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SKILL.md
Vault Enhancements w/ UI v3.0.0
Vault-backed API key management for the OpenClaw Control dashboard. Keys are stored in a secure file (~/.openclaw/secrets.json, mode 0600) and referenced via OpenClaw's built-in Secrets System. The AI agent never sees your keys.
Status: ✅ Active
Component
Status
Vault File Storage
✅ Working
Secret References (SecretRef)
✅ Working
Dynamic Key Discovery
✅ Working
One-Click Migration
✅ Working
Plugin-Registered Tab
✅ Working
Vault Status Banner
✅ Working
Key Status Badges
✅ Working
Vault-Only Keys Section
✅ Working
Manual "+ Add Secret" Form
✅ Working
Restart Notification Banner
✅ Working
Skills Vault Key Selector
✅ Working
Skills Inline Key Creation
✅ Working
Auth Profiles Display
✅ Working
Features
1. Vault-Backed Storage
Keys are stored in ~/.openclaw/secrets.json (file permissions 0600). When you save a key, the UI:
Writes the value to the vault file
Configures the file secret provider in openclaw.json (if not already present)
Replaces the plaintext config value with a SecretRef object
Shows a restart notification — user must restart gateway for changes to take effect
Known providers get friendly names, descriptions, and "Get key ↗" links:
Provider
Env Key
Anthropic
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
OpenAI
OPENAI_API_KEY
Google / Gemini
GOOGLE_API_KEY / GEMINI_API_KEY
Brave Search
BRAVE_API_KEY
ElevenLabs
ELEVENLABS_API_KEY
Deepgram
DEEPGRAM_API_KEY
OpenRouter
OPENROUTER_API_KEY
Groq
GROQ_API_KEY
Fireworks
FIREWORKS_API_KEY
Mistral
MISTRAL_API_KEY
xAI (Grok)
XAI_API_KEY
Perplexity
PERPLEXITY_API_KEY
GitHub
GITHUB_TOKEN
Hume AI
HUME_API_KEY / HUME_SECRET_KEY
4. Vault Status Banner
Top of the page shows:
🔒 Vault Active (green) — All keys in vault, provider configured
⚠️ X Plaintext Keys Detected (yellow) — Migration recommended
5. Key Status Badges
Each key row shows:
VAULT (green) — Stored in secure vault file
PLAINTEXT (yellow) — Still in config as raw string
NOT SET (grey) — Not configured
6. Vault-Only Keys Section
Keys stored in the vault that aren't referenced by any config path are displayed in a dedicated "Vault-Only Keys" card. These are keys created manually or by skills that don't have a corresponding env/config entry. Each shows:
🔒 icon with the key name (monospace)
Masked value preview
Delete button
7. Manual "+ Add Secret" Form
The Vault tab header includes a "+ Add Secret" button that expands an inline form:
Writes to vault with envEntry: false — no config entry created, no restart triggered
Key appears immediately in the "Vault-Only Keys" section
8. Restart Notification Banner
When a vault write triggers a config change, a yellow warning banner appears:
⚠ New secrets require a gateway restart to take effect.
[Restart Now]
The banner persists until the user clicks "Restart Now" or refreshes. This replaces the previous auto-reload behavior that caused unexpected gateway restarts.
9. Skills Vault Key Selector
On the Skills tab, skills that declare a primaryEnv get a vault key selector instead of a raw password input:
When unlinked:
Dropdown shows all vault keys with 🔒 icons
"Select vault key for ENV_NAME…" placeholder
Selecting a key writes a SecretRef to skills.entries.<key>.apiKey in config
"＋ Add new vault key…" option opens inline creation form
When linked:
Shows 🔒 KEY_NAME with an "Unlink" button
Unlink removes the SecretRef from config
Inline key creation:
KEY_NAME + Secret value fields
"Save & Link" creates the vault key and links it to the skill in one step
Key also appears in the Vault tab's vault-only keys section
10. Skills Expanded by Default
All skill groups (workspace, built-in, managed) render expanded (<details open>) for better discoverability. Previously workspace and built-in were collapsed by default.
11. Auth Profiles Display
Auth profile keys (from auth-profiles.json) that are stored in the vault are listed with their status. Backend RPCs support listing, error reset, and deletion.
Store key in vault + optionally update config with SecretRef. envEntry param (default true) controls whether an env block entry is created. Returns restartNeeded flag instead of auto-reloading.
secrets.delete
Remove from vault + config
secrets.migrate
Batch-migrate all plaintext keys to vault
secrets.authProfiles.list
List auth profile keys with vault status
secrets.authProfiles.resetErrors
Reset auth profile error state
secrets.authProfiles.delete
Delete an auth profile
skills.update
Updated with vaultKeyId param — writes a SecretRef to skills.entries.<key>.apiKey or unlinks (empty string)
Skills-Status Integration
SkillStatusEntry includes a vaultKeyId field that reads the raw config JSON (not the runtime-resolved config where SecretRefs are replaced with resolved strings). This is done via extractVaultKeyIdFromConfig() which reads and caches openclaw.json directly, checking for SecretRef objects in skills.entries.<key>.apiKey.
Restart Behavior
No auto-restart on vault save. Previously, secrets.write called reloadSecrets() which could trigger a gateway restart. Now:
Skills vault linking writes to config via writeConfigFile() — triggers the config file watcher which causes a gateway restart (inherent to the config watcher system)
OpenClaw Secrets System Integration
This skill uses OpenClaw's built-in Secrets System (src/secrets/):
The secrets system also supports env and exec providers for advanced setups (e.g., environment variables, external vault commands). The file provider is the default for this UI.
Files Modified (Source Locations in OpenClaw Repo)
No auto-restart on save — secrets.write no longer calls reloadSecrets(). A restart banner with "Restart Now" button lets the user decide when to restart.
Vault-only keys — Keys created with envEntry: false don't appear in config. A separate secrets.list call finds all vault entries and shows orphan keys in a dedicated section.
Raw config reading for vaultKeyId — The runtime resolves SecretRefs to strings, so loadConfig() returns resolved values. extractVaultKeyIdFromConfig() reads the raw JSON file directly (with mtime caching) to detect SecretRef objects.
Skills expanded by default — All <details> groups render open for better UX. Collapsed-by-default hid skills that needed configuration.
Skills use vault references, not plaintext — Skills with primaryEnv get a vault key selector dropdown instead of a password input. Linking writes a SecretRef to skills.entries.<key>.apiKey in config.
Inline key creation from skills — "＋ Add new vault key…" in the skills dropdown creates a vault entry and links it in one step, reducing friction.
Changelog
v3.0.0
Manual "+ Add Secret" form in Vault tab header — create vault keys without config entries
Vault-Only Keys section — shows keys in vault not referenced by config
