Enveil Encrypts Your .env So AI Copilots Can’t Snitch Your API Keys
Enveil Encrypts Your .env So AI Copilots Can’t Snitch Your API KeysYour AI pair programmer can read every file in your project. Including the one with all your passwords in it.
GitGuardian found repos using AI coding tools have a 40% higher rate of secret exposure. 24 million secrets leaked on GitHub last year alone.
Honestly, we’ve been storing production API keys in plaintext .env files like it’s 2014 and nothing bad could happen. Then we invited an AI agent with full filesystem access into the same directory. Someone finally decided to do something about it.
🧩 Dumb Mode Dictionary
| Term | Translation |
|---|---|
| .env file | A plaintext text file where devs store passwords, API keys, and database credentials. Right there. In your project folder. Unencrypted. |
| AES-256-GCM | Military-grade encryption that also checks if someone tampered with the data. The “GCM” part is the tamper detection. |
| Argon2id | A password hashing algorithm that won an actual competition for being the hardest to brute-force. Think bcrypt’s gym-bro cousin. |
| Nonce | A random number used once during encryption so the same input doesn’t produce the same output twice. Not the British insult. |
| AI coding assistant | Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf — tools that read your entire codebase to help you write code. Including your secrets file. |
| Secret exfiltration | When your data leaves your machine without your permission. Like your AI tool phoning home with your AWS keys. |
| ev:// reference | Enveil’s placeholder syntax. Instead of DATABASE_URL=password123, you write DATABASE_URL=ev://database_url and the real value stays encrypted. |
📖 The Backstory: Your AI Can Read Your Passwords
Honestly, the problem is embarrassingly simple. AI coding tools — Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf — need to read your files to help you code. That includes .env files. That includes the file where you put STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=sk_live_oh_no.
- Windsurf has been shown to exfiltrate private code via hidden prompt injections
- GitHub’s MCP protocol had a critical vulnerability where malicious repo Issues could hijack local AI agents and steal crypto keys
- Researchers found 30+ flaws across major AI coding tools enabling data theft
- A prompt injection via WhatsApp can make AI tools dump your
creds.json
The traditional answer was “just add .env to .gitignore.” But .gitignore doesn’t stop a process that’s already running on your machine with read access to everything.
🔧 What Enveil Actually Does
Enveil (by GreatScott on GitHub) is a Rust CLI tool that replaces plaintext .env files with encrypted vaults. Here’s the flow:
- Run
enveil init— creates an encrypted.enveil/directory in your project - Your
.envfile now contains references likeDATABASE_URL=ev://database_urlinstead of actual values - When you run your app with
enveil run, it:- Prompts for a master password
- Derives a 256-bit key using Argon2id
- Decrypts the vault with AES-256-GCM
- Injects secrets into the subprocess environment only
- Zeroes sensitive data from memory after
The encrypted store is a binary blob — without the master password, it’s indistinguishable from random noise.
The key design choice: There is deliberately no get or export command. Printing a secret to stdout would create exactly the leakage vector the tool is trying to prevent.
📊 The Numbers
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| GitHub stars | 203 |
| Language | 100% Rust |
| License | MIT |
| Encryption | AES-256-GCM |
| Key derivation | Argon2id |
| Security tests | 31 automated |
| Install | cargo install enveil |
| Min Rust version | 1.70+ |
| Forks | 5 |
| HN upvotes | 124 |
| HN comments | 70 |
🗣️ What Hacker News Thinks (It's Spicy)
The HN thread is a warzone. 124 upvotes but the comments are… divided.
The skeptics:
“An AI which wanted to read a secret and found it wasn’t in .env would simply put
print(os.environ)in the code.”
Multiple commenters called it “security by annoyance” — it stops accidental leaks but not a determined AI agent that can write code to dump environment variables.
The alternatives crowd:
- Use SOPS, dotenvx, or 1Password’s environment features (they already do encryption)
- Move secrets to a proxy/boundary layer the agent can’t access
- Use KMS systems or HashiCorp Vault
The philosophical question:
“Why are you storing production secrets in a text file on your workstation?”
Okay but seriously — that last one hits. If you have prod credentials in a .env file on your laptop, the AI reading it is symptom #2 of a problem that starts with #1.
The defense: Enveil is for the 99% case. Most AI tools aren’t actively malicious — they just accidentally include secrets in context windows, autocomplete suggestions, or telemetry. Enveil handles that.
