diff --git a/tests/tools/test_mcp_tool.py b/tests/tools/test_mcp_tool.py
index 07e088533049..769a006940ee 100644
--- a/tests/tools/test_mcp_tool.py
+++ b/tests/tools/test_mcp_tool.py
@@ -1763,6 +1763,41 @@ class TestBuildSafeEnv:
         assert "DATABASE_URL" not in result
         assert "API_SECRET" not in result
 
+    def test_secret_source_injected_vars_are_passed(self, monkeypatch):
+        """Vars tagged by an external secret source (Bitwarden/1Password) are
+        deliberately allowed for MCP stdio servers."""
+        from hermes_cli import env_loader
+        from tools.mcp_tool import _build_safe_env
+
+        monkeypatch.setitem(env_loader._SECRET_SOURCES, "ALPACA_API_KEY", "bitwarden")
+        monkeypatch.setitem(env_loader._SECRET_SOURCES, "NOTION_TOKEN", "onepassword")
+        fake_env = {
+            "PATH": "/usr/bin",
+            "ALPACA_API_KEY": "from-bws-key",
+            "NOTION_TOKEN": "from-op",
+            "UNTRACKED_SECRET_KEY": "still-filtered",
+        }
+        with patch.dict("os.environ", fake_env, clear=True):
+            result = _build_safe_env(None)
+
+        assert result["PATH"] == "/usr/bin"
+        assert result["ALPACA_API_KEY"] == "from-bws-key"
+        assert result["NOTION_TOKEN"] == "from-op"
+        assert "UNTRACKED_SECRET_KEY" not in result
+
+    def test_user_env_overrides_secret_source_var(self, monkeypatch):
+        """Explicit MCP server env config remains the highest-precedence source."""
+        from hermes_cli import env_loader
+        from tools.mcp_tool import _build_safe_env
+
+        monkeypatch.setitem(env_loader._SECRET_SOURCES, "ALPACA_API_KEY", "bitwarden")
+        with patch.dict(
+            "os.environ", {"PATH": "/usr/bin", "ALPACA_API_KEY": "from-bws"}, clear=True
+        ):
+            result = _build_safe_env({"ALPACA_API_KEY": "from-config"})
+
+        assert result["ALPACA_API_KEY"] == "from-config"
+
     def test_windows_location_vars_passed_without_secrets(self):
         """Windows launcher tools need location vars, but secrets stay filtered."""
         from tools.mcp_tool import _build_safe_env
diff --git a/tools/mcp_tool.py b/tools/mcp_tool.py
index a4303bdab5c8..eeac9250d5f3 100644
--- a/tools/mcp_tool.py
+++ b/tools/mcp_tool.py
@@ -439,18 +439,28 @@ def _build_safe_env(user_env: Optional[dict]) -> dict:
     """Build a filtered environment dict for stdio subprocesses.
 
     Only passes through safe baseline variables (PATH, HOME, etc.) and XDG_*
-    variables from the current process environment, plus any variables
+    variables from the current process environment, secrets injected by an
+    external secret source (Bitwarden, 1Password, plugin backends) that
+    Hermes explicitly tagged during dotenv loading, plus any variables
     explicitly specified by the user in the server config.
 
     This prevents accidentally leaking secrets like API keys, tokens, or
-    credentials to MCP server subprocesses.
+    credentials to MCP server subprocesses.  Secret-source-injected vars are
+    an exception: users configured that backend specifically so Hermes and
+    its subprocesses can consume those credentials without duplicating them
+    in every MCP server's ``env:`` block.
     """
+    try:
+        from hermes_cli.env_loader import get_secret_source
+    except Exception:  # pragma: no cover — early bootstrap/import fallback
+        get_secret_source = None
     env = {}
     for key, value in os.environ.items():
         if (
             key in _SAFE_ENV_KEYS
             or key.upper() in _SAFE_ENV_KEYS_CASE_INSENSITIVE
             or key.startswith("XDG_")
+            or (get_secret_source is not None and get_secret_source(key))
         ):
             env[key] = value
     if user_env: