Secret Manager

Secret management system technical reference covering SecretManager interface, encryption, scoping, and audit

The secret management system provides centralized credential access, AES-256-GCM encryption, per-agent access scoping, and secret reference resolution. All credential access in the system goes through the SecretManager interface, allowing direct process.env reads to be banned via ESLint everywhere else.

SecretManager Interface

The core SecretManager interface is intentionally minimal — no bulk access or enumeration of values.

Source: packages/core/src/security/secret-manager.ts — immutable interface with 4 methods.

OAuth credentials use a separate port. API keys and other read-only secrets live in SecretStorePort (this page). OAuth tokens — which need refresh-on-write semantics with per-profile-id locking — live in OAuthCredentialStorePort. The two are intentionally separate: the secret store is read-only by contract; the OAuth store is mutable with refresh, expiry, and lock-coordinated writes. See OAuth concepts for the full picture.

interface SecretManager {
  /** Get a secret value by key, or undefined if not set. */
  get(key: string): string | undefined;

  /** Check if a secret key is available (value is defined). */
  has(key: string): boolean;

  /**
   * Get a secret value by key, throwing if not set.
   * Error message includes the key name for diagnostics.
   */
  require(key: string): string;

  /** Get the list of available key names (defensive copy). */
  keys(): string[];
}

createSecretManager

function createSecretManager(
  env: Record<string, string | undefined>
): SecretManager

Creates a SecretManager from a record of environment variables. Design principles:

• Defensive copy: Takes a snapshot of defined values into an internal Map. Subsequent mutations to the env parameter have no effect on the returned manager.
• No enumeration: No .env property or .getAll() method is exposed. The only way to list keys is via keys(), which returns a defensive copy.
• Diagnostic errors: require() includes the missing key name in the error message for troubleshooting.
• Immutable: The returned object has only the 4 documented methods.

envSubset

function envSubset(
  manager: SecretManager,
  allowedKeys: readonly string[]
): Record<string, string>

Creates a restricted environment record for subprocess spawning. Instead of passing the full process.env to child_process.spawn(), use this to select only the keys the subprocess needs. Returns a plain object with only the allowed keys that exist in the manager.

SecretsCrypto

The encryption engine uses AES-256-GCM with HKDF-SHA256 key derivation. Pure cryptographic primitives — has zero knowledge of storage.

Source: packages/core/src/security/secret-crypto.ts — all operations return Result type, never throw (except createSecretsCrypto which validates the master key at creation time).

Algorithm Details

Component	Specification
Cipher	AES-256-GCM
Key Derivation	HKDF-SHA256
HKDF info string	Versioned for future crypto upgrades
Master key minimum	32 bytes
Salt	32 bytes random per encryption
IV (nonce)	12 bytes random (AES-GCM standard)
Auth tag	16 bytes (GCM authentication tag)

EncryptedSecret Interface

interface EncryptedSecret {
  readonly ciphertext: Buffer;  // AES-256-GCM ciphertext
  readonly iv: Buffer;          // 12-byte initialization vector
  readonly authTag: Buffer;     // 16-byte GCM authentication tag
  readonly salt: Buffer;        // 32-byte random salt for HKDF
}

All fields are independent Buffer copies with no shared memory references.

createSecretsCrypto

function createSecretsCrypto(masterKey: Buffer): SecretsCrypto

Creates a SecretsCrypto engine with the given master key.

• Master key must be at least 32 bytes (fails fast at creation, not per-call)
• Only the first 32 bytes are used
• Returns an object with encrypt(plaintext) and decrypt(encrypted) methods
• Both methods return Result<T, Error> — never throw

Encryption Flow

1. Generate 32-byte random salt
2. Derive encryption key via HKDF-SHA256: hkdfSync("sha256", masterKey, salt, infoString, 32)
3. Generate 12-byte random IV
4. Encrypt with aes-256-gcm using derived key and IV
5. Return { ciphertext, iv, authTag, salt }

parseMasterKey

function parseMasterKey(raw: string): Buffer

Parses a master key from a hex or base64 encoded string.

