Secrets Management - Army of Agents

AoA encrypts local secrets at rest using a local master key. Agent environment variables that contain sensitive values (API keys, tokens) are stored as secret references. AWS Secrets Manager is supported as a provider vault for managed values and external references. gcp_secret_manager and vault remain coming-soon providers that are visible in descriptors but reject use until implemented.

Default Provider: `local_encrypted`

Secrets are encrypted with a local master key stored at:

~/.aoa/instances/default/secrets/master.key

This key is auto-created during onboarding. The key never leaves your machine.

AWS Secrets Manager Provider

Configure AWS vaults from the Secrets page or the provider-config API. AWS credentials are resolved from the deployment/runtime credential chain, not from AoA secrets. Use instance roles, workload identity, or environment credentials managed by your infrastructure. Remote import links AWS secret names/ARNs as external references. Import does not read plaintext secret values. Runtime reads resolve through AWS Secrets Manager and write a secret_access_events audit row for every success and failure. See docs/deploy/secrets-aws-provider.md for setup notes.

Configuration

CLI Setup

Onboarding writes default secrets config:

pnpm aoa onboard

Update secrets settings:

pnpm aoa configure --section secrets

Validate secrets config:

pnpm aoa doctor

Environment Overrides

Variable	Description
`AOA_SECRETS_MASTER_KEY`	32-byte key as base64, hex, or raw string
`AOA_SECRETS_MASTER_KEY_FILE`	Custom key file path
`AOA_SECRETS_STRICT_MODE`	Set to `true` to enforce secret refs

Strict Mode

When strict mode is enabled, sensitive env keys (matching *_API_KEY, *_TOKEN, *_SECRET) must use secret references instead of inline plain values.

AOA_SECRETS_STRICT_MODE=true

Recommended for any deployment beyond local trusted.

Migrating Inline Secrets

If you have existing agents with inline API keys in their config, migrate them to encrypted secret refs:

pnpm secrets:migrate-inline-env         # dry run
pnpm secrets:migrate-inline-env --apply # apply migration

Secret References in Agent Config

Agent environment variables use secret references:

{
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": {
      "type": "secret_ref",
      "secretId": "8f884973-c29b-44e4-8ea3-6413437f8081",
      "version": "latest"
    }
  }
}

The server resolves and decrypts these at runtime, injecting the real value into the agent process environment.

​Default Provider: local_encrypted

​AWS Secrets Manager Provider

​Configuration

​CLI Setup

​Environment Overrides

​Strict Mode

​Migrating Inline Secrets

​Secret References in Agent Config