Cohere API Key

Detects Cohere API keys. Cohere issues an opaque 40-character alphanumeric token with no distinctive vendor prefix, so this pattern requires an adjacent Cohere label (cohere / CO_API_KEY / COHERE_API_KEY) to structurally qualify a match.

Type: regex
Engine: universal
Confidence: medium
Confidence justification: Medium confidence: Cohere's own documentation does not publish the token's visible format; GitGuardian's detector spec and the community-maintained gitleaks ruleset both confirm the key is an unprefixed, opaque 40-character alphanumeric string. Without an adjacent Cohere label the value is indistinguishable from any other 40-character alphanumeric string (a hash, an ID, or unrelated token), so this pattern requires the label and offers no unlabelled/value-only tier.
Jurisdictions: global
Regulations: Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth)
Frameworks: CIS Controls, ISO 27001, NIST CSF, SOC 2
Data categories: credentials, security
Scope: narrow
Risk rating: 9
Platform compatibility: Purview: Compatible, GCP DLP: Unsupported, Macie: Unsupported, Zscaler: Compatible, Palo Alto: Unsupported, Netskope: Unsupported

Pattern

(?i)(?:cohere|co_api_key|cohere_api_key)[\s\S]{0,40}?[=:][\s"']{0,4}(?<![a-z0-9_-])[a-z0-9]{40}(?![a-z0-9_-])

Corroborative evidence keywords

cohere, cohere.ai, CO_API_KEY, COHERE_API_KEY, command r, rerank, api key, api_key, apikey, access key, access token, auth token, authorization, bearer, conn str, connection string, connectionstring, cookie, credential, database (+39 more)

Proximity: 300 characters

Should match

CO_API_KEY=ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789ABCD — Cohere key in the canonical CO_API_KEY env var (label + 40-char body)
cohere_api_key: zZyYxXwWvVuUtTsSrRqQpPoOnNmMlLkKjJiIhHgG — Cohere key labelled with the cohere_api_key alias
COHERE_API_KEY=ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBAzyxwvutsrq9876 — Cohere key in the COHERE_API_KEY env var alias with = separator (zero-entropy 40-char body)

Should not match

Random 40-char token: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghij0123 with no vendor context — Bare 40-char alphanumeric value with no Cohere label anywhere (could be any hash or ID)
cohere api key too short: ABCDEFGHIJ0123456789 — Cohere label present but value far too short (20 chars, not 40)
please rotate the cohere api key before shipping — Prose mention without a token value
Using cohere with key ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghij0123 — Free-standing 40-char alphanumeric in prose after a "cohere" label but no assignment separator (boundary regression case from review)
template example placeholder record identifier — Template/sample context should be excluded even when anchor words are present

Known false positives

A 40-character hash, GUID, or unrelated token that happens to appear near the word "cohere" in documentation. Mitigation: Require the assignment-style label adjacency (already enforced by the regex) plus corroborative keywords; exclude placeholder markers.
Documentation or examples showing placeholder CO_API_KEY values. Mitigation: Check for placeholder markers (example, xxxx, 0000) and documentation file types to reduce false positives.