Why I Built an ML-Powered Secrets Detector Instead of Just Using Regex

ost secrets scanners work the same way. They maintain a list of regex patterns — one for AWS access keys, one for GitHub personal access tokens, one for Stripe keys, one for JWT headers — and they scan your code looking for matches. When a pattern fires, they report a finding. When it doesn't, they stay silent. This works well for secrets that have distinctive, consistent formats. An AWS access key always starts with AKIA followed by 16 uppercase alphanumeric characters. A GitHub PAT has a rec...