# sorah/envchain

Environment variables meet macOS Keychain and gnome-keyring <3

Repository: https://github.com/sorah/envchain
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/envchain
Language: C
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: security, keychain, gnome-keyring, secret, credentials
Last push: 2024-04-23T18:12:12+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4490, "days_push": 862, "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 1326, forks 40 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:22.788490+00:00)

## What it is
envchain is a command-line tool that stores environment variables like API credentials in macOS Keychain or the D-Bus Secret Service (gnome-keyring) instead of shell dotfiles. It injects stored secrets into the environment only when explicitly invoked, e.g. `envchain aws s3cmd ...`.

## Use cases
- store aws credentials securely instead of in .bashrc
- inject secrets into environment variables when running a command
- keep api keys out of shell initialization files
- manage credentials per namespace on macos keychain
- use gnome-keyring to hold environment secrets on linux

## When to choose
- you want secrets backed by the OS keychain rather than plaintext dotfiles
- you work on macOS or Linux with gnome-keyring/KeePassXC
- you prefer explicit, per-command secret injection

## When to avoid
- you need cross-platform support including Windows
- you want automatic secret loading for every shell session
- you need a team-wide secrets manager with sharing features

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: maintenance
- function: security, secrets-management, cli, developer-tools
- domain: security, developer-tools
- platform: cli
- tags: keychain, gnome-keyring, environment-variables, credentials, secret-service, command-line, macos, linux

## Member repositories
- sorah/envchain (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:22.788490+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 2026-08-30T04:46:24.435863+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/sorah/envchain (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:22.788490+00:00, sha bf60b126527d)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.