Gopass Provider

New in version 0.15

The Gopass provider integrates with gopass, a multi-user, multi-store abstraction layer on top of pass that keeps secrets GPG-encrypted and syncs them via git.

At a glance

Provider	gopass
URI	gopass://[folder_prefix]
Access	Read and write
Best for	GPG-encrypted, git-synced, multi-user password stores
Authentication	The GPG key configured for the password store
Availability	SecretSpec 0.15+
Default storage	secretspec/{project}/{profile}/{key}

Quick start

# Set a secret
$ secretspec set DATABASE_URL --provider gopass
Enter value for DATABASE_URL: postgresql://localhost/mydb
✓ Secret DATABASE_URL saved to gopass

# Get a secret
$ secretspec get DATABASE_URL --provider gopass
postgresql://localhost/mydb

# Run with secrets
$ secretspec run --provider gopass -- npm start

Setup

Prerequisites

Install the gopass CLI and initialize a password store:

# macOS
$ brew install gopass

# Debian/Ubuntu
$ sudo apt install gopass

# NixOS
$ nix-env -iA nixpkgs.gopass

Authentication

SecretSpec uses the GPG identities configured by gopass. Confirm that the target store is initialized and can be unlocked before using the provider.

Configuration

URI format

gopass://[folder_prefix]

• folder_prefix: Optional path prefix supporting {project}, {profile}, and {key} placeholders. Defaults to secretspec/{project}/{profile}/{key}.

URI examples

gopass
gopass://secretspec/shared/{profile}/{key}

Project configuration

secretspec.toml

[providers]
team = "gopass://"

[profiles.default]
DATABASE_URL = { description = "Database URL", providers = ["team"] }

Storage model

Changed in version 0.21

A single-line value without surrounding whitespace is stored as a plain text entry, exactly as gopass insert writes it, so gopass show, other gopass tooling, and earlier SecretSpec releases keep reading it. A value with line breaks, leading or trailing whitespace, NUL bytes, or non-UTF-8 content would not survive that path, so SecretSpec stores it with gopass cat in gopass’s binary-entry format instead. Read those entries with gopass cat; gopass show -o reports that they have no password line.

Each secret is stored under secretspec/{project}/{profile}/{key}. Gopass encrypts the entry with GPG and can synchronize the password store through git.

Use existing secrets

A secret’s ref field names an existing entry instead: item is the full entry path, including any mount-point prefix for multi-store setups (field is not supported). Reads and writes target that entry in place.

[profiles.production]
DATABASE_URL = { description = "Production DB", ref = { item = "work-store/infra/postgres" }, providers = ["gopass"] }

Advanced configuration

Shared secrets

By default, secrets are stored under secretspec/{project}/{profile}/{key}, which isolates them per project. To share secrets across projects, use a custom folder prefix via the URI:

~/.config/secretspec/config.toml

[defaults.providers]
shared = "gopass://secretspec/shared/{profile}/{key}"

The URI supports {project}, {profile}, and {key} placeholders. By omitting {project}, multiple projects can read and write the same store entry:

# secretspec.toml (in project-A and project-B)
[profiles.default]
ARTIFACTORY_USER = { description = "Artifactory user", providers = ["shared"] }

Both projects will resolve ARTIFACTORY_USER from secretspec/shared/default/ARTIFACTORY_USER.

Troubleshooting and limitations

Text entries, whether written by SecretSpec or created with gopass insert, are read from their password line only: SecretSpec returns the first line with surrounding whitespace removed, so a multiline value stored that way comes back truncated with no error. Writing the secret again with secretspec set stores a multiline value in the binary-entry format, which preserves every byte. Reading a binary entry costs two decryptions, because SecretSpec asks for the password line first and falls back to the entry body.