What Is Secret Management? Keeping Credentials Safe

Secret management is the practice of storing, accessing, and rotating sensitive information — API keys, passwords, certificates, tokens — in a secure, auditable system rather than hardcoding them or storing them in configuration files.

The Problem with Hardcoded Secrets

If an API key is in your source code, it gets committed to Git, appears in logs, and may end up in screenshots or public repos. Rotating the key requires a code change and redeploy.

Fly.io Secrets

Fly's fly secrets set command stores secrets in Fly's internal secret store, encrypted at rest. They're injected as environment variables into your running VMs. You can list which secrets exist but not read their values.

fly secrets set STRIPE_KEY=sk_live_...
fly secrets list

OpenClaw and Secrets

OpenClaw's config references environment variables for all sensitive values. Bot tokens, API keys, and database credentials are stored as Fly secrets and injected at runtime. OpenClaw never stores secrets in its config file on disk — only the references.

When You Need a Dedicated Secret Manager

For small to medium deployments, Fly secrets are sufficient. As you scale, tools like HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, or Doppler give you secrets rotation, audit logs, fine-grained access policies, and dynamic secrets (temporary credentials).