github-to-sops 2.0.0

Standalone (no-dependencies beyond Python) script fetches SSH keys of GitHub repository contributors and generates SOPS-compatible SSH key files.

github-to-sops integrates SOPS with github team/user identities. Use sops + github instead of having to operate Hashicorp Vault, AWS Secret Manager or just stuffing everything into github action secrets, or fighting with GPG.

Why?

I think SOPS is the simplest way to manage secrets for team and individual projects, especially when combined with github as a key distribution mechanism.

This script makes it easy to setup SOPS as a lightweight gitops alternative to AWS Secrets Manager, AWS KMS, Hashicorp Vault.

SOPS is helpful to avoid the push-and-pray (https://dagger.io/ came up with this term and solution for it) pattern where all secrets for github actions are stored in Github Secrets such that nobody can repro stuff locally. With sops one can give github actions a single age private key and share all the development keys with rest of team on equal footing with CI/CD env.

Requirements

• sops
• Python3
• pip

Installation

This tool has two parts that need to be installed: github-to-sops itself, and sops.

Step 1: Install github-to-sops

The preferred way to install github-to-sops is with uv, a fast Python package installer:

uv pip install github-to-sops

As an alternative to installing, uv can also run github-to-sops directly. For example:

uv run github-to-sops -- import-keys > .sops.yaml

Step 2: Install sops

After installing github-to-sops, you need to install sops.

On Mac or Linux, github-to-sops provides a helper command to install sops for you:

github-to-sops install

For other platforms or for manual installation, please see the official sops installation guide.

Development Setup

For development on a local checkout, use uv to create a virtual environment and install in editable mode. This avoids externally-managed-environment errors on modern OSes.

Create and activate a virtual environment:

uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate

Then install in editable mode:

uv pip install -e .

Alternative: pip Installation

If you prefer not to use uv, you can install github-to-sops using pip:

pip install github-to-sops

Implementation

github-to-sops generates and maintains .sops.yaml file with comments indicating where the keys came from. Has refresh-secrets command to pull new secrets and re-encrypt files.

Idea for this originated in https://github.com/tarasglek/chatcraft.org/pull/319 after I got sick of devising a secure secret distribution scheme for every small project.

Contributions Welcome

• Tests
• Binary build for python-less environments
• Would be nice to add is ACLs and an integrity check to keys being used.

Examples:

I wrote an indepth explanation and screencasts on my blog post introducing github-to-sops.

Env vars:

• GITHUB_TOKEN: optional github token which helps avoid rate limiting.

I tried to make the code work without github tokens, but github requires them for private repos and does aggressive rate-limiting without them. See github docs on how to obtain GITHUB_TOKEN https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/keeping-your-account-and-data-secure/managing-your-personal-access-tokens

Example workflow for secrets with github

Import all public keys for contributors from an existing github project

github-to-sops import-keys  > .sops.yaml

of if your repo isn't published to github or you aren't working inside a git checkout

github-to-sops import-keys  --github-url https://github.com/tarasglek/chatcraft.org

lets see

cat .sops.yaml

creation_rules:
  - key_groups:
      - age:
        # Generated by `github-to-sops import-keys` https://github.com/tarasglek/github-to-sops
        - ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIG... user1@host # user1
        - ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABgQ... user2@host # user2

Put a sample secret in yaml

echo -e "secrets:\n  SECRET_KEY: dontlook" | sops --input-type yaml --output-type yaml  -e /dev/stdin > secrets.enc.yaml

Lets take a peek

head -n 9 secrets.enc.yaml

secrets:
    SECRET_KEY: ENC[AES256_GCM,data:MKKR6B0h1iA=,iv:KegjC62NQxich1dtodVF3aVnchf/fB+KQbtETh+4CaY=,tag:2+5mk4YMKKxLqaCOpZVNSA==,type:str]
sops:
    kms: []
    gcp_kms: []
    azure_kv: []
    hc_vault: []
    age:
        - recipient: age19j4d6v9j7rx5fs629fu387qz4zmlpsqjexa4s08tkfrrmfdl5cwqjlaupd

^ is safe to commit!

sops -i secrets.enc.yaml is useful for interactive editing.

Bulk-updating secrets+keys when someone is added/removed from project

github-to-sops refresh-secrets

Usage:

github-to-sops -h
usage: github-to-sops [-h] [--version] [--github-users GITHUB_USERS]
                      {install,refresh-secrets,import-keys} ...

Manage GitHub SSH keys and generate SOPS-compatible SSH key files.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --version             show program's version number and exit
  --github-users GITHUB_USERS
                        Comma-separated list of GitHub usernames to fetch keys
                        for. This is a global option that can be used with
                        import-keys and refresh-secrets.

Commands:
  {install,refresh-secrets,import-keys}
    install             Install sops binary for supported platforms (Linux and
                        Mac).
    refresh-secrets     Find all .sops.yaml files in the repo that are
                        managed by git and run `import-keys --inplace-edit
                        .sops.yaml` on them. Can be combined with
                        --github-users.
    import-keys         Import SSH keys of GitHub repository contributors or
                        specified github users and output that info into a
                        useful format like sops or ssh authorized_keys

Example invocations:
- `github-to-sops import-keys --github-url https://github.com/tarasglek/chatcraft.org --key-types ssh-ed25519 --format sops`
- `github-to-sops import-keys --github-url https://github.com/tarasglek/chatcraft.org --format authorized_keys`
- `github-to-sops import-keys --local-github-checkout . --format sops --key-types ssh-ed25519`
- `github-to-sops refresh-secrets`