Secure Token Management in Hugging Face Applications

Introduction

When working with Hugging Face APIs (Inference API, Endpoints, Hub access), authentication requires an Access Token.

A common mistake developers make is hardcoding the token directly inside the source code, like this:

client = InferenceClient(
    model="HuggingFaceH4/zephyr-7b-beta",
    token="hf_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
)

This practice is insecure and dangerous, especially when:

• Code is pushed to GitHub

• Working in teams

• Deploying to production

• Sharing projects publicly

This article explains secure, production-ready approaches to manage Hugging Face tokens properly.

Why Hardcoding Tokens Is Dangerous

Hardcoding secrets leads to:

Security Risks

• Token exposed in public repositories

• Unauthorized API usage

• Account misuse

• Unexpected billing charges

Operational Problems

• Hard to rotate tokens

• Difficult environment management

• Not scalable across environments (dev/staging/prod)

Compliance Violations

• Breaks security best practices

• Violates enterprise security policies

Best Practices for Secure Token Management

There are four recommended methods:

1. Environment Variables

2. .env Files (Project-based secret management)

3. Hugging Face CLI Authentication

4. Production Secret Managers

Method 1: Using Environment Variables (Recommended Standard)

Environment variables store secrets outside the source code.

Step 1: Set Environment Variable (Windows)

setx HF_TOKEN "hf_your_actual_token_here"

Restart your terminal or VS Code after running this command.

Step 2: Access in Python

import os
from huggingface_hub import InferenceClient

token = os.getenv("HF_TOKEN")

client = InferenceClient(
    model="HuggingFaceH4/zephyr-7b-beta",
    token=token
)

response = client.chat_completion(
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Explain AI agents."}]
)

print(response.choices[0].message["content"])

Benefits

• Token not visible in source code

• Safe for Git repositories

• Easy to rotate

Method 2: Using .env File (Best for Application Development)

This is ideal for FastAPI, Flask, RAG systems, or MCP clients.

Step 1: Install Dependency

pip install python-dotenv

Step 2: Create .env File

HF_TOKEN=hf_your_actual_token_here

Step 3: Add to .gitignore

.env

This prevents accidental upload to GitHub.

Step 4: Load in Python

import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv
from huggingface_hub import InferenceClient

load_dotenv()

token = os.getenv("HF_TOKEN")

client = InferenceClient(
    model="HuggingFaceH4/zephyr-7b-beta",
    token=token
)

response = client.chat_completion(
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "What is RAG?"}]
)

print(response.choices[0].message["content"])

Benefits

• Clean separation of secrets

• Environment-based configuration

• Industry standard practice

Method 3: Hugging Face CLI Login

Hugging Face CLI stores credentials securely in the local cache.

Step 1: Install CLI

pip install huggingface_hub

Step 2: Login

huggingface-cli login or hf login

Paste your token.

Step 3: Use Without Token in Code

from huggingface_hub import InferenceClient

client = InferenceClient(
    model="HuggingFaceH4/zephyr-7b-beta"
)

response = client.chat_completion(
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Explain MCP architecture."}]
)

print(response.choices[0].message["content"])

Benefits

• No token in code

• No environment variable required

• Secure local storage

• Ideal for development

Production-Grade Secret Management

For enterprise deployments, use:

• Docker ENV variables

• Kubernetes Secrets

• AWS Secrets Manager

• Azure Key Vault

• GitHub Actions Secrets

Example (Dockerfile):

ENV HF_TOKEN=hf_your_token_here

Or pass during runtime:

docker run -e HF_TOKEN=hf_token image_name

Token Rotation Strategy

To improve security:

• Use separate tokens for development and production

• Rotate tokens periodically

• Revoke exposed tokens immediately

• Use minimal scope (Read only)

Recommended Approach by Environment

Environment	Recommended Method
Local Development	Hugging Face CLI
Small Projects	.env file
FastAPI / Backend	Environment Variables
Docker	ENV variables
Enterprise	Secret Manager