diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index db2eeae..d13a666 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -2,3 +2,10 @@ __pycache__/
 *.pyc
 .DS_Store
 Thumbs.db
+
+# Personal lore store (`personalStoreDir` in .lore.json) — per-person notes about
+# developing this plugin, read by recall alongside the team store but never
+# published. `learnings/` is deliberately NOT ignored here: the team store is
+# committed and shared by default, and that default is what users of the plugin
+# get.
+.lore/
diff --git a/.lore.json b/.lore.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b8ce356
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.lore.json
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+{
+  "personalStoreDir": ".lore/personal"
+}
diff --git a/plugin/scripts/scan_secrets.py b/plugin/scripts/scan_secrets.py
index c78b159..effde5e 100644
--- a/plugin/scripts/scan_secrets.py
+++ b/plugin/scripts/scan_secrets.py
@@ -51,10 +51,18 @@
     ("JWT", r"\beyJ[A-Za-z0-9_\-]+\.[A-Za-z0-9_\-]+\.[A-Za-z0-9_\-]{10,}\b"),
     ("Bearer token", r"(?i)\bbearer\s+[A-Za-z0-9_\-\.=]{20,}"),
     ("Credentials in URL", r"\b[a-z][a-z0-9+.\-]*://[^\s:@/]+:([^\s:@/]{3,})@[^\s/]+"),
-    # secret-ish assignment with a real-looking value (placeholders filtered below)
+    # secret-ish assignment with a real-looking value (placeholders filtered below).
+    # The keyword is deliberately NOT wrapped in `\b`: `_` is a word character, so
+    # `\b` never fires between an underscore and a letter, and `db_password`,
+    # `STRIPE_SECRET` and `aws_secret_access_key` — the dominant real-world
+    # spellings — all slipped through. Affixes are flat character classes rather
+    # than nested quantifiers, so backtracking stays linear.
+    # The value must stay capture group 1: `_is_placeholder` reads `group(1)`.
     ("Hardcoded secret assignment",
-     r"(?i)\b(?:password|passwd|pwd|secret|api[_-]?key|access[_-]?token|"
-     r"auth[_-]?token|client[_-]?secret|private[_-]?key)\b\s*[:=]\s*"
+     r"(?i)(?:^|[^A-Za-z0-9])[A-Za-z0-9_.-]{0,40}"
+     r"(?:password|passwd|pwd|secret|api[_-]?key|access[_-]?token|"
+     r"auth[_-]?token|client[_-]?secret|private[_-]?key)"
+     r"[A-Za-z0-9_.-]{0,40}\s*[:=]\s*"
      r"['\"]?([^\s'\"]{6,})['\"]?"),
 ]
 RULES = [(name, re.compile(pat)) for name, pat in _RULES]
diff --git a/tests/test_scan_secrets.py b/tests/test_scan_secrets.py
index bf5ca26..ca1322d 100644
--- a/tests/test_scan_secrets.py
+++ b/tests/test_scan_secrets.py
@@ -36,6 +36,26 @@ def test_real_looking_assignment_flagged(self):
         found = _scan('password = "h8s7d6f5g4h3j2k1"')
         self.assertEqual(len(found), 1)
 
+    def test_prefixed_secret_names_flagged(self):
+        # `\b` cannot fire between `_` and a letter, so an earlier version of this
+        # rule missed every prefixed spelling -- which is most of them in practice.
+        for line in ('db_password = "h8s7d6f5g4h3j2k1"',
+                     'my_api_key = "AbCd1234EfGh5678"',
+                     'STRIPE_SECRET = "AbCd1234EfGh5678"',
+                     'aws_secret_access_key = "wJalrXUtnFEMI7K7MDENGbPxRfiCYEX"',
+                     "DATABASE_PASSWORD=s3cr3tp4ssw0rd"):
+            with self.subTest(line=line):
+                self.assertEqual(len(_scan(line)), 1)
+
+    def test_prefixed_placeholder_still_not_flagged(self):
+        # Widening the name must not cost the placeholder filter its job.
+        self.assertEqual(_scan("db_password = changeme"), [])
+        self.assertEqual(_scan('my_api_key = "your_key_here"'), [])
+
+    def test_short_or_nonsecret_values_not_flagged(self):
+        self.assertEqual(_scan("password: x"), [])
+        self.assertEqual(_scan("secret_name = db"), [])
+
     def test_inline_allow(self):
         fake = "AKIA" + "C" * 16
         self.assertEqual(_scan(f"{fake}  lore:allow-secret"), [])