Securing the Agent Skill Ecosystem: How Snyk and Vercel Are Locking Down the New Software Supply Chain

AI agents are rapidly evolving beyond their initial role as code-writing chatbots, becoming autonomous systems capable of managing infrastructure and executing complex commands, thereby presenting new opportunities and security challenges. The partnership between Vercel and Snyk seeks to address these challenges by integrating Snyk's security intelligence into Vercel's skills.sh marketplace, an ecosystem for AI agent skills similar to npm for JavaScript libraries. This collaboration involves the use of Snyk's advanced security auditing engine to evaluate and verify the safety of AI agent skills before they reach developers' machines, highlighting the potential risks associated with agent skills that can access sensitive system components. As the AI agent skill ecosystem expands, with a high rate of new skill development, the integration of automated security measures is crucial to mitigate threats such as prompt injection and "toxic flows." Snyk's acquisition of Invariant Labs enhances their capability to secure these systems, emphasizing the importance of building security into the foundation of this burgeoning technology.