Paperclip uses different secret classes for different trust boundaries. Keep them separate.

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Secret Classes

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1. Paperclip infra secrets

These are owned by the deployment, not by any company or provider integration.
  • BETTER_AUTH_SECRET
  • PAPERCLIP_AGENT_JWT_SECRET
  • PAPERCLIP_SECRETS_MASTER_KEY or PAPERCLIP_SECRETS_MASTER_KEY_FILE
  • DATABASE_URL
  • PORKBUN_API_KEY and PORKBUN_SECRET_API_KEY

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2. Paperclip company secrets

These are encrypted at rest and stored in the Paperclip database as company-scoped secret refs.
  • LLM keys used by agents
  • service tokens used by adapters
  • any other runtime value that should rotate without editing code or compose files

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3. Provider-connected-account auth

These are external account grants, refresh tokens, webhook credentials, or opaque connection IDs managed by the provider layer.
  • keep the provider grant with the provider or connector
  • keep only the reference or sync metadata in Paperclip, if Paperclip needs to know about the connection at all

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Default Provider: local_encrypted

Secrets are encrypted with a local master key stored at: 
~/.paperclip/instances/default/secrets/master.key
This key is auto-created during onboarding and never leaves the machine unless you deliberately copy the instance.

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Configuration

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CLI Setup

Onboarding writes default secrets config: 
pnpm paperclipai onboard
Update secrets settings: 
pnpm paperclipai configure --section secrets
Validate secrets config: 
pnpm paperclipai doctor

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Environment Overrides

VariableDescription
PAPERCLIP_SECRETS_MASTER_KEY32-byte key as base64, hex, or raw string
PAPERCLIP_SECRETS_MASTER_KEY_FILECustom key file path
PAPERCLIP_SECRETS_STRICT_MODESet to true to enforce secret refs

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Strict Mode

When strict mode is enabled, sensitive env keys matching *_API_KEY, *_TOKEN, *_SECRET, *_PASSWORD, and similar patterns must use secret references instead of inline plain values. 
PAPERCLIP_SECRETS_STRICT_MODE=true
Recommended for any deployment beyond local trusted.

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Agent Env Binding

Agent environment variables use secret references: 
{
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": {
      "type": "secret_ref",
      "secretId": "8f884973-c29b-44e4-8ea3-6413437f8081",
      "version": "latest"
    }
  }
}
The server resolves and decrypts these at runtime, injecting the real value into the agent process environment.

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Rotating Hosted Secrets

For hosted deployments:
  1. rotate infra secrets in the platform secret store
  2. rotate company secrets through the Paperclip secret API
  3. rotate provider-connected-account auth in the provider UI or connector control plane
Do not mix those three rotation paths.

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Recovery Notes

  • If the master key file is missing in local dev, paperclipai doctor can recreate it.
  • If strict mode is off in a PostgreSQL deployment, Paperclip will warn rather than fail, but that is still a policy gap.
  • Never commit decrypted values or copied .env values into repo-managed config.