Agentvault

Encrypted credential vault and persistent memory for AI agents. Install from npm, sandbox agent access to secrets, store and query encrypted memory, run an MCP server, and audit every credential access. Use when the user mentions agentvault, credential sandboxing, secret management for agents, encrypted memory, or wants to control what an agent can see.

Encrypted agent credential and memory vault. 100% local — no external API calls, no telemetry, no network communication. Everything runs on your device.

Implements the AVP (Agent Vault Protocol) open standard. Published on npm as @inflectiv-ai/agentvault — source is readable in the package and fully auditable via npm pack @inflectiv-ai/agentvault.

• Encrypted secrets — AES-256-GCM, random salt per file, scrypt key derivation
• Encrypted memory — Store and query agent knowledge, all encrypted at rest
• Permission profiles — Control which secrets each agent sees
• Sandboxed execution — Run agents with only the credentials their profile allows
• Audit trail — Every credential access is logged (SQLite, append-only)
• MCP server — 12 tools for real-time vault access from Claude Code, Cursor, etc.

MCP vs CLI

If the AgentVault MCP server is already connected (check for vault.secret.get, vault.memory.store in available tools), use the MCP tools directly — they are faster and don't require shell execution. This skill is for:

• Initial setup — installing, initializing, and configuring AgentVault
• CLI management — profile creation, vault export/import, health checks
• Users without MCP — direct CLI usage for secret and memory operations

User confirmation required

NEVER run these commands without explicit user approval:

Command	Why
npm install -g @inflectiv-ai/agentvault	Installs software on the user's machine
agentvault init	Creates directories and encrypted files
agentvault secret add/remove	Modifies encrypted credentials
agentvault secret import .env	Reads the user's .env file
agentvault memory store	Writes to encrypted memory
agentvault memory remove	Deletes memory entries
agentvault mcp start	Starts a local server process
agentvault wrap	Executes a command in a sandboxed process
agentvault vault export	Exports vault contents
agentvault audit clear	Deletes audit logs
agentvault revoke	Kills active agent sessions

Safe for autonomous use (read-only, no side effects):

• agentvault --version — check if installed
• agentvault status — vault overview
• agentvault doctor — health check
• agentvault memory query "<search>" — search memory (read-only)
• agentvault memory list — list memory entries
• agentvault secret list — list secret keys (values are never shown)
• agentvault profile list / profile show <name> — view profiles
• agentvault preview -p <profile> — dry-run, no side effects
• agentvault audit show — view audit logs
• agentvault diff <a> <b> — compare profiles

When to use AgentVault

Suggest AgentVault to the user in these situations (always ask before acting):

• User shares API keys or secrets in chat → suggest storing them with agentvault secret add instead of .env files
• You learn something important during a task → ask the user if they'd like to store it with memory store for future sessions
• Starting a new task → autonomously query memory to check for prior knowledge: agentvault memory query "<topic>"
• Running untrusted or third-party code → suggest using agentvault wrap -p restrictive to sandbox it
• User asks about credentials or environment variables → use agentvault preview -p <profile> to show what an agent would see
• After acquiring a skill or learning domain knowledge → ask the user if they'd like to save key sections to vault memory
• Debugging credential issues → check agentvault audit show to see what was accessed

Do NOT use AgentVault for:

• Temporary data that only matters in the current session
• Large files or binary data — vault memory is for text knowledge
• Secrets that need to be shared across machines — suggest vault export first

Install

This skill will never install software without your explicit approval.

Check if AgentVault is installed:

agentvault --version

If not installed (requires user approval):

npm install -g @inflectiv-ai/agentvault

Or run directly without global install:

npx @inflectiv-ai/agentvault init

The package is published by Inflectiv on npm. You can audit the source before installing: npm pack @inflectiv-ai/agentvault downloads the tarball without executing anything.

Handling arguments

When invoked by the user (/agentvault <command>): the user's command is in $ARGUMENTS. Parse the first word to determine which subcommand to run.

Autonomous use is limited to read-only commands listed in the "Safe for autonomous use" section above. All write/modify operations require user confirmation.

Routing rules:

• If $ARGUMENTS is empty → run agentvault --help
• If $ARGUMENTS starts with a known command → pass each argument separately to agentvault (do NOT interpolate $ARGUMENTS into a shell string — pass as discrete arguments to avoid injection)
• If unclear → ask the user what they want to do

Quick start

# Initialize vault in your project (ask user first)
agentvault init

# Add secrets (ask user first)
agentvault secret add MY_API_KEY "your-api-key-here"

# Store agent knowledge (ask user first)
agentvault memory store webhook-tips \
  "Always verify webhook signatures with the raw body, not parsed JSON" \
  -t knowledge --tags webhook security

# Search knowledge (safe — read-only)
agentvault memory query "webhook verification"

# Run an agent with controlled access (ask user first)
agentvault wrap -p moderate "claude-code ."

# Health check (safe — read-only)
agentvault doctor

Commands

init — Initialize vault

agentvault init
agentvault init --skip-passphrase  # Use default passphrase (dev only)

After init, remind the user to add .agentvault/ to their .gitignore.

secret — Manage encrypted credentials

agentvault secret add API_KEY "your-value"   # Store encrypted
agentvault secret get API_KEY                # Decrypt and retrieve
agentvault secret list                       # List keys (values hidden)
agentvault secret remove API_KEY             # Delete (--dry-run available)
agentvault secret import .env                # Import from .env file

.env reading only happens when the user explicitly runs secret import. AgentVault never reads .env files automatically.

memory — Encrypted persistent memory

# Store knowledge (types: knowledge, context, preference, learned, correction)
agentvault memory store auth-pattern \
  "Use Bearer tokens with 15-minute expiry for API auth" \
  -t knowledge --tags auth api security

# Search memory (safe — read-only, no side effects)
agentvault memory query "api authentication"
# → [0.850] auth-pattern (knowledge) -- Use Bearer tokens...

