scrt: A Command-Line Secret Manager for Developers and Sysadmins

scrt is a command-line secret manager for developers, sysadmins and devops. scrt aims to provide command-line users with a secure way of storing and retrieving secrets, while retaining control of the storage.

Warning: This project is currently under development and not production ready. Use at your own risk.

scrt is a command-line secret manager written in Go that gives developers, system administrators, and DevOps teams a secure way to store and retrieve secrets while maintaining complete control over where their data is stored.

Unlike cloud-based secret management services, scrt keeps your secrets local or in your chosen storage backend. This approach appeals to teams who need the convenience of a secret manager but have strict data residency requirements or simply prefer to keep sensitive information under their own control.

Core Features

The tool provides essential secret management functionality through a familiar command-line interface:

• Secure storage: Encrypts secrets using strong cryptography before storage
• Multiple backends: Supports various storage options including local files and cloud services
• CLI-first design: Built for terminal users who prefer keyboard-driven workflows
• Cross-platform: Available for Linux, macOS, and Windows

Technical Implementation

Built entirely in Go, scrt leverages the language's strong standard library for cryptography and cross-compilation capabilities. The project structure shows a well-organized codebase with clear separation between components:

• backend/ - Core secret storage logic
• cmd/ - Command-line interface implementation
• store/ - Storage backend implementations
• e2e/ - End-to-end testing suite

The project maintains a healthy development cadence with 981 commits across 19 branches and 7 tags. Recent activity shows ongoing maintenance with dependency updates and Go version upgrades to keep the codebase current.

Development Status

With 169 stars on GitHub and 5 releases, scrt has attracted a small but active community. The project is licensed under Apache 2.0, making it suitable for both personal and commercial use.

Current development focuses on stability and feature completeness. The team recently upgraded to Go 1.26 and continues to refine the build process and documentation. The project includes comprehensive testing with GitHub Actions handling continuous integration and delivery.

Getting Started

Documentation is available at scrt.run/guide, providing setup instructions and usage examples. The project includes a simple Dockerfile for containerized deployments and configuration files for various development environments.

For teams evaluating secret management solutions, scrt offers an interesting alternative to hosted services like HashiCorp Vault or AWS Secrets Manager. Its self-hosted nature means no recurring subscription costs and complete data sovereignty, though it requires more operational overhead than managed solutions.

Repository: loderunner/scrt on GitHub

Documentation: scrt.run

License: Apache-2.0

The project represents a growing trend toward developer-friendly, self-hosted tools that provide enterprise-grade functionality without vendor lock-in or recurring costs.