Config File Format
The Envault configuration file is a YAML formatted file with a specific set of keys (outlined below) that is used to easily and securely fetch down a set of environment variables and their values from a remote server.
The official location to look for Envault configuration files is in a folder named envault, which must be at the root of the project. Any yml files that exist within this folder are assumed to be Envault configuration files and can be used by the package.
When Envault loads a config file, it ensures that all of the keys outlined below exist and have a (somewhat) sensible value; missing keys or keys that are not set properly will generate an error.
Configuration Keys⚓︎
Each Envault configuration file must contain a set of predefined keys, which are used to control how the package interacts with the Envault server (and in fact specifies where to actually find that server).
apiKeyName⚓︎
This specifies the name of an environment variable (which must already exist and be set in your environment). When requests are made to the Envault server, they use the value of that environment variable as the authentication key on the request.
This allows for saving the configuration file into source control without leaking the secret key that is used to make the Envault requests.
url⚓︎
This specifies the base server URL that should be used to make the Envault requests in order to fetch a set of environment variables.
Normally, this would be the default Envault server (which at the time of this writing does not yet exist), although you can also self host your own server if you would like to (for example, to have one in house).
vars⚓︎
This specifies a list of 0 or more keys that should be specified in the Envault request.
Each key specified here must be a key that is accessible by the provided apiKeyName, and will result in an environment variables and its value being returned by the service.
Tip
The name of the keys specified here do not necessarily correspond to the names of the environment variables that are returned by the service. Rather, they specify a named set of variables; such as auth to return a set of variables that are used to authorize various services, for example.
The same keys can be used in multiple configuration files, allowing you to easily share a common set of variables and values between projects.