varlock

Secure-by-default environment variable management. Ensures secrets are never exposed in Claude sessions.

Why This Skill?

When working with Claude Code, secrets can accidentally leak into:

• Terminal output
• Claude's input/output context
• Log files or traces
• Git commits or diffs

This skill wraps Varlock to enforce secure patterns and prevent accidental exposure.

Installation

Option A: One-liner (Recommended)

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/varlock && curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wrsmith108/varlock-claude-skill/main/skills/varlock/SKILL.md -o ~/.claude/skills/varlock/SKILL.md

Option B: Manual

git clone https://github.com/wrsmith108/varlock-claude-skill /tmp/varlock-skill
cp -r /tmp/varlock-skill/skills/varlock ~/.claude/skills/
rm -rf /tmp/varlock-skill

Prerequisites

Install the Varlock CLI:

curl -sSfL https://varlock.dev/install.sh | sh -s -- --force-no-brew
export PATH="$HOME/.varlock/bin:$PATH"

Core Principle

Secrets must NEVER appear in Claude's context.

Never Do	Safe Alternative
cat .env	cat .env.schema
echo $SECRET	varlock load
printenv | grep API	varlock load | grep API

Quick Reference

# Validate all secrets (shows masked values)
varlock load

# Quiet validation (no output on success)
varlock load --quiet

# Run command with secrets injected
varlock run -- npm start

# View schema (safe - no values)
cat .env.schema

Schema File

Create .env.schema to define variable types and sensitivity:

# Global defaults
# @defaultSensitive=true @defaultRequired=infer

# Public config
# @type=enum(development,staging,production) @sensitive=false
NODE_ENV=development

# Sensitive secrets
# @type=string(startsWith=sk_) @required @sensitive
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=

# @type=url @required @sensitive
DATABASE_URL=

Annotations

Annotation	Effect
@sensitive	Value masked in all output
@sensitive=false	Value shown (for public keys)
@required	Must be present
@type=string(startsWith=X)	Prefix validation

Handling Secret Requests

When users ask Claude to:

• "Check if API key is set" → varlock load | grep API_KEY
• "Debug authentication" → varlock load (validates all)
• "Update a secret" → Decline; ask user to update manually
• "Show me .env" → cat .env.schema instead

Credits

This skill wraps Varlock by DMNO.

License

MIT