User Secrets Manager

A desktop application for managing .NET User Secrets with a modern, intuitive interface.

Features

• Project Discovery - Automatically scans directories for .NET projects with User Secrets configured
• Visual Secret Editing - Edit secrets using a rich JSON editor with syntax highlighting
• AppSettings Comparison - View your appsettings.json and appsettings.Development.json side-by-side with secrets
• Copy AppSettings to Secrets - Quickly copy configuration from appsettings files to your secrets
• Cross-Platform - Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux
• Auto-Updates - Automatically checks for and installs updates

Installation

Windows

Download the latest installer from the Releases page:

• Setup Installer (User Secrets Manager Setup x.x.x.exe) - Installs to Program Files with Start Menu shortcuts
• Portable (User Secrets Manager x.x.x.exe) - Single executable, no installation required

macOS

Download the .dmg file from Releases and drag to Applications.

Linux

Download the .AppImage or .deb package from Releases.

Usage

1. Launch the app
2. Select a folder containing your .NET projects
3. Browse projects in the left sidebar - projects with User Secrets are automatically detected
4. Edit secrets in the JSON editor
5. Save changes with Ctrl+S or the Save button

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
Save	Ctrl+S / Cmd+S
Format JSON	Shift+Alt+F
Undo	Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z
Redo	Ctrl+Y / Cmd+Shift+Z

What are .NET User Secrets?

User Secrets is a .NET feature for storing sensitive configuration (API keys, connection strings, etc.) outside your project directory during development. Secrets are stored in:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Microsoft\UserSecrets\<UserSecretsId>\secrets.json
• macOS/Linux: ~/.microsoft/usersecrets/<UserSecretsId>/secrets.json

Learn more: Safe storage of app secrets in development in ASP.NET Core

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or later
• npm

Setup

cd src/SecretsManagerElectron
npm install

Run in Development

npm start

Run in Demo Mode

Demo mode uses sample data instead of scanning your actual projects:

npm run demo

Build

# Windows
npm run build:win

# macOS
npm run build:mac

# Linux
npm run build:linux

Build outputs are in the dist/ folder.

License

MIT

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.