Format	Minimum Length	Bytes Produced
Hex	64 characters	32+ bytes
Base64	44 characters	32+ bytes

Tries hex decoding first (even length, 64+ chars). Falls back to base64 if hex fails. Throws Error if neither encoding produces at least 32 bytes.

ScopedSecretManager

A per-agent SecretManager decorator that restricts access to secrets matching glob patterns and emits audit events.

Source: createScopedSecretManager() in packages/core/src/security/secret-manager.ts (same module as SecretManager) — decorator pattern, callers cannot distinguish from a plain SecretManager.

createScopedSecretManager

function createScopedSecretManager(
  base: SecretManager,
  options: ScopedSecretManagerOptions
): SecretManager

Options:

Field	Type	Description
agentId	string	Agent this scoped manager belongs to (included in audit events)
allowPatterns	string[]	Glob patterns that grant access
eventBus	TypedEventBus?	Optional event bus for audit event emission

Access Control

• Glob pattern matching: Case-insensitive, supports * wildcard. Pattern openai_* matches OPENAI_API_KEY.
• Empty allowPatterns = unrestricted access: This is intentional for backward compatibility — existing agents with no secrets.allow config get Zod default of [], which means “no restrictions” (not “deny all”).
• Deny behavior: When access is denied, get() returns undefined, has() returns false, require() throws with a descriptive error.

Audit Events

Every access attempt (via get, has, or require) emits a secret:accessed event through the optional eventBus:

{
  secretName: string;
  agentId: string;
  outcome: "success" | "denied" | "not_found";
  timestamp: number;
}

Important: keys() filters the returned list but does NOT emit events (listing operation, not access).

Unrestricted Access Warning

The first time an agent accesses a secret without explicit secrets.allow configuration (empty allowPatterns), a one-time security:warn event is emitted:

{
  category: "secret_access",
  agentId: string,
  message: "Agent ... accessed secret ... without explicit secrets.allow configuration.",
  timestamp: number
}

This warning fires only once per ScopedSecretManager instance.

Credential Broker as a SecretManager Consumer

The credential broker is a per-request consumer of the platform (unscoped) SecretManager. On each proxied HTTPS request, the broker calls SecretManager.get(secretRef) to resolve the binding’s secret. The key is never cached to disk — it lives only in the daemon’s encrypted store and in memory for the duration of the injection.

Resolution emits a secret:accessed audit event with the following fields: secretName, agentId, outcome (success/not_found), timestamp. A not_found outcome causes the broker to return 502 and refuse to forward the request — there is no fallback path that sends a request upstream without a valid credential.

Scoping note. The broker uses the platform (unscoped) SecretManager for executor-level bindings (executor.broker.bindings[*].secretRef). Per-agent scoped secrets in exec tool invocations (secretRefs in exec tool config) use a ScopedSecretManager — these are two distinct injection paths and are intentionally kept separate.

Source: packages/infra/src/credential-broker/mitm-broker.ts:501–506 — secret:accessed emission on both success and not_found paths. See Credential Broker for the complete broker deep-dive.

SecretRef Resolution

Secret references allow YAML config files to reference secrets from multiple sources without storing plaintext values.

Source: packages/core/src/security/secret-ref-resolver.ts — Three resolution providers.

Providers

Source	Syntax	Description
env	env:provider/KEY_NAME	Reads from SecretManager (environment variables or encrypted store)
file	file:provider/path	Reads from an absolute file path. Supports JSON Pointer extraction via provider#/json/pointer syntax
exec	exec:provider/id	Invokes a credential helper binary via JSON RPC protocol with timeout

File Provider Details

• Path must be absolute (rejects relative paths)
• Rejects paths containing .. segments
• Validates file exists and is a regular file
• Handles symlinks: resolves with realpathSync and re-validates
• Maximum file size: 1 MB (default fileMaxBytes)
• JSON Pointer extraction: provider#/json/pointer syntax for extracting specific fields from JSON files

Exec Provider Details

• Sends JSON RPC request: { protocolVersion: 1, provider, ids: [id] }
• Default timeout: 10 seconds (execTimeoutMs)
• Maximum output buffer: 1 MB
• Validates response shape: { protocolVersion: 1, values: { [id]: string } }

Config Deep Walk

resolveConfigSecretRefs() recursively walks a config object and resolves all SecretRef values to strings. Operates on a structuredClone — never mutates the original. Fails fast on the first resolution error.

