zablo-cli 0.4.0

Zablo — zero-knowledge secrets for machines. CLI client.

Zablo CLI

Command-line client for Zablo — zero-knowledge secrets for machines.

The server never sees your plaintext. Encryption happens on the client with your passphrase; only the ciphertext leaves the process.

Requires a running Zablo server. Point the CLI at your instance with ZABLO_API_URL or zablo configure.

Install

pip install zablo

Requires Python 3.9+. Installs two executables: zablo (canonical) and zx (short alias).

Quick start

# One-time setup
zablo configure

# Write / read a secret
echo -n "super-secret-42" | zablo put prod/db/password
zablo get prod/db/password

# List, delete
zablo ls prod/
zablo rm prod/db/password

# Sidecar: inject secrets into a subprocess. Plaintext never touches disk.
zablo exec --env DB_PASSWORD=prod/db/password -- ./run-migrations.sh

# Verify cryptographic lineage of a secret (Merkle-chained rotations)
zablo verify prod/db/password

Environment variables

Override config on the fly:

Var	Purpose
ZABLO_API_URL	Base URL of the Zablo API (default https://api.zablo.io)
ZABLO_API_KEY	Bearer token (long-lived vk_... or session vks_...)
ZABLO_PASSPHRASE	Client-side passphrase for AES-256-GCM decryption

Workload identity federation (GitHub Actions, Kubernetes, GCP, AWS, Azure)

Instead of a long-lived API key, exchange a signed OIDC token from your runner for a short-lived (~15 min) Zablo session token:

# .github/workflows/deploy.yml
permissions:
  id-token: write   # <— tells GitHub to mint OIDC tokens for the job

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Get Zablo session
        run: |
          pip install zablo jq-cli
          TOKEN=$(curl -sS -H "Authorization: bearer $ACTIONS_ID_TOKEN_REQUEST_TOKEN" \
                   "$ACTIONS_ID_TOKEN_REQUEST_URL&audience=zablo.io" | jq -r .value)
          eval "$(zablo federate --subject-token "$TOKEN" --export)"
          zablo get prod/db/password  # or use zablo exec
        env:
          ZABLO_API_URL: https://api.acme.zablo.io
          ZABLO_PASSPHRASE: ${{ secrets.ZABLO_PASSPHRASE }}

No long-lived API key in secrets.*. The runner's ambient OIDC identity is the credential.

Zero-knowledge model

Every secret you put is encrypted on your machine with an AES-256-GCM key derived from your passphrase (PBKDF2-SHA256, 600,000 iterations, 16-byte salt, 12-byte IV). The server receives only ciphertext.

Even if the Zablo database is compromised, an attacker cannot decrypt anything without your passphrase — which never leaves your machine. This is a mathematical property of the architecture, not a policy.

Interop with the Node CLI (vk)

Zablo also ships a Node.js CLI. Both CLIs use the exact same envelope format — a secret written by one can be read by the other, provided the same passphrase.

Development

git clone https://github.com/zablo/zablo
cd zablo
python -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e '.[dev]'
pytest

Build a distribution locally:

pip install build
python -m build
ls dist/

Release

Tag & push:

git tag v0.1.0
git push origin v0.1.0

The publish-pypi.yml workflow runs the test matrix across Python 3.9–3.13, builds sdist + wheel, and publishes to PyPI via Trusted Publishing (no long-lived API tokens required).

License

Apache-2.0. See LICENSE.