# Workflow

- branch from `next`
- do the Next Step: the next open issue in the `1.0.0` milestone
- log it at the top of Completed Steps
- commit (`TODO.md` changes in the same commit as the work)
- push, and open a PR against `next`

# Status

pre-1.0. No git tags. Open work is tracked on the issue tracker, which is
authoritative.

# Next Step

Take the next open issue in the `1.0.0` milestone:
https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/milestone/12

# Completed Steps

- 2026-10-04: A failed `secret unlocker add keychain` or
  `secret unlocker add secure-enclave` no longer leaves its keychain item or
  Secure Enclave key behind (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/89).
  `CreateSecureEnclaveUnlocker` gets the long-term key before it creates the
  Secure Enclave key, so that a wrong passphrase creates none, and deletes the
  key again if encrypting with it or writing the unlocker then fails.
  `macse.CreateKey` finds the new key's hash right after `sc_auth` creates
  it, and fails with an error naming the key's label if it cannot; it deletes
  the key again if getting its public key then fails. The Objective-C was only
  read, never compiled or run, and so was `macse_darwin.go`, which is cgo only.
  `CreateKeychainUnlocker` writes all of the unlocker's files, the metadata
  among them, before it stores the item in the keychain, and deletes the item
  again if moving the unlocker into place then fails. A failure to delete is
  reported along with the first error. The tests of this run only on macOS:
  the Secure Enclave one in a build with cgo on a Mac with a Secure Enclave,
  the keychain one in a build with cgo.
- 2026-10-04: What a command killed part-way left under a `.tmp-` name
  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/75), the temporary directories
  of `secret.TempDirFor` and the temporary files of
  `secret.WriteFileAtomic`, encrypted keys included, is deleted by the next
  command that takes the state directory lock. Before, it stayed until
  deleted by hand. A command writes `finished` into the lock file just
  before it releases the lock; the next one to take the lock searches only
  when it does not find that, so after a command that finished nothing is
  searched, however many secrets and versions there are. The search looks
  in the state directory, each vault, each secret and each version, the
  only directories those helpers make them in. A command that only reads
  takes no lock and deletes nothing. A failure to delete is warned about
  and the command goes on. An unlocker directory with no metadata file was
  already removed by `secret unlocker remove` given its directory name; a
  test now shows it.
- 2026-10-04: An age identity's private key goes into a locked buffer
  through `secret.IdentityToLockedBuffer` everywhere
  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/38): the vault's long-term key
  when a passphrase, PGP, keychain or Secure Enclave unlocker is created,
  the new unlocker's own key, a new secret version's key, and the key
  `secret encrypt` generates. Before, each place converted the string age
  returns to bytes and left the string in ordinary memory. The function
  moves the string's own bytes into the buffer, which overwrites them; the
  copies age makes while writing the string remain, as its comment says.
  The 1.0 memory-security entry below no longer lists these places,
  `internal/cli/crypto.go` among them, nor `version.go:155`, which was
  `internal/secret/version.go`, not `internal/cli/version.go`.
- 2026-10-04: `script/lint-darwin` (`make lint-darwin`) runs `go vet` and
  `golangci-lint` in docker on the code as a macOS build compiles it
  (`GOOS=darwin`), with cgo off
  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/50). `script/check` runs it, and
  the `Dockerfile` lint stage runs its commands, so `script/cibuild` does too.
  Before, CI on Linux never compiled the files built only for macOS. Compiling
  cgo code for macOS needs Apple's SDK headers, and both `internal/macse` and
  `github.com/keybase/go-keychain` are cgo on macOS. So the three functions
  that call `go-keychain` moved from `keychainunlocker.go` to
  `keychainunlocker_cgo.go`, built only with cgo on macOS like
  `macse_darwin.go`. A macOS build without cgo, which before did not compile,
  gets `keychainunlocker_nocgo.go` and the `macse` stub instead, whose errors
  say the keychain or Secure Enclave needs a macOS build with cgo. The check
  covers the rest of the keychain unlocker, the Secure Enclave unlocker and
  the macOS-only tests other than `keychainunlocker_test.go`, whose lint
  findings are fixed. For the length and complexity limits, parts of
  `GetIdentity`, `getLongTermPrivateKey` and `CreateKeychainUnlocker` moved
  into functions of their own, and the Secure Enclave unlocker derives the
  long-term key from the mnemonic through the same function as the keychain
  unlocker instead of a copy of it. Lines over 88 columns in the files the
  check cannot see are wrapped.
- 2026-10-04: `secret rm`, `secret version rm`, `secret vault remove` and
  `secret unlocker remove` ask `[y/N]` before removing anything
  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/39), naming what they remove: the
  secret, its vault and its version count; the version, secret and vault; the
  vault and its secret count; the unlocker, its vault and whether it is the
  last, and for the last the vault's secret count and that the vault then
  opens only with its mnemonic. Only `y` or `yes` goes ahead. Without
  `--force`, a command whose stdin is not a terminal fails at once. `--force`
