacy: source code never leaves the machine. Only {name, version, ecosystem} is sent for CVE lookups. Secret scanning is fully local.

Getting started

1. Install the extension. Secret detection works immediately, with no account needed.
2. A one-time prompt (and the Flyingduck: Sign in status bar item) asks you to sign in. Paste your API token from the Flyingduck portal. It is verified with Flyingduck before it is saved.
3. You're done:
   • CVE checks start, and the workspace is rescanned.
   • VS Code's agent mode gets the Flyingduck MCP tools automatically.
   • Other agents on this machine can share the same sign-in (see below).

The token is stored in VS Code's secret storage and mirrored to ~/.flyingduck/credentials.json (readable only by you). The MCP server reads it from there, so no MCP config ever contains a token. To rotate or sign out, click the status bar item (Update token / Sign out); the change applies everywhere.

When a token expires or is revoked:

• The first rejected check (HTTP 401/403) turns the status bar item into Flyingduck: Token expired and shows one Update Token notification.
• Packages that couldn't be checked are marked "not checked". Agents get the same explanation from the MCP tools, so they can tell you.
• Updating the token re-verifies it, rescans the workspace and restarts the MCP server.
• If the token carries an expiry date (JWT exp), you're warned about 7 days ahead. The gateway defaults to production, so nothing needs configuring.

Signing out removes the token from this machine (secret storage and ~/.flyingduck/credentials.json) and restarts the MCP server, so agents lose access at the same time:

• Packages already checked keep their cached results. New or changed packages are marked "not checked".
• Secret scanning keeps working; it is local. Only pattern-set updates stop.
• Telemetry stops.
• The token itself stays valid on the server until it expires or an admin revokes it.

The Flyingduck Security panel

Findings are grouped by category, each with a count and per-severity breakdown:

• SCA
  • Direct: what your manifest (requirements.txt / pyproject.toml) declares, at the declared version. If the lockfile is out of sync and resolves a different version, that version keeps its warning on the lockfile line but is not listed here a second time.
  • Transitive: packages only in the lockfile.
  • Unpinned: declarations without an exact version.
• Secrets: one entry per secret found, with vendor, pattern and line. The matched value is never shown.

The Actions menu (▶ in the panel's title bar) lists everything you can trigger by hand:

When files are scanned for secrets

Always skipped:

• Gitignored files. Findings are about what will be committed. Every .gitignore from the repository root down applies, plus .git/info/exclude, even when the workspace is a subfolder of the repo. Your global git excludes file (core.excludesFile) is not read.
• Environment, dependency and build folders (.venv, node_modules, ...), and binary files.
• Files over 2 MB.

MCP server for other coding agents

Run Flyingduck: Copy MCP Server Config (other agents) and paste the result into the agent's MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "flyingduck-security": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["C:/Users/<you>/.flyingduck/bin/mcp-server.js"]
    }
  }
}

The command fills in your absolute path; MCP clients don't expand ~. ~/.flyingduck/bin/mcp-server.js is a stable launcher that the extension updates on every activation, so agent configs keep working across extension updates. Requires Node.js 18+ on PATH.

Current limitations

• Python (PyPI) dependencies only.
• Secret detection uses 20 built-in vendor-prefixed patterns (AWS, GitHub, Slack, Stripe, OpenAI, private keys and more).
• Sign-in is by pasting an API token from the Flyingduck portal.

Support

Questions or problems: support@flyingduck.io