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Secrets

Inject tokens and API keys into agent containers using Podman's native secret store.

Single-tenant design

Stromboli is designed for single-tenant deployments. All API users have access to all Podman secrets on the host. For multi-tenant environments, deploy separate instances per tenant.

How it works

Host: podman secret create github-token ~/.gh/token
         ↓ stored securely in Podman
Podman Secrets Store
         ↓ API request: secrets_env
Agent Container: GH_TOKEN=<secret value>
  1. You create secrets using podman secret create
  2. API requests reference secrets by name via secrets_env
  3. Stromboli injects them as environment variables inside the container

Creating secrets

# GitHub token
echo "ghp_xxxxxxxxxxxx" | podman secret create github-token -

# From gh CLI config (requires yq)
yq -r '.["github.com"].oauth_token' ~/.config/gh/hosts.yml | podman secret create github-token -

# GitLab token
echo "$GITLAB_TOKEN" | podman secret create gitlab-token -

# Any API key
echo "sk-xxxxxxxxxxxx" | podman secret create openai-key -

Using secrets

List available secrets

curl localhost:8080/secrets

{"secrets": ["claude-credentials", "github-token", "gitlab-token"]}

Inject into an agent

Map Podman secret names to environment variables:

curl -X POST localhost:8080/run \
  -d '{
    "prompt": "Review the open PRs using gh CLI",
    "workdir": "/workspace",
    "podman": {
      "volumes": ["/home/user/myrepo:/workspace"],
      "secrets_env": {
        "GH_TOKEN": "github-token",
        "GITLAB_TOKEN": "gitlab-token"
      }
    }
  }'

Format: {"ENV_VAR_NAME": "podman_secret_name"}

Validation rules

Rule Detail
Env var format Must start with letter or underscore, contain only [a-zA-Z0-9_]
Blocked vars LD_PRELOAD, LD_LIBRARY_PATH are rejected
Secret name Non-empty, max 253 characters
Max per request 50 secrets

Managing secrets

# List
podman secret ls

# Inspect metadata (not the value)
podman secret inspect github-token

# Update (remove + recreate)
podman secret rm github-token
echo "new-token" | podman secret create github-token -

# Delete
podman secret rm github-token

Security guidelines

Do:

  • Use Podman secrets — never pass tokens directly in API requests
  • Use minimal permissions (read-only tokens when possible)
  • Rotate secrets regularly
  • Use descriptive names (github-token, gitlab-readonly)

Don't:

  • Hardcode tokens in code or configs
  • Use admin/full-access tokens when read-only works
  • Share secrets across environments
Service Use case Permissions
GitHub PR review repo:read, pull_request:read
GitHub PR actions repo:write, pull_request:write
GitLab Read repos read_repository
GitLab CI/CD read_repository, read_api

Troubleshooting

Secret not found — Create it first: echo "$TOKEN" | podman secret create name -

Permission denied — Check the secret exists (podman secret ls) and the name in the request matches exactly.

Token expired — Update the secret: podman secret rm name && echo "$NEW_TOKEN" | podman secret create name -