# Shopify/ejson

EJSON is a small library to manage encrypted secrets using asymmetric encryption.

Repository: https://github.com/Shopify/ejson
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/ejson
Language: Go
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-08-10T16:53:57+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 86/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 97, release rhythm 64, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4510, "days_push": 23, "days_rel": 26, "gap_med": 319.5, "n_releases_24m": 3}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1480, forks 72 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:50.753747+00:00)

## What it is
EJSON is a Go CLI utility for managing encrypted secrets in JSON files using asymmetric elliptic-curve (NaCl Box) encryption. It lets teams commit secrets to source control safely, with public keys embedded in the file and private keys stored locally on decrypting machines.

## Use cases
- store encrypted secrets in a git repository
- encrypt  config values with public key cryptography
- manage secrets for production servers without a secrets service
- audit secret changes with git blame
- distribute decryption keys to servers via configuration management
- generate keypairs for encrypting credentials

## When to choose
- you want secrets versioned alongside application code in git
- you need line-by-line auditability of secret changes
- you prefer simple file-based secrets over a hosted secrets manager
- you want decryption locked down to specific servers via local keydir

## When to avoid
- you need dynamic secrets, leasing, or rotation like Vault provides
- you require centralized access control and multi-team secret sharing
- your secrets are not expressible as JSON string values

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: cryptography, security, secrets-management, cli
- domain: security, developer-tools
- platform: cli, go
- tags: encrypted-secrets, public-key-cryptography, nacl, git-friendly, secrets-in-source-control, devops, command-line, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- Shopify/ejson (main) score 86

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:50.753747+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 2026-08-30T04:34:13.349830+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/Shopify/ejson (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:50.753747+00:00, sha 3427beec6fb6)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.