keystash 🔑

Local-first encrypted vault for API keys, tokens and passwords — one file, fuzzy search, env injection, expiry tracking.

Your LLM API keys, cloud tokens and passwords are scattered across .env files, shell histories and notes apps. keystash puts them in one encrypted file that you own: no server, no account, no subscription. Sync that file with iCloud / Dropbox / SeaDrive / Syncthing — it's ciphertext, so syncing it is safe.

pip install keystash

Why keystash

Quick start

# 1. Create your vault (encrypted with AES-128-CBC + HMAC, PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256 600k iters)
keystash init

# 2. Store a secret
keystash add openai --secret sk-... --tags llm,prod --expires 2027-01-31 --env-var OPENAI_API_KEY

# 3. Retrieve it
keystash get openai              # masked preview
keystash get openai -c           # → clipboard, auto-clears after 30 s
keystash get openai -q           # raw secret for scripts: export K=$(keystash get openai -q)

# 4. Find things (fuzzy)
keystash ls                      # everything, expiry warnings included
keystash ls oprod                # fuzzy: matches openai-prod
keystash ls --tag llm --json

# 5. Inject secrets into any command — nothing touches your shell or disk
keystash run -n openai -n anthropic -- python train.py
keystash run --tag llm -- python train.py
eval "$(keystash env --tag llm)" # or export them explicitly

# 6. Migrate off plaintext .env files
keystash import .env             # then delete the .env file

Commands

Multi-machine sync

The vault is a single encrypted file. Point KEYSTASH_VAULT at any synced folder:

export KEYSTASH_VAULT="~/CloudStorage/SeaDrive/vault.json"   # or iCloud, Dropbox, …

Each write re-encrypts with a fresh random salt, so last-writer-wins applies — prefer one writer per vault at a time, like any sync file.

Security model

• Cipher: Fernet (AES-128-CBC + HMAC-SHA256, encrypt-then-MAC) via cryptography.
• Key derivation: PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256, 600 000 iterations, per-save 128-bit random salt.
• File mode: 0600; nothing is ever written to disk in plaintext.
• Clipboard: copied secrets are auto-cleared after 30 s (best effort, detached process).
• No network. No telemetry. The CLI is fully offline.
• Secrets live in process memory only while a command runs; Python cannot guarantee zeroization after exit — the same is true of any CLI in a GC'd language.

Environment variables

Development

git clone https://github.com/thu-lawyer/keystash && cd keystash
uv pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest

License

MIT