Atmos Secrets

Use this skill for declared secrets, secret backends, and the atmos secret command family. Secrets must be declared before they can be set, read, injected, or resolved with !secret.

Related Skills

Need	Load
Store-backed non-secret values	atmos-stores
YAML `!secret` and `!store` functions	atmos-yaml-functions
Auth identity for secret backend access	atmos-auth
Local Vault/OpenBao testing	atmos-emulator

Declare Secrets

Declare secrets under component secrets.vars and keep Terraform inputs secret-aware:

components:
  terraform:
    app:
      secrets:
        vars:
          DATADOG_API_KEY:
            description: Datadog API key
            store: prod/ssm
            required: true
      vars:
        datadog_api_key: !secret DATADOG_API_KEY

store: and sops: can be a YAML function such as !aws.cloudformation.output <component> <stack> <Output>. It is resolved lazily, only for the declaration a command uses, so an unresolvable selector (for example, an undeployed producer) fails just that declaration while literal-backend siblings keep working. atmos secret list never evaluates selectors: it shows status unresolved and a reason until --verify. atmos secret validate fails if a sops: selector cannot be resolved, because collisions cannot be ruled out.

Supported backend families include AWS SSM, AWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault, Azure Key Vault, GCP Secret Manager, 1Password, and SOPS-encrypted files.

Commands

Command	Purpose
`atmos secret list -s <stack> -c <component>`	List declared secrets and status
`atmos secret init -s <stack> -c <component>`	Provision/rotate declared secrets interactively
`atmos secret set <name> -s <stack> -c <component>`	Set a declared secret
`atmos secret get <name> -s <stack> -c <component>`	Retrieve a declared secret, masked by default
`atmos secret import -s <stack> -c <component>`	Bring existing backend secrets under management
`atmos secret pull -s <stack> -c <component>`	Download declared secrets to a local file
`atmos secret push -s <stack> -c <component>`	Upload declared secrets from a local file
`atmos secret shell -s <stack> -c <component>`	Start a shell with secrets in environment
`atmos secret exec -s <stack> -c <component> -- <cmd>`	Run one command with secrets injected
`atmos secret validate -s <stack> -c <component>`	CI gate for required initialized secrets
`atmos secret keygen ...`	Generate key material for supported vault backends

Use --identity when backend access needs an Atmos Auth identity. --identity=false disables Atmos authentication entirely: a store pinned to an identity: then uses ambient credentials, and Atmos warns once per store. Without an interactive terminal, atmos secret set on an existing value and atmos secret delete need --force. Use --type to disambiguate component kinds.

Safety Rules

Keep secrets declared, not scattered through raw !store calls.
Prefer !secret for sensitive values and !store/!store.get for non-sensitive shared data.
Leave --mask enabled for normal operations; masked inspection should not leak values.
Use atmos secret validate in CI before plan/apply workflows that require secrets.
Never commit pulled local secret files unless they are intentionally SOPS-encrypted and approved by repository policy.

SKILL.md