Centralized Security for Agentic Coding: Introducing Heeler Agent Skills

AI agents are now active participants that write, review, and ship code. While this increases velocity, it presents a new challenge. AI agents are prolific, but they are often context blind.

Today we’re introducing Heeler Agent Skills, purpose-built tools for AI agents and developers that bring security guidance directly into the moment code is written. By embedding secure development practices into AI-assisted coding workflows, Heeler Agent Skills help teams reduce risk and technical debt before it accumulates. Security teams can define and deliver consistent guardrails across AI coding platforms while still giving developers the freedom to use the tools they prefer.

Heeler is committed to helping our customers move past the era where security is a blocker. By embedding these capabilities into the agentic layer, secure development becomes a silent and automated part of the creative process.

Heeler ensures that as coding agents scale output, they are also scaling security. We are giving the agents (and developers) the context they need to ship code that is functional and secure.

• Prevent vulnerabilities and malicious packages from entering the codebase.
• Enforce license compliance to prevent legal "contamination."
• Stop secret leaks by catching hardcoded keys before they are committed.
• Eliminate dependency sprawl by prioritizing existing libraries.
• Automate contextual reviews across entire repositories.

Instead of slowing development down, Heeler Agent Skills make secure development the default behavior for both developers and AI coding agents.

Use Case: Scaffolding a New Fintech Microservice

A senior engineer tasks an AI coding agent to build a Python FastAPI service that processes payments via Stripe and generates PDF invoices.

Scenario A: The "Wild West" Agent (Without Heeler)

Prompt: Build a Stripe-based monthly subscription feature for our product using: product_id: <product_id> and price_id: <price_id>. Also add an admin backend endpoint for the analytics team to export Stripe subscription data to CSV.

Without guardrails, the agent prioritizes speed over security and long-term maintenance:

• Dependency Version Sprawl: The agent adds an older version of ReportLab. It doesn't realize the organization already leverages a newer version of ReportLab, adding up to 40 hours of maintenance and later upgrade costs.
• Vulnerability Injection: It pulls an outdated stripe-python version with an active exploit.
• Compromised Dependency: It uses react-native-international-phone-number version 0.11.8 which is a known compromised package. 
• Hardcoded Secrets: The agent hardcodes secrets into the UI and Backend that were sourced from private .env files. 
• License Risk: It imports tablecruncher, a CSV helper licensed under GPLv3, legally jeopardizing the proprietary nature of the service.

Scenario B: The "Heeler-Guided" Agent

In this flow, the agent is guided by Heeler skills, embedding security and maintenance as requirements.

Updated Prompt: Build a Stripe-based monthly subscription feature for our product using: product_id: <product_id> and price_id: <price_id>. Also add an admin backend endpoint for the analytics team to export Stripe subscription data to CSV. /heeler-recommended-version /security-review

The Heeler-guided agent doesn't just "build"; it cross-references the existing ecosystem to ensure every addition is secure, doesn’t contribute to dependency or version sprawl, and is legally sound.

1. Reuse Before Adding: Heeler identifies the most commonly used, secure version of ReportLab in use, prompting the agent to use this existing library version. Skill: heeler-recommended-version
2. Safe Dependency Selection: When adding stripe-python, Heeler forces the agent to select a stable, patched version. Skill: heeler-vulnerabilities-scan (included in security-review)
3. Secret-Free Scaffolding: As the Agent is generating the backend and frontend it hardcodes secrets sourced from a .env file, the secret detection finds this and notifies that secrets were hardcoded into the code. Skill: heeler-secrets-scan (included in security-review)
4. Flag Compromised Dependency: Heeler detects that the agent is using react-native-international-phone-number version 0.11.8, a known compromised package, and notifies the developer that the code is not ready for release due to the presence of a compromised dependency. Skill: heeler-security-review
5. License Guardrails: Heeler will notify the developers that tablecruncher is a GPLv3 package which violates the centralized Heeler license policy and if available, suggests an appropriately licensed alternative. Skill: heeler-license-check (included in security-review)
6. Final Posture Review: Heeler provides a final summary confirming that the implementation aligns with internal patterns, avoids duplicate dependencies, uses approved package versions, contains no exposed secrets, and passes license policy checks. It also highlights any remaining low-priority operational risks for follow-up. It outputs a decision on whether the code is ready for review after checking licences, package hygiene, vulnerability, secrets, and other common security weaknesses. Skill: heeler-security-review

Comparison Summary

Meet the Skills: Security as a First-Class Citizen

heeler-recommended-version
Recommends stable dependency versions that are already in use, helping prevent version sprawl.

heeler-vulnerabilities-scan
Scans proposed dependencies for known CVEs, active exploits, and unsafe package choices before they are introduced.

heeler-secrets-scan
Detects hardcoded secrets, dummy API keys, tokens, and other sensitive values in generated code before handoff or commit.

heeler-license-check
Evaluates direct and transitive open-source licenses to prevent incompatible or copyleft packages, such as GPL contamination, from entering the codebase.

heeler-security-review
Performs a final contextual review of the implementation to confirm secure dependency choices, license compliance, secret-free code, compromised dependencies, and alignment with internal engineering patterns.

Getting Started

Heeler Agent Skills are available today and designed to work anywhere developers and AI agents operate.

If your team is building software with AI coding tools, these Agent Skills provide the guidance and context needed to ensure that increased velocity does not create increased risk.

Agentic development is reshaping how software is built.

Heeler helps Application Security teams evolve with it.

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