  (now also on `rm` and `version rm`) removes without asking; it replaces the
  old refusals to remove a vault with secrets or the last unlocker of one
  without `--force`, which the question now covers. The checks run, and the
  question is asked, before the state directory lock is taken; under the
  lock the checks run again, and if they would ask a different question,
  nothing is removed. `secret rm` fails when it cannot count the versions.
- 2026-10-04: A crash while an unlocker is being replaced no longer leaves a
  current unlocker that cannot open the vault
  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/71). Every new unlocker gets a
  directory of its own, named with the time to the nanosecond:
  `passphrase-<time>`, `<host>-pgp-<time>`, and for a keychain or Secure
  Enclave unlocker the keychain item or Secure Enclave key, which names the
  directory, carries the time instead of the day. `secret.WriteDir` fails on a
  directory that exists instead of writing into it. `unlocker add passphrase`
  writes the new unlocker, makes it current, and only then removes the vault's
  other passphrase unlockers; a crash between the last two steps leaves the old
  one beside the new, and the old passphrase still opens the vault through it
  until the next `unlocker add passphrase` or an `unlocker remove` removes it.
  A PGP, keychain or Secure Enclave unlocker added on the same host and day as
  another of its type is added beside it instead of replacing it.
- 2026-10-04: `SB_SECRET_MNEMONIC` and `SB_UNLOCK_PASSPHRASE` are read once
  per command, in its `RunE`, into locked buffers on the CLI `Instance`, and
  unset at once, so that no program the command runs, `gpg` included,
  inherits them (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/60). Nothing below
  the command reads the environment; the buffers are passed down:
  `vault.CreateVault` takes the mnemonic (nil for none), a `Vault` derives its
  long-term key from its `Mnemonic` and gives its `UnlockPassphrase` to a
  passphrase unlocker, and the PGP, keychain and Secure Enclave unlocker
  constructors take both. `CreatePGPUnlocker` sets both on the vault it
  loads, through `SetMnemonic` and `SetUnlockPassphrase`, now part of
  `VaultInterface`, before calling its `GetOrDeriveLongTermKey`. `init` and
  `vault create` no longer put the mnemonic into the environment. Unsetting
  erases nothing: the starting environment (`/proc/<pid>/environ`) and
  memory still hold the value. The README warns against both variables.
- 2026-10-04: `.golangci.yml` is again the canonical file from
  `sneak/prompts`, byte for byte
  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/66). It runs `gomodguard_v2`
  in place of the deprecated `gomodguard`, so the lint no longer warns,
  and enables `depguard` with a rule that keeps `net/http/httptest` out of
  non-test files. Neither raised a finding in this repo.
- 2026-10-04: `secret unlocker add pgp` works on Linux
  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/88). `CreatePGPUnlocker` gets
  the vault's long-term key as adding a passphrase unlocker does, with the
  vault's `GetOrDeriveLongTermKey`, now part of `VaultInterface`: from the
  mnemonic, checked against the vault, or else from the current unlocker.
  Before, it used the keychain unlocker's helper, which on every platform
  but macOS always failed. A test adds a PGP unlocker for a throwaway GPG
  key, getting the long-term key once from the mnemonic and once from a
  passphrase unlocker, and reads a secret through the new unlocker.
- 2026-10-04: A vault name may use only lowercase ASCII letters, digits,
  `.`, `-` and `_`, and must not be empty, `.` or `..`
  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/68); the error and `README.md`
  state the rule. `vault create`, `vault import`, `vault select`,
  `vault remove`, both vault names of `mv` and shell completion of a
  `vault:secret` argument check the name as typed with
  `vault.ValidateVaultName` before building any path from it. Before,
  `vault import ..` wrote a long-term key and an unlocker into the state
  directory itself, and `vault select ..` made that the current vault.
- 2026-10-04: `script/cibuild` runs the checks again on an unchanged
  tree (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/54). It passes the
  current time as the `CHECK_EPOCH` build argument, which both the lint
  and the build stage of the `Dockerfile` declare after their module
  download, so the `RUN` steps below the argument run again on each
  build while the base images and module downloads stay cached. Before,
  a second run on the same tree took every check from the build cache
  and reported success having run nothing.
- 2026-10-04: A failed unlocker add no longer leaves a partial unlocker
  directory (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/48).
  `secret unlocker add pgp` resolves the GPG key's fingerprint once, for
  its duplicate check, and passes it to `CreatePGPUnlocker` to record.
  `CreatePGPUnlocker` and `CreateKeychainUnlocker` get the long-term key
  and encrypt everything before writing anything. All four unlocker
  types write their files through `secret.WriteDir`: a new unlocker is
  built in a temporary directory, renamed into place when complete and
  removed on a failure.
- 2026-10-04: `secret unlocker select` and `secret unlocker remove`
  skip, with the warning `unlocker list` gives, an unlocker directory
  whose metadata file cannot be checked for, read or parsed, instead of
  failing when it sorts before the unlocker asked for. Such a directory,
  or one without a metadata file, is removed by its directory name, the
