agent-opaque-env

Self-describing encrypted environment files for AI-assisted development.

The package keeps environment keys and values out of plain-text repository context. Its Rust extension also raises the cost of casual static analysis. It is not a secret manager: an agent or process allowed to call load_env() can read the returned values.

Install

uv add agent-opaque-env

The wheel contains the Rust implementation. Users do not need to install cryptography or a Rust toolchain when a wheel is available for their platform.

Use

from agent_opaque_env import dump_env, load_env


dump_env({"APP_MODE": "development"}, ".env")
values = load_env(".env")

dump_env() defaults to the zero-configuration obfuscation profile. It creates an owner-only file and stores shuffled key material with the ciphertext. This prevents direct text collection but does not create a separate secret boundary.

For protection when the repository is copied without its key, use the protected profile:

from agent_opaque_env import dump_env, load_env


# Public example key only. Never use this key for real secrets.
key = "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA="
dump_env(values, ".env", profile="protected", key=key, key_id="example-local")
values = load_env(".env", key=key)

Generate a unique key for real use and keep it outside the repository. Instead of passing key=, applications may set the AGENT_OPAQUE_ENV_KEY environment variable. Missing or incorrect keys fail explicitly and never downgrade to obfuscation.

from agent_opaque_env import generate_key


key = generate_key()  # Store this outside the repository before encrypting files.

Self-describing AOE1 format

An AOE1 file is ASCII with exactly three lines:

AGENT-OPAQUE-ENV/1
{"algorithm":"AES-256-GCM","format":"AOE1","import":"agent_opaque_env","loader":"load_env","package":"https://pypi.org/project/agent-opaque-env/","profile":"obfuscation"}
{"ciphertext":"...","key_fragments":["...","...","..."],"nonce":"..."}

The fixed package URL tells a developer or agent that the agent-opaque-env PyPI distribution and its load_env API understand the file. It never contains a shell command, package-manager arguments, any other URL, environment values, or other executable instructions. Verify the dependency against the project configuration before installing anything named by an untrusted file.

Metadata bytes are authenticated as AES-GCM associated data. Unknown fields, non-canonical JSON, modified metadata, altered ciphertext, and unsupported formats are rejected.

API

dump_env(values, path=".env", *, profile="obfuscation", key=None, key_id=None)
load_env(path=".env", *, key=None) -> dict[str, str]
loads_env(data, *, key=None) -> dict[str, str]
generate_key() -> str

Only CPython 3.11 and newer are supported. New files use AOE1 exclusively; Pickle and older formats are intentionally unsupported.