Hush README
The full upstream README, mirrored here for reference. Install config, tool schemas, adoption signals, and an original overview live on the Hush listing page.
a secret store for AI agents, the one with no get.
get a secret once into the OS keychain, then inject it into commands forever, the value never hits stdout, the transcript, or the cloud.
A secret store for AI agents, with one hard rule: the agent never sees the plaintext.
Values never reach stdout, so they never land in the tool result, the transcript, or the cloud. A
secret only ever moves from the store straight into the consumer. There's no get on purpose, a
plain getter is the leak.
The point: you (an agent) are running as the user with their CLIs already authed, so you can already
set a server-side secret or call a service, you just can't see the value without it landing in the
chat. hush gets it once into the OS keychain, then you inject it into those commands forever. No
chat paste, no temp files, no .env to commit by accident.
agents: start here
If you were handed this repo's url, install yourself, then follow the playbook. Get the hush
script onto the box and read SKILL.md, that's the whole onboarding (it covers store /
mint / inject and how to adopt hush in the repo you're working in). The script is one self-contained
bash file; put it wherever your agent loads tools or just on your PATH:
or run it straight from npm without cloning: npx @royashbrook/hush <cmd> (mac/linux; on windows use the
clone, the orchestrator is bash).
Claude Code convenience (auto-loads as a skill): clone straight into the skills dir instead, whole
session git clone https://github.com/royashbrook/hush ~/.claude/skills/hush, or one project
./.claude/skills/hush. Other agents: see AGENTS.md.
That's it, the human points you here and says "use the hush skill," and you take it from here. The
one thing only a human can do is paste a secret they hold: when you hit that, run hush set <name>
and a hidden dialog pops on their screen (you never see the value).
install (humans)
Same clone as above, or just grab the single hush script and put it on your PATH.
Backends: macOS Keychain, Linux libsecret (secret-tool), and Windows DPAPI (via PowerShell) are
built in. On other platforms keep the same contract with your OS secret store (see SKILL.md).
Cross-OS tested in CI (manual workflow_dispatch, all three runners).
maintenance (opt-in)
hush doctor checks local installation drift and backup health without opening the secret store.
hush doctor --check-updates explicitly checks the public npm version. daily notices,
agent-readable status, and reversible scheduler repair are covered in
maintenance without surprises. nothing auto-upgrades.
quick start
On an agent host where the dialog won't open (some runners have no GUI session, so macOS can't
post the paste dialog, Connection Invalid ... hiservices-xpcservice): hush now says so plainly
instead of a misleading "cancelled or empty", and the fix is to pipe the value
(printf '%s' "$VAL" | hush set <name>) or run hush set <name> from a GUI-attached Terminal.
Naming: keep the default hush namespace and prefix names by project (blame-cf-token,
lifescored-gemini-key) so one keychain search for hush finds everything. HUSH_NS is only for a
genuinely separate store, not per-project. Need to fix an existing name? hush rename <old> <new>
moves the value internally (never re-asked, never printed). Full docs + the portable contract:
SKILL.md.
sync to LastPass
Install and log into the official LastPass CLI once, then preview and run the sync:
This is an upsert into each LastPass entry's password field. A missing entry is created, a unique
entry is updated, and duplicate LastPass names fail closed. Values move over stdin, never argv,
stdout, or a temp file. Each write uses --sync=now, so hush reports success only after LastPass has
synchronized it to the server. Multiline hush values are refused because lpass password-field
edits accept one line and would otherwise truncate them.
The sync runs wherever both hush and the official lpass CLI run: macOS, Linux, and Cygwin. The
official CLI does not currently provide a native PowerShell or Node entry point, so native Windows
remains limited by that dependency rather than by the hush store backend.
schedule it with experimental auto-login (macOS)
A cold npm install includes an optional Node-based launchd helper:
Auto-login is experimental. Its complete contract passes deterministic fake-CLI tests, but we could
not complete a real trusted login because Homebrew lastpass-cli crashed in its MFA path before any
vault access. This matches upstream lastpass-cli issue
#719. It may work with account/MFA combinations
unaffected by that bug, but it is not live-tested.
The design performs one interactive lpass login --trust, then asks once for the LastPass master
password through hush's hidden prompt. Scheduled runs are intended to use that local Keychain value
to restore the lpass session after reboot. This is explicit opt-in: no LastPass login material is
stored unless --auto-login is present. The helper never uses lpass --plaintext-key, and its
dedicated login secret is always excluded from vault sync. Failed setup installs nothing; revoked or
expired trust makes later jobs fail closed.
Use hush-lastpass-schedule remove to unload the job. It retains the non-secret config and the hush
login secret so removal cannot silently destroy credentials. Delete that secret separately with
hush rm hush-lastpass-master-password if you want to revoke the opt-in completely.