  name the warning gives; only the directory is removed, since its type
  is unknown. Removing one whose metadata file is missing or corrupt
  never counts as removing the last unlocker. Removing one whose metadata
  file cannot be checked for or read always does, since it may be the
  only working unlocker, so in a vault with secrets it needs `--force`.
- 2026-10-04: A failed command prints its error once, without the usage
  text after it (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/41). Usage is
  still printed for a command called wrongly: wrong number of arguments,
  unknown flag, bad flag value, missing required flag, or flags that
  break a flag group (mutually exclusive, required together, one
  required). The root command's `PersistentPreRunE` turns usage off.
  Cobra checks arguments and flag values before that hook but required
  flags and flag groups only after it, so the hook checks those two
  first. Root `SilenceUsage` would have hidden usage for all of these.
- 2026-10-04: `secret get` keeps the secret in locked memory until it
  writes it out (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/37):
  `Vault.GetSecret` and `Vault.GetSecretVersion` return a
  `*memguard.LockedBuffer`, which every caller destroys, and `secret get`
  writes its bytes straight to stdout, still with no trailing newline.
  Before, the value was copied into ordinary memory that nothing wiped,
  and `get --version` also wrote it to the debug log.
- 2026-10-04: The `Makefile` no longer sets `DOCKER_HOST`, so its docker
  targets use the local docker daemon, or whatever `DOCKER_HOST` the
  environment sets. `make build` calls the new `script/build`, which
  stamps the version (`VERSION` from the environment, else
  `git describe`) and the git commit as before. `build`, `clean`,
  `install` and `docker-run` are in `.PHONY`; `make install` depends on
  `build`. The `vet` target is gone: `script/test` runs `go vet` first.
- 2026-10-04: `.gitignore` is the org's standard file, which ignores
  `.env`, `.env.*`, `*.pem` and `*.key` and editor and OS files, plus
  this repo's `/secret`, `*.log`, `*.test` and `settings.local.json`
  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/40). `.dockerignore` also
  leaves out `node_modules`; `.git` stays in the build context for the
  version stamp.
- 2026-10-04: `secret init` refuses when the default vault exists, and
  `secret vault create NAME` when `NAME` does, with "vault NAME already
  exists", before writing anything. The check is in `vault.CreateVault`,
  which both commands call while holding the state directory lock, so two
  creates of one vault at once cannot both pass the check. Before, either
  command replaced the vault's metadata, passphrase unlocker and
  `longterm.age`, so none of its secrets could be decrypted any more. Both
  commands now ask for the unlocker passphrase before creating the vault,
  so one stopped at that prompt leaves no vault behind.
- 2026-10-04: The `internal/cli` tests are back to about their time
  before the state directory lock
  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/80). The test that each
  changing command waits for the lock releases it as soon as it sees the
  command waiting there, instead of after a fixed 100 ms. The two vaults
  with passphrase unlockers that the path and move tests start from are
  made once and copied for each test.
- 2026-10-04: `secret mv` rejects a move whose destination is the source
  under another name, such as `foo` for `Foo` on a case-insensitive
  filesystem (the macOS default) or a name reached through a symbolic
  link, before changing anything, with or without `--force`, within a
  vault and between vaults; before, `--force` removed the destination and
  so deleted the secret. A rename that changes only letter case works on a
  case-sensitive filesystem as before.
- 2026-10-04: Lint runs only in docker: `script/lint` builds
  `Dockerfile.lint`, where golangci-lint is a build step rebuilt on
  every run (`--no-cache-filter`), so an unchanged tree is linted too;
  the module download stays cached. `script/bootstrap` no longer
  installs golangci-lint, and the `Dockerfile` lint stage calls it
  directly instead of `make lint`. `golangci-lint config verify` is not
  run: it fetches its schema live over unpinned HTTPS.
- 2026-10-04: A PGP unlocker whose metadata has no usable GPG key ID
  no longer panics: `GetID()` warns with the unlocker's directory and
  returns `pgp-unknown`. `ListUnlockers` skips, with a warning, an
  unlocker whose metadata file cannot be checked for, read or parsed
  instead of failing, so `secret unlocker list` still lists the others;
  the listing's ID lookup no longer warns about that directory again.
- 2026-10-03: `secret mv` rejects a move whose destination is the
  source (`mv --force x x`, `mv --force work:x work:`, or an empty
  destination, which defaults to the source name) before changing
  anything; before, `--force` removed the destination first and so
  deleted the secret. Every vault name given with `vault:` must be one
  of the existing vaults by exact name, so `work:x work/:x` is rejected
  instead of being taken for a move between two vaults. A move within a
  named vault no longer makes that vault the current one, whether it
  succeeds or fails.
- 2026-10-03: Commands that change the state directory hold one lock
  (`flock` on `lock` in the state directory; a mutex on the in-memory
  test filesystem), so concurrent commands no longer lose versions or
  race on the current pointers. Every file is written through
  `secret.WriteFileAtomic` (temporary file, sync, rename), so no file
