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Rework secrets management concept page around the new secrets plugins - #52

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djsauble merged 1 commit into
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Aug 7, 2026
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Rework secrets management concept page around the new secrets plugins#52
djsauble merged 1 commit into
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secrets-plugins

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@djsauble

@djsauble djsauble commented Jul 29, 2026

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NOTE: Do not merge until the plugins have been published to the flox org on FloxHub.

What changed

  • New "Secrets plugins" section: first public-docs description of the [plugins.<name>] mechanism (flox 1.14.0+), install flow, and failure policy.
  • "Secret retrieval" phase now covers both mechanisms: plugins for supported stores, on-activate hooks for everything else.
  • Implementation-example tabs: 1Password and HashiCorp Vault converted from hook examples to [plugins.*] examples; new OpenBao and Infisical tabs (neither store had an example before); Keychain/AWS/cross-platform stay hook-based, now explicitly framed as "no plugin yet".
  • Secret store reference table: new "Flox plugin" column; OpenBao and Infisical rows added.
  • Rotation warning now mentions that re-attaching to a cached activation replays previously fetched values (fresh activation picks up the new value).
  • Softened "They never touch disk" to "never written to the project directory, the manifest, or git" — the activation's transient env snapshots mean the stronger claim isn't strictly true.

Relationship to #49

#49 (draft, "docs: add plugins concept page") also touches this page: it adds a "Packaging this pattern as a plugin" section and a further-reading link to a new /concepts/plugins page. The two PRs are complementary but will conflict textually: if #49 lands first, the "Secrets plugins" section here can slim down to a pointer at /concepts/plugins (the mechanism description moves there), keeping the per-store [plugins.*] example tabs as the meat of this page. This PR deliberately avoids linking /concepts/plugins so it doesn't dangle if it lands first.

Open questions for review (why this is a draft)

  1. Distribution wording. flox/flox-plugins is currently org-internal, and the plugin packages aren't published to a public catalog yet. The page links to the repo and shows the build-from-repo flow; adjust once the repo is public or the packages land in the catalog (flox install flox/vault-style).
  2. The three plugin PRs on flox-plugins (vault feat: install now appends outputs #10, openbao docs: fix intro, install & quickstart audit findings #11, infisical docs: fix tutorials audit findings #12) are open but unmerged; this page describes them as existing. Resolved 2026-08-06: all three are merged to flox-plugins main (all four plugins retested end-to-end against main-built packages).
  3. Is the [plugins] section ready to be publicly documented at all, or should this land together with docs: add plugins concept page #49's concept page and a manifest.toml reference entry?

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_01UEkMUmZaKMzbBy6f4eUypM

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flox 🟢 Ready View Preview Jul 29, 2026, 5:27 PM

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Comment on lines +92 to +95
```console
$ flox build vault
$ flox install /nix/store/<hash>-vault-0.1.0
```

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We haven't done this yet, but the plan is to publish all of the plugins to the flox org on FloxHub, so that users need only run flox install flox/<plugin-package>, no local builds required.

@djsauble djsauble Aug 6, 2026

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Addressed in 8f87035, naming corrected in 901cb04 — the section now leads with the planned FloxHub distribution (flox install flox/plugin-vault; published packages use the plugin- prefix) and keeps build-from-repo as the interim path (with a note that store paths pin the build system).

Comment thread concepts/secrets-management.mdx Outdated
The [plugins] manifest section (flox 1.14.0) now has plugin
packages for 1Password, HashiCorp Vault, OpenBao, and Infisical in
flox/flox-plugins. Convert the 1Password and Vault examples from
on-activate hooks to [plugins.*] tables, add the missing OpenBao
and Infisical examples, describe the plugin mechanism itself, and
keep hook examples for stores without a plugin (Keychain, AWS,
pass). Adds a "Flox plugin" column to the store reference table.

Incorporates review feedback: packages are named by their planned
FloxHub identity (flox/plugin-<name>), with build-from-repo as the
interim install path until DEV-244 lands; run-mode activations
noted as skipping plugin scripts; Infisical's silent
missing-secret behavior documented; OpenBao arch note dropped.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01UEkMUmZaKMzbBy6f4eUypM
@djsauble
djsauble added this pull request to the merge queue Aug 7, 2026
Merged via the queue into main with commit cefcfc0 Aug 7, 2026
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@djsauble
djsauble deleted the secrets-plugins branch August 7, 2026 20:44
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