vlt

日本語

Lightweight secret manager for AI developers.

Stop scattering API keys across .env files. vlt stores secrets in an encrypted local vault and resolves vlt:// references at runtime — nothing sensitive touches disk or git history.

Features

• AES-256-GCM encrypted local vault (SQLite)
• OS Keychain integration for master key storage (macOS Keychain)
• vlt:// reference scheme — use references in env vars, resolve at runtime
• Zero config — single binary, no daemon, no cloud account required
• Shell integration — eval "$(vlt env)" for seamless workflow

Install

From source (requires Rust 1.70+)

cargo install --path .

Build from GitHub

git clone https://github.com/Bayfront-Software/vlt.git
cd vlt
cargo build --release
cp target/release/vlt ~/.cargo/bin/

Quick Start

# Initialize vault (stores master key in OS Keychain)
vlt init

# Store secrets
vlt set openai/api-key "sk-..."
vlt set anthropic/api-key "sk-ant-..."

# Pipe from another command
cat key.txt | vlt set github/token

# Retrieve a secret
vlt get openai/api-key

# List all keys
vlt list

# Delete a secret
vlt delete openai/api-key

Usage

Run with resolved secrets

Set env vars to vlt:// references, and vlt run resolves them in-memory before executing your command:

OPENAI_API_KEY="vlt://openai/api-key" vlt run -- python app.py

The child process receives the real secret value. The reference never leaves your shell config.

Shell integration

Add to your ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc:

export OPENAI_API_KEY="vlt://openai/api-key"
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="vlt://anthropic/api-key"

Then launch any tool through vlt run:

vlt run -- claude
vlt run -- python train.py

Or export all resolved secrets into your current shell:

eval "$(vlt env)"

How It Works

┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│  vlt CLI                             │
│  init / set / get / run / env        │
├──────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Resolve Engine                      │
│  Scans env for vlt:// references     │
│  Replaces in-memory only             │
├──────────────┬───────────────────────┤
│  Master Key  │  Encrypted Vault      │
│  OS Keychain │  SQLite + AES-256-GCM │
└──────────────┴───────────────────────┘

1. vlt init generates a 256-bit master key and stores it in the OS Keychain
2. vlt set encrypts each secret value with AES-256-GCM (unique nonce per value) and stores it in a local SQLite database
3. vlt run scans environment variables for vlt:// prefixes, decrypts the referenced secrets, and passes them to the child process via exec
4. Secrets exist in plaintext only in process memory — never on disk, never in git

Security Model

Layer	Implementation
Encryption	AES-256-GCM with random 12-byte nonce per value
Key storage	macOS Keychain (protected by system auth)
Vault storage	~/Library/Application Support/vlt/vault.db
In transit	Secrets only in process memory, passed via env to child

License

MIT

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please open an issue first to discuss what you'd like to change.