  is ever half-written and `current`, `currentvault` and
  `current-unlocker` never go missing. New versions, new secrets and
  cross-vault copies are built in a temporary directory and renamed
  into place, and removals rename out of the way first, so a version
  or secret is never half-added and never half-removed. An
  interrupted command can still leave, from `init` or `vault create`
  killed after the passphrase prompt but before the unlocker is
  written, a vault with no unlocker, which `vault create` has already
  made the current vault.
- 2026-10-03: The checks run before changing a vault now stop with an
  error naming the path and cause when they cannot read what they
  inspect, instead of reading the failure as "nothing there": the
  duplicate check before `unlocker add pgp` (an unreadable
  `unlockers.d` or unlocker metadata file), the secret count that
  guards removing the last unlocker and removing a vault, and the
  existing long-term key check before `vault import`.
- 2026-10-03: `version rm`, `version promote` and `get --version`
  accept a version only if it is one of the versions `version list`
  lists for that secret, compared as typed before any path is built
  (`secret.VersionExists`), and touch nothing otherwise. An empty
  `--version` is rejected instead of meaning the current version.
  Before, `secret version rm x ../../..` deleted the whole vault,
  `secret version rm x ..` the secret, and `.` or `""` every version.
- 2026-10-03: Key material is wiped on every exit: `Entry()` returns
  the exit code after its deferred `memguard.Purge()` has run, and only
  `main` calls `os.Exit`. SIGINT and SIGTERM go through memguard's
  handler, which wipes every buffer before exiting; when the process is
  in the terminal's foreground process group it first restores the
  terminal settings from startup, so an interrupted passphrase prompt no
  longer leaves echo off.
- 2026-10-03: Every command that builds a path from a secret name
  checks the name first with `vault.ValidateSecretName` and touches
  nothing when it is invalid: `rm`, `mv` (both names, within a vault
  and between vaults, before switching the current vault), `import`,
  `version list`/`promote`/`rm`, `encrypt` and `decrypt`. The error
  and `README.md` state the naming rule. Before, `secret rm ..`
  deleted the whole vault and `secret rm .` every secret in it.
- 2026-10-03: The keychain unlocker's age key passphrase stays in
  locked memory: it is generated into a locked buffer, and the
  keychain JSON is written and read by `KeychainData` code in
  `internal/secret/keychaindata.go` (tested on Linux) without
  `encoding/json` holding it; the JSON field names are unchanged.
- 2026-10-02: A plain `docker build .` builds again: the size tests
  skip a case that needs more locked memory than the process can
  lock, and run every case under `script/cibuild`. The image stamps the
  `VERSION` build argument, else `git describe --tags --always`, into
  `Version`, and fails if `.git` is present but yields no version;
  `make build` stamps `git describe` too, not a fixed `0.1.0`.
  `.dockerignore` keeps `.git/config` out; `script/docker` is the
  canonical copy.
- 2026-08-07: Updated golangci-lint to v2.12.2 with the canonical
  `.golangci.yml` (all linters enabled minus the standard disable
  list, `lll` 88, tests linted); bumped the `Dockerfile` lint-stage
  image to the tagged v2.12.2 Debian digest; fixed all ~1550 new
  findings across `internal/` and `pkg/` (line wrapping, `wsl_v5`
  blank lines, sentinel errors for `err113`, `t.Parallel()` where
  safe, `_test` package conversions, complexity/`dupl` helper
  extraction) on branch `golangci-v2.12.2`. Reworked after review:
  the `err113` sentinels in `internal/vault`, `internal/secret`,
  `internal/cli` and `pkg/bip85` were reshaped so every composed
  error message is byte-identical to `main`, and
  `findUnlockerIDByMetadata` now returns an error so `unlocker list`
  skips an unreadable `unlockers.d` entry with a warning instead of
  emitting a fabricated fallback ID.
- 2026-08-07: Added `.editorconfig`
  (https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/27).
- 2026-07-07 Adopted scripts-to-rule-them-all: `script/` entrypoints,
  Makefile shims, README Entrypoints section
- 2026-07-07: Added `REPO_POLICIES.md` and the `make hooks` target;
  `.gitea/workflows/check.yml` now runs `script/cibuild`.
- 2026-03-30: Added the `make fmt-check` target and
  `.gitea/workflows/check.yml`, which runs `docker build` on every push; the
  `Dockerfile` base images are pinned by sha256.
- 2026-03-11: Secure Enclave unlocker for hardware-backed secret
  protection, plus review fixes (stub panics, derivation index, tests,
  README) on branch secure-enclave-unlocker.
- 2026-02-28: Repo cleanup, removed stale .cursorrules and coverage.out.
- Audit fix wave (issues #1, #2, #3, #13, #14): skip unlockers with
  missing metadata, allow uppercase secret names, fix hardcoded
  derivation index, validate names in GetSecretVersion against path
  traversal, return errors instead of panicking, add Warn() on silent
  anomalies.
- Memory security hardening: LockedBuffer used through encrypt/decrypt
  paths (Save/EncryptWithPassphrase/GetValue/gpg helpers), deprecated
  bare-[]byte APIs removed.
- Per-secret keypair architecture, vault package refactor, versioning
  with --version, comprehensive test suite with in-memory filesystem.
- Debug logging system (slog, GODEBUG flag, TTY-aware output).
- Renamed SEP unlocker to Keychain, reorganized import commands.
- 2025-05-28: Initial implementation (vault, age encryption, mnemonic,
  CLI).