An API key cannot replace this login: the published LastPass Business API manages accounts, companies, and reports, but does not expose vault-item writes. The scheduler is Node so other native schedulers can be added without changing the sync contract, but this release installs launchd on macOS only.
All three macOS sync schedulers use local-time calendar slots, so
launchd runs a slot missed during sleep when the Mac wakes.
--every is the maximum cadence; unusual values that do not divide a day or week evenly may run
slightly early at the boundary, never later.
sync to a local KeePass database
KeePassXC opens the same encrypted KDBX file on macOS, Linux, and Windows. Put that file in an iCloud Drive folder and it becomes an offline-first backup that another iCloud machine can open without a service login:
--init refuses to overwrite a file. Later runs omit it and upsert entries in group hush:
The database password and entry passwords reach keepassxc-cli only over stdin. They are never put
on argv, stdout, logs, or a temp plaintext file. The database-password secret is always excluded.
Missing entries are created, unique entries are updated, duplicate names fail closed, and multiline
values are refused rather than truncated.
encrypted snapshots into iCloud (macOS, opt-in)
For whole-store encrypted snapshots instead of a password-manager mirror, npm also ships
hush-backup and hush-backup-schedule. Requires GnuPG (brew install gnupg).
Values stream into GPG; only ciphertext snapshots are written. The key is passed on a private
file descriptor, not in arguments or logs. run performs one backup; remove stops the schedule
without removing keys, config, or backups. A loaded job is not proof of backup success: check
the dated log at ~/Library/Logs/hush-backup.log and a completed .gpg snapshot. iCloud upload
is handled by macOS, not verified by this tool. Existing manual com.hush-backup schedules must
be retired deliberately before installing the new job.
See backup options and the packaged recovery runbook. Recovery needs the separately saved key; an encrypted backup cannot recover its own key. Scheduling and interactive dialogs are macOS only. The unattended Bash/GPG path targets POSIX hosts with an explicit alternate directory; Windows backup-helper execution is not yet verified.
schedule KeePass into iCloud (macOS)
The npm package includes a Node/launchd helper. A cold setup creates the database if absent, asks for its password through hush when needed, performs the first sync, and loads the recurring job:
The default destination is iCloud Drive/hush/hush.kdbx. Scheduled runs update an encrypted local
mirror under Application Support/hush, then atomically publish a completed copy. KeePassXC never
opens CloudDocs from launchd, avoiding macOS's headless iCloud privacy block. A publish that takes
more than 30 seconds fails with an actionable error instead of hanging. Use --database,
--db-secret, --group, repeatable --exclude, or positional names to narrow it. remove unloads
the LaunchAgent but keeps the destination, local mirror, and mode-0600 metadata config.
Keep one durable copy of the database password outside this KDBX. After a machine loss, the iCloud file cannot recover the hush secret that unlocks it. Treat one machine as the writer while iCloud is syncing to avoid conflicted KDBX copies.
sync to Bitwarden
The official Bitwarden CLI supports create and edit operations, API-key login, and session-based vault access. Install it, then keep the three required credentials in hush:
Bitwarden's personal API key authenticates the CLI, but does not replace the master password. Vault reads and writes still require an unlock session. The npm-shipped scheduler handles that lifecycle without repeated interaction:
Install verifies all three hush names, performs bw login --apikey when needed, unlocks with --passwordenv, runs a value-free dry-run, then installs launchd. Each scheduled run obtains a short-lived session, syncs, and locks the CLI. API credentials, the master password, and the session are absent from argv, logs, the plist, and the mode-0600 metadata config.
The underlying command can also be used inside any already-unlocked Bitwarden CLI session:
Missing login items are created and unique items are updated. Exact duplicate names in the target folder fail closed. Existing item JSON flows directly from bw into the JSON transformer, and encoded create/edit bodies flow directly into bw over stdin. Passwords never enter argv, stdout, logs, or temp files. The three default Bitwarden auth secrets are always excluded. Bitwarden automatically pushes successful create and edit changes to the server.
The core sync is Bash plus Node and follows the platforms supported by hush and bw. The included scheduler currently installs a macOS LaunchAgent. hush-bitwarden-schedule remove unloads it while retaining the non-secret config and hush credentials.
not a vault
An agent with shell access can read+write this store, so it's not a lock against a hostile process. It's structure that keeps plaintext out of the transcript and makes "store once, inject everywhere" the easy path. It's also only as durable as the machine it's on (a local keychain), back the machine up, or sync onward into a real secret manager, and don't make hush the only copy of a secret you can't regenerate. MIT licensed.