coder/docs/user-guides/user-secrets.md

User secrets (Beta)

User secrets let you store secret values in Coder and make them available in every workspace you own.

Note

User secrets are in Beta and may change. For more information, see feature stages.

How user secrets work

Each user secret has:

• A name, used to manage the secret with the CLI or REST API.
• A value, which contains the sensitive content.
• An optional description.
• An optional environment variable target, file target, or both.

A secret without an environment variable target or file target is stored, but is not injected into workspaces.

User secrets apply to all workspaces that you own.

Secret values are omitted from CLI output and REST API responses after you create or update them.

Warning

Anyone with shell or file access to a workspace can read secrets injected into that workspace. Do not share a workspace that has injected secrets with users who should not access those values.

How your secrets reach a workspace

Coder applies your secrets when your workspace starts. The same applies any time the workspace agent reconnects to Coder, for example after the workspace or the agent restarts. To pick up a change to a secret while a workspace is running, restart the workspace.

Environment variable secrets

Coder injects environment variable secrets into every new shell, terminal, app, SSH session, and startup script that you start in your workspace. Existing shells and processes keep the environment they were given when they started.

If you...	...then in your workspace
Create or update an env secret	The change applies after the next workspace start. Until then, your running workspace continues to use the secrets it had when it last started.
Rename the env var (--env NEW_NAME)	After the next workspace start, new shells get NEW_NAME and the old name is no longer set.
Clear the env target (--env "") or delete the secret	After the next workspace start, the variable is no longer injected.

To pick up a change in a long-running shell or app started after a restart, restart that shell or app.

File secrets

Coder writes file secrets to your workspace filesystem when the workspace starts, before any startup scripts run. New parent directories are created as needed. If the file already exists, Coder overwrites the contents and leaves the existing permissions alone.

If you...	...then in your workspace
Create or update a file secret	The file is written or overwritten at the next workspace start.
Change the file path (--file NEW_PATH)	At the next workspace start, a file is written at NEW_PATH. The file at the previous path stays on disk with its old value.
Clear the file target (--file "") or delete the secret	The previously-written file stays on disk with its last value.

Important

Coder never deletes secret files it has written for you. If you remove a secret, change its file path, or clear the file target, the previous file stays in your workspace until you delete it. To remove a stale file, open a terminal in your workspace and run rm <path>. Rebuilding the workspace may clear stale files when your template recreates the filesystem.

If you set two file secrets that resolve to the same absolute path (for example ~/config and /home/coder/config), only one of them ends up on disk; the workspace agent logs a warning to help spot this. Use distinct paths to avoid the collision.

Limits

User secrets are subject to the following limits. Coder enforces these when you create or update a secret and rejects the request with an explanatory 400 when you exceed one. Delete or shrink an existing secret to make room.

Cap	Value
Total secrets per user	50
Combined stored value bytes per user	200 KiB
Combined stored env-injected value bytes	24 KiB
Per-secret value bytes	24 KiB
Env var name length	256 bytes

Only secrets created with --env count against the env-injected budget. Coder injects these into the workspace agent's process environment, which on Windows has a ~32 KiB total budget. The 24 KiB ceiling leaves room for Coder's own variables (CODER_*, PATH, HOME, ...) plus any template-defined env. To inject a value larger than this budget, use --file instead; file secrets do not count against the env budget.

The per-secret cap matches the env aggregate cap because a value larger than the env aggregate could never be injected successfully as an environment variable.

These caps measure stored bytes, which is what Coder writes to the database. In deployments with secret encryption enabled, stored bytes exceed the raw value.

Create a secret

You can create, edit, and delete user secrets in the Coder dashboard. Click your avatar, select Account, then select Secrets.

Use coder secret create <name> to create a user secret. For sensitive values, provide the value through non-interactive stdin with a pipe or redirect. This keeps the value out of your shell history and process arguments.

Create an environment variable secret

Use --env to inject a secret into your workspaces as an environment variable. The secret is available under the environment variable name you provide. User secret environment variables take precedence over template-defined environment variables with the same name, including variables set with coder_env.

echo -n "$API_KEY" | coder secret create api-key \
  --description "API key for workspace tools" \
  --env API_KEY

Create a file secret

Use --file to inject a secret as a file in your workspaces. File paths must start with ~/ or /.

coder secret create tool-config \
  --description "Tool configuration" \
  --file ~/.config/tool/config.json \
  < ./tool-config.json

On Windows workspaces, prefer ~/... paths. They resolve to your Windows user profile directory. Paths starting with / are accepted but resolve to the root of the workspace's current drive, which is template dependent.

Create a secret with environment variable and file targets

You can inject the same secret as both an environment variable and a file:

echo -n "$TOKEN" | coder secret create service-token \
  --description "Service token for workspace tools" \
  --env SERVICE_TOKEN \
  --file ~/.config/service/token

Use --value

You can also provide a secret value with --value:

coder secret create api-key \
  --value "$API_KEY" \
  --description "API key for workspace tools" \
  --env API_KEY

For sensitive values, prefer stdin because --value can expose the secret in shell history or process arguments.

Stdin is read verbatim. If the source file ends with a trailing newline, Coder stores that newline as part of the secret value. Use echo -n when you do not want to store a trailing newline:

echo -n "$API_KEY" | coder secret create api-key --env API_KEY

Update a secret

Use coder secret update to update a secret value, description, environment variable target, or file target. At least one of --value, --description, --env, or --file must be specified.

# Update a secret value.
echo -n "$NEW_API_KEY" | coder secret update api-key

# Change the environment variable target.
coder secret update api-key --env NEW_API_KEY

# Clear the file injection target while keeping the secret.
coder secret update api-key --file ""

List and delete secrets

List, show, and delete your secrets with the coder secret CLI:

# List all of your secrets.
coder secret list

# Show a single secret by name.
coder secret list api-key

# Delete a secret you no longer need.
coder secret delete api-key

The list and show commands return secret metadata only. They never return the secret value.

See How your secrets reach a workspace for what happens to running workspaces when you delete a secret.

For full command details, see coder secret and the Secrets API reference.