# Future Steps

- Implement version-number shell completion for the second arg of
  `secret version promote` and `secret version rm`
  (`internal/cli/version.go`; was an in-code TODO removed for godox).
- Cover mnemonic-vs-xprv identity consistency in
  `pkg/agehd/agehd_test.go` `TestMnemonicVsXPRVConsistency` (was an
  in-code FIXME removed for godox).
- CI does not compile, lint or test the files built only with cgo on
  macOS, since compiling them needs Apple's SDK:
  `internal/secret/keychainunlocker_cgo.go` (the three functions that call
  `go-keychain`) with `keychainunlocker_test.go`, and `internal/macse`
  (`macse_darwin.go`, `macse_test.go`, the Objective-C sources). Lint has
  never run on them, so it would likely find more there than the line
  lengths. No macOS test runs in CI. A macOS runner would cover all of it
  (asked on https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/secret/issues/50).
- 1.0 critical security blockers (from repo TODO.md):
    - Memory security: age writes an identity's private key out as a string in
      ordinary memory, and the copies it makes on the way stay there
      (`secret.IdentityToLockedBuffer` overwrites only the string itself).
- Medium priority:
    - Standardize error messages; stop leaking internals.
    - Graceful handling of corrupted or missing key files with recovery
      suggestions.
    - Split oversized CLI functions.
- Cleanups: read statedir from environment or default instead of
  passing it around.
- Enhancements: help examples, colored output, --quiet flag, name suggestions on
  miss, audit logging, hardware integration tests (Keychain, GPG), naming
  consistency, vault export/import, batch operations, search, secret metadata
  (descriptions, tags).