You paste an API key into your code "just for testing" then git push. Within minutes, automated bots have already harvested it. API Shield eliminates this risk entirely. It scans your code in real-time, directly inside VS Code, no cloud, no APIs, no telemetry. Every keystroke is checked locally on your machine. Real-time API key & secret leak detector for VS Code Catch leaked credentials before they reach Git , 100% local, zero cloud dependencies.