Quickstart

Five minutes from install to credentials flowing into real work.

Create a vault

otto init

You'll choose a master password. otto derives your encryption keys from it — it is never stored anywhere, so pick something strong and memorable. On a Mac with Touch ID, subsequent unlocks can use your fingerprint instead.

Store and retrieve credentials

Credentials use path-style names: provider/item.

# Prompted for the value — keeps it out of shell history
otto set anthropic/api-key

# Retrieve it
otto get anthropic/api-key

# Copy to the clipboard, auto-clearing after 30 seconds
otto get anthropic/api-key -c

# See everything you've stored
otto list

Already have credentials scattered around? Import them:

otto import .env --dry-run     # preview, stores nothing
otto import .env

1Password CSV and Bitwarden JSON exports work the same way.

Inject, don't paste

The point of otto is that secrets flow to where they're needed without landing in files:

# Run a command with credentials in its environment only
otto run --env ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=anthropic/api-key -- python my_agent.py

# Export into your current shell (reads .otto.env mappings)
eval "$(otto env)"

Give an agent scoped access

For AI agents, otto run --proxy is the strongest mode: the child process gets a localhost base URL and a scoped, expiring otto1. token — never the real key. otto injects the provider key at forward time, so the model can't leak what it never saw.

otto run --proxy --env ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=anthropic/api-key -- claude

Inspect and revoke what you've granted:

otto grants
otto revoke <token-id>

Use it for SSH and git

# SSH keys served from the vault
eval "$(otto ssh-agent)"

# Sign your commits with a vault-held key
otto setup git-signing

Your daily ssh and git push now run through otto — keys never sit unencrypted in ~/.ssh.

Check on things

otto status        # vault + daemon state
otto lock          # lock now; auto-lock handles the rest

Next

Read how the security architecture protects all of this, end to end.