Secret manager for Claude Code

Claude Code works best when it can run your project: the test suite, a migration, the dev server. Those need your API keys. Pasting keys into the chat or leaving them in a .env file the agent can read puts them in its context, its logs and anything it writes.

dotsafe is a secret manager built for this. Claude Code asks dotsafe to run a command, you approve it with Touch ID, and the command gets your secrets as environment variables. Claude Code gets the output back with every secret replaced by [dotsafe:NAME].

Set up

Install the dotsafe command from the app (Settings → Agents → Install), then add it to Claude Code:

claude mcp add dotsafe -- dotsafe mcp

The dotsafe app must be open and unlocked. Without it, run dotsafe daemon in a terminal and approve requests there.

What Claude Code can do

• List your projects, environments and variable names. Never values.
• Run a command with an environment's variables, such as bun test or bunx prisma migrate dev, once you approve it.
• Create a random secret, such as JWT_SECRET, without seeing the value.

Commands that would only print your secrets, like env or printenv, are refused outright.

Keep API keys out of the process too

For OpenAI and Anthropic keys, dotsafe goes further. The command Claude Code runs gets a placeholder key and a local address, and dotsafe's proxy adds the real key on the way to api.openai.com or api.anthropic.com. Even a command that tries to print or send the key has nothing to leak.

You stay in control

• Every request shows the exact command and which variables it gets. Allow it once, or for a while.
• Every request is written to an encrypted audit log: dotsafe audit.
• Your secrets stay encrypted on your Mac. dotsafe has no server that could hand them out.

Read the full guide: A secret manager for AI agents.