diff --git a/.jules/sentinel.md b/.jules/sentinel.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..51ebe15b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.jules/sentinel.md
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+## 2025-02-12 - Fix Timing Attack Vulnerability in Bearer Token Validation
+**Vulnerability:** A timing attack vulnerability existed where short-circuiting on buffer length differences in `crypto.timingSafeEqual` leaked the length of the secret.
+**Learning:** Developers might check buffer lengths before `timingSafeEqual` because `timingSafeEqual` throws an error on unequal lengths. However, this re-introduces a timing leak (length).
+**Prevention:** Always hash both inputs to a fixed-length digest (e.g. SHA-256) before using `crypto.timingSafeEqual`.
diff --git a/src/cli/commands/serve.ts b/src/cli/commands/serve.ts
index 2c37293e..e20ec168 100644
--- a/src/cli/commands/serve.ts
+++ b/src/cli/commands/serve.ts
@@ -346,13 +346,10 @@ export async function handleServeCommand(_options: unknown, command: Command) {
 
           let isAuthenticated = false;
           if (scheme?.toLowerCase() === 'bearer' && token) {
-            const tokenBuffer = Buffer.from(token);
+            const tokenHash = crypto.createHash('sha256').update(token).digest();
             for (const authToken of authTokens) {
-              const authTokenBuffer = Buffer.from(authToken);
-              if (
-                tokenBuffer.length === authTokenBuffer.length &&
-                crypto.timingSafeEqual(tokenBuffer, authTokenBuffer)
-              ) {
+              const authTokenHash = crypto.createHash('sha256').update(authToken).digest();
+              if (crypto.timingSafeEqual(tokenHash, authTokenHash)) {
                 isAuthenticated = true;
                 break;
               }
diff --git a/tests/integration/prompt_templates.test.ts b/tests/integration/prompt_templates.test.ts
index 21905259..f1360d78 100644
--- a/tests/integration/prompt_templates.test.ts
+++ b/tests/integration/prompt_templates.test.ts
@@ -36,7 +36,9 @@ describe('Prompt templates', () => {
 
     expect(planSystem).toContain('You are SalmonLoop.');
     expect(patchSystem).toContain('You are PATCH, a phase-native diff compiler.');
-    expect(autopilotSystem).toContain('You are a senior software engineer running in "autopilot" mode.');
+    expect(autopilotSystem).toContain(
+      'You are a senior software engineer running in "autopilot" mode.',
+    );
     expect(answerSystem).toContain('You are a coding assistant in "answer" mode.');
     expect(researchSystem).toContain('You are a research assistant.');
   });