# Canarytokens

12 Hacker News commenters recommended Canarytokens and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free tripwire that alerts you when a planted file, link or credential is touched. Main caveat: it phones home to the maker's servers, which can reveal the trap.

## Why people recommend it

- Detects intrusions and hacks (2 comments): "tricks like Canary Tokens and honeypots are useful" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49227439)) "Canary token is great to tell you've been hacked." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50191776))
- Works against agentic and LLM threats (2 comments): "they're one of the few things available that work well for agentic threats" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50187881)) "when defending against LLM based attacks, they're a godsend" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50186021))
- Essential defense worth setting up (2 comments): "Just going to remind you all that https://canarytokens.org/ exists." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50184883)) "This is your reminder to set up canary tokens" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47915643))
- Used reliably for years (2 comments): "i've been using canarytokens for years!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50186212)) "I've been using it since 2015" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50186283))

## What people warn about

- Phones home and could reveal trap (1 comments): "Having to phone home to their servers could give the game away." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50188032))

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://canarytokens.org/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Canarytokens", https://hackerapproved.com/p/canarytokens/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).