diff --git a/core/Cargo.toml b/core/Cargo.toml
index c4427b7..c7f31be 100644
--- a/core/Cargo.toml
+++ b/core/Cargo.toml
@@ -10,6 +10,19 @@ readme = "README.md"
 keywords = ["oauth", "jwt", "security", "mcp", "authplane"]
 categories = ["authentication", "api-bindings"]
 
+# Tests, examples and benches are not shipped in the published crate. They are
+# not what a consumer compiles against, they are all readable in the repository,
+# and `core/tests/fixtures/` holds RSA and EC private keys the unit tests and the
+# DPoP example use. Those keys are test material — nothing verifies against them —
+# but a crates.io version is immutable, so anything that ships stays shipped, and
+# key-shaped files in a published tarball are permanent noise for every downstream
+# secret scanner and SBOM. Keeping them out of the tarball costs nothing here.
+#
+# `examples/` goes with `tests/` rather than staying behind: the DPoP example
+# reads `tests/fixtures/test-private.pem` through `include_str!`, so shipping the
+# example without the fixture would leave it unbuildable from the tarball.
+exclude = ["tests/", "examples/", "benches/"]
+
 [dependencies]
 async-trait = "0.1"
 base64 = "0.22"
diff --git a/fastmcp/Cargo.toml b/fastmcp/Cargo.toml
index d18f29e..a687fa6 100644
--- a/fastmcp/Cargo.toml
+++ b/fastmcp/Cargo.toml
@@ -10,6 +10,19 @@ readme = "README.md"
 keywords = ["oauth", "jwt", "fastmcp", "adapter", "authplane"]
 categories = ["authentication", "api-bindings"]
 
+# Tests, examples and benches are not shipped in the published crate. They are
+# not what a consumer compiles against, they are all readable in the repository,
+# and `core/tests/fixtures/` holds RSA and EC private keys the unit tests and the
+# DPoP example use. Those keys are test material — nothing verifies against them —
+# but a crates.io version is immutable, so anything that ships stays shipped, and
+# key-shaped files in a published tarball are permanent noise for every downstream
+# secret scanner and SBOM. Keeping them out of the tarball costs nothing here.
+#
+# `examples/` goes with `tests/` rather than staying behind: the DPoP example
+# reads `tests/fixtures/test-private.pem` through `include_str!`, so shipping the
+# example without the fixture would leave it unbuildable from the tarball.
+exclude = ["tests/", "examples/", "benches/"]
+
 [dependencies]
 authplane-sdk = { path = "../core", version = "0.1.0" }
 fastmcp-rust = "0.3.0"
diff --git a/mcp/Cargo.toml b/mcp/Cargo.toml
index ea551e5..4652384 100644
--- a/mcp/Cargo.toml
+++ b/mcp/Cargo.toml
@@ -10,6 +10,19 @@ readme = "README.md"
 keywords = ["oauth", "jwt", "mcp", "adapter", "authplane"]
 categories = ["authentication", "api-bindings"]
 
+# Tests, examples and benches are not shipped in the published crate. They are
+# not what a consumer compiles against, they are all readable in the repository,
+# and `core/tests/fixtures/` holds RSA and EC private keys the unit tests and the
+# DPoP example use. Those keys are test material — nothing verifies against them —
+# but a crates.io version is immutable, so anything that ships stays shipped, and
+# key-shaped files in a published tarball are permanent noise for every downstream
+# secret scanner and SBOM. Keeping them out of the tarball costs nothing here.
+#
+# `examples/` goes with `tests/` rather than staying behind: the DPoP example
+# reads `tests/fixtures/test-private.pem` through `include_str!`, so shipping the
+# example without the fixture would leave it unbuildable from the tarball.
+exclude = ["tests/", "examples/", "benches/"]
+
 [dependencies]
 authplane-sdk = { path = "../core", version = "0.1.0" }
 axum = "0.8"