# 99designs/aws-vault

A vault for securely storing and accessing AWS credentials in development environments

Repository: https://github.com/99designs/aws-vault
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/aws-vault
Language: Go
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: aws, iam, temporary-credentials, keychain, credentials, cli, mfa, aws-vault
Last push: 2025-12-30T11:28:54+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 49/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 59, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4040, "days_push": 246, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 8985, forks 831 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:26.625796+00:00)

## What it is
AWS Vault is a CLI tool that securely stores AWS IAM credentials in the operating system's native keystore (macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager, etc.) and generates temporary credentials for shells and applications. It integrates with AWS CLI profiles and supports MFA and role assumption, though the project is now abandoned in favor of an active fork.

## Use cases
- securely store aws credentials on my laptop
- avoid putting aws access keys in plaintext config files
- run aws cli with temporary credentials and mfa
- switch between aws profiles safely
- assume aws roles from the command line
- keep aws session tokens in the os keychain

## When to choose
- you need secure local storage of AWS credentials with temporary session generation
- you want MFA and role-assumption support integrated with ~/.aws/config profiles
- you are fine using the maintained fork (ByteNess/aws-vault) for ongoing updates

## When to avoid
- you need a tool that is actively maintained - this repo is abandoned
- you need server-side or team-wide secrets management rather than local developer credentials
- you need a GUI or non-CLI workflow

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: abandoned
- function: security, secrets-management, cli, auth
- domain: cloud-computing, security, developer-tools
- platform: windows, cli, cross-platform
- tags: aws, credentials, temporary-credentials, mfa, keychain, iam, aws-cli, command-line, macos, linux

## Member repositories
- 99designs/aws-vault (main) score 49

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:26.625796+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:24:23.704521+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/99designs/aws-vault (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:26.625796+00:00, sha 7e610069e71e)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.