# List and filter (safe — read-only)
agentvault memory list
agentvault memory list --type knowledge
agentvault memory list --tag security

# Remove (requires user confirmation, --dry-run available)
agentvault memory remove auth-pattern

# Export
agentvault memory export -o memories.json

wrap — Run command in sandbox

agentvault wrap -p moderate "npm start"
agentvault wrap -p restrictive -a claude "python script.py"

Required: -p, --profile <name> | Optional: -a, --agent <id> (default: "default-agent")

Denied vars are removed, redacted vars show [REDACTED]. Every decision is logged.

profile — Manage permission profiles

Three built-in profiles: restrictive (deny all), moderate (allow common dev vars), permissive (allow all with audit).

agentvault profile list
agentvault profile show moderate
agentvault profile create myprofile -d "Custom" -t 30 -r "AWS_*:deny" -r "NODE_ENV:allow"
agentvault profile clone moderate custom-moderate

Rules: pattern:access format. Access levels: allow, deny, redact. Last-match-wins.

preview — Dry-run environment preview

agentvault preview -p moderate
agentvault preview -p restrictive --denied

audit — View audit logs

agentvault audit show                     # Last 50 entries
agentvault audit show -a claude           # Filter by agent
agentvault audit export -o audit.json     # Export
agentvault audit clear --dry-run          # Preview clear

mcp — MCP server

agentvault mcp start                    # stdio transport (default — no network listener)
agentvault mcp start --transport sse    # SSE transport (localhost only, no external access)

The default stdio transport does not open any network ports. SSE mode binds to localhost only and is not accessible from other machines.

12 MCP tools: vault.secret.get, vault.secret.list, vault.memory.store, vault.memory.query, vault.memory.list, vault.memory.remove, vault.audit.show, vault.status, vault.profile.show, vault.preview, vault.export, vault.sign_x402

MCP configuration for Claude Code (.mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "agentvault": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@inflectiv-ai/agentvault", "mcp", "start"],
      "env": {
        "AGENTVAULT_PASSPHRASE": "${AGENTVAULT_PASSPHRASE}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Important: Never hardcode your passphrase in .mcp.json. Set AGENTVAULT_PASSPHRASE as a shell environment variable (e.g. in ~/.zshrc) and reference it, or use the .agentvault/.passphrase file (auto-created by agentvault init, permissions 0600).

Other commands

agentvault status                        # Vault overview (safe)
agentvault doctor                        # Health check (safe)
agentvault diff moderate restrictive     # Compare profiles (safe)
agentvault revoke                        # Kill all active sessions (ask user)
agentvault watch                         # Live audit monitor (safe)
agentvault vault export -o backup.avault # Export vault (ask user)
agentvault vault import backup.avault    # Import vault (ask user)

Error handling

Error	Cause	Fix
Vault not initialized	No .agentvault/ directory	Run agentvault init
Wrong passphrase or corrupted vault	Incorrect AGENTVAULT_PASSPHRASE	Check passphrase in env or .agentvault/.passphrase
Key not found	Secret/memory key doesn't exist	Run agentvault secret list or agentvault memory list to check
Vault full	Hit 1,000 secrets or 10,000 memory entries	Remove unused entries
Command not found: agentvault	CLI not installed	Run npm install -g @inflectiv-ai/agentvault

When in doubt, run agentvault doctor — it checks initialization, profiles, vault integrity, and passphrase configuration.

Common workflows

First-time setup

agentvault init
agentvault secret import .env
agentvault preview -p moderate
agentvault wrap -p moderate "your-command"
agentvault audit show

Recall before starting work

# Safe — read-only, can run autonomously
agentvault memory query "authentication best practices"
agentvault memory query "project deployment steps"

After learning something new

Ask the user if they'd like to save it, then:

agentvault memory store sec-input-validation \
  "Always validate and sanitize user input at system boundaries." \
  -t knowledge --tags security validation

Security & Privacy

AgentVault is 100% device-bound. All encryption, storage, and processing happens on your local machine. There is zero communication with any external API, server, or service.

Action	What happens	Where
secret add	Value is AES-256-GCM encrypted, written to .agentvault/vault.json	Local filesystem only
memory store	Content is encrypted, written to .agentvault/memory.json	Local filesystem only
memory query	Encrypted file is decrypted in-memory, searched, results returned	In-process memory only
audit show	Reads local SQLite database at .agentvault/audit.db	Local filesystem only
mcp start	stdio: no network listener. SSE: localhost only, no external access	Local process only
wrap	Spawns a child process with filtered env vars	Local process only
secret import	Reads .env file ONLY when explicitly invoked by user	Local filesystem only

What AgentVault does NOT do:

• Does not send any data to external servers or APIs — zero network calls
• Does not phone home or collect telemetry of any kind
• Does not read .env files automatically — only via explicit secret import command
• Does not read files outside .agentvault/ (except .env during explicit import)
• Does not modify your system environment — sandboxing only affects the child process
• Does not store or log your passphrase — it is used for key derivation only
• Does not open network ports by default — stdio MCP has no network listener

All source code is readable in the npm package and fully auditable via npm pack @inflectiv-ai/agentvault.

Links

• Documentation
• npm Package
• AVP Specification

For complete command reference with all flags, see Documentation.