Secrets Audit

The secrets audit scanner detects plaintext secrets in config files and known provider environment variables.

Source: packages/core/src/security/secrets-audit.ts — Structured findings for CLI and JSON output.

scanConfigForSecrets

Walks raw parsed config recursively. For each leaf string value whose field name matches SECRET_FIELD_PATTERN, emits a PLAINTEXT_SECRET finding unless the value is a SecretRef object or empty.

scanEnvForSecrets

Scans env records for known provider patterns. Detects API keys and secrets from 11 named providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, Telegram, Discord, Slack _BOT_TOKEN and _SIGNING_SECRET, Groq, Deepgram, ElevenLabs, Brave, Google, Comis SECRETS_MASTER_KEY) plus 4 generic suffix patterns (_API_KEY, _SECRET, _TOKEN, _PASSWORD).

Skips operational variables: COMIS_*, NODE_*, PATH, HOME, SHELL, USER, TERM, LANG, TZ, EDITOR, VISUAL.

Finding Types

Code	Severity	Source	Description
PLAINTEXT_SECRET	error	Config files	Non-empty string in a secret field name
KNOWN_PROVIDER_ENV	warn	.env files	Known provider secret in environment
HIGH_ENTROPY_VALUE	info	Various	Suspicious high-entropy string

Configuration

Secrets storage (Global)

Field	Type	Default	Description
security.storage	"encrypted" | "file" | "env"	"encrypted"	Credential storage backend: encrypted (AES-256-GCM SQLite), file (plaintext JSON at 0600), or env (read-only, reads .env/process.env). The database path is fixed at <dataDir>/secrets.db and is not configurable.

Source: packages/core/src/config/schema-security.ts — SecurityConfigSchema Zod schema.

AgentSecretsConfigSchema (Per-Agent)

Field	Type	Default	Description
allow	string[]	[]	Glob patterns for allowed secret names. Empty = unrestricted access.

# Global secrets configuration
security:
  storage: encrypted   # encrypted (default) | file | env; DB path is fixed at <dataDir>/secrets.db

# Per-agent secrets access
agents:
  my-agent:
    secrets:
      allow:
        - "OPENAI_*"
        - "ANTHROPIC_*"
        - "MY_CUSTOM_KEY"

Secret Access Utilities

matchesSecretPattern

function matchesSecretPattern(secretName: string, pattern: string): boolean

Case-insensitive glob matching for secret name filtering. Supports * as wildcard. Regex special characters in the pattern are treated as literals.

Source: packages/core/src/security/secret-access.ts — custom 15-line implementation instead of picomatch/minimatch (sufficient for * wildcards).

isSecretAccessible

function isSecretAccessible(
  secretName: string,
  allowPatterns: string[]
): boolean

Returns true if the secret name matches any of the allow patterns, or if allowPatterns is empty (unrestricted access for backward compatibility).

Pattern Examples

Pattern	Matches	Does Not Match
openai_*	OPENAI_API_KEY, OPENAI_ORG_ID	ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
*_api_key	OPENAI_API_KEY, BRAVE_API_KEY	DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN
my_secret	MY_SECRET (case-insensitive)	MY_SECRET_2
*	Everything	—

For user-facing setup guide, see Secrets.

Security Model

Defense-in-depth security architecture

Node Permissions

Node.js permission model integration

OAuth

Subscription-based authentication storage and refresh