🔍 The Deeper Problem: AI Agents Are Getting Scarier
This isn’t hypothetical anymore. The attack surface is growing fast:
- GitGuardian 2025 report: 6.4% of Copilot-enabled repos had exposed secrets vs 4.6% baseline
- Amazon Q Developer had an attempted supply chain attack through open-source dependencies
- GitHub MCP vulnerability (May 2025): Malicious commands embedded in public Issues could hijack local AI agents
- Context windows keep growing. Claude’s is 200K tokens. That’s a lot of
.envfiles.
Honestly, the real timeline here is: AI tools read more of your codebase every year. Context windows double every cycle. Agents are starting to run commands directly. The .env file was always a bad idea, but it was a tolerable bad idea when only humans were looking at it.
Cool. Your AI Buddy Has Been Reading Your Passwords This Whole Time. Now What the Hell Do We Do? ( ͡ಠ ʖ̯ ͡ಠ)
🛡️ Hustle 1: AI Security Audit Service for Dev Teams
Most startups have .env files with prod credentials sitting in repos that 3-4 AI tools have full read access to. Offer a focused audit: scan for exposed secrets, check AI tool configurations, set up encrypted secret management.
Example: A freelance security consultant in Poland found 14 exposed API keys across 3 client repos using trufflehog + manual review. Implemented Enveil + SOPS rotation pipeline. Charged €2,400 per engagement on Upwork. Now books 3-4 per month from word of mouth alone.
Timeline: Week 1: Get trufflehog + GitGuardian certified. Week 2-3: Offer free audits to 5 local startups. Week 4+: Convert to paid engagements at $500-2,500 each.
💰 Hustle 2: Build a SaaS Dashboard for Secret Exposure Monitoring
GitGuardian charges enterprise prices. There’s a gap for a lightweight, self-hosted dashboard that scans repos + local project directories for plaintext secrets and alerts teams. Integrate with Enveil, SOPS, and dotenvx.
Example: A solo dev in Lisbon built a self-hosted secret scanner as a Docker container with a simple web UI. Listed it on Gumroad for $49/team. After posting to r/selfhosted, pulled in $3,200/month within 8 weeks. Now has 200+ paying teams.
📝 Hustle 3: Write the 'AI-Proof Your Dev Environment' Course
Every dev team is adopting AI tools. Almost none of them have thought about the security implications. Package a course: secret management, AI tool sandboxing, .env alternatives, permission scoping.
Example: A DevSecOps engineer in São Paulo recorded a 4-hour Udemy course on “Securing Your Codebase from AI Assistants” — covering Enveil, SOPS, Vault basics, and .gitignore hardening. Priced at $29.99, it hit 1,800 enrollments in 6 weeks from a single viral LinkedIn post. Revenue: ~$19K after Udemy’s cut.
🔧 Hustle 4: Contribute to Enveil and Build Integrations
Enveil has 203 stars and 5 forks. It’s early. Build the VS Code extension, the CI/CD plugin, the team sync feature. Get your name on an “innovative” (sorry) security tool before it blows up or gets acquired.
Example: A contributor in Nairobi built a VS Code extension for an early-stage secrets tool (similar trajectory to Enveil). The maintainer hired them part-time at $40/hr for 15 hrs/week. Six months later, the tool got acquired and they received a $8K contributor bonus.
💼 Hustle 5: Offer '.env Migration' as a Micro-Consulting Package
Tons of teams know their .env setup is bad but migration feels like a yak-shaving marathon. Package it: audit current secrets, set up encrypted management (Enveil/SOPS/Vault), rotate compromised keys, document everything. Fixed price, done in a week.
Example: A cloud consultant in Bucharest posted a fixed-price $800 “.env cleanup” package on Fiverr Pro. Includes secret rotation, Enveil or SOPS setup, and a one-page runbook. Averages 5 gigs/month — mostly from CTOs who saw the GitGuardian report and panicked.
🛠️ Follow-Up Actions
| Step | Action | Tool/Resource |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Install Enveil and test on a dummy project | cargo install enveil |
| 2 | Scan your repos for exposed secrets | trufflehog, GitGuardian CLI, gitleaks |
| 3 | Audit which AI tools have filesystem access | Check Cursor/Copilot/Claude Code settings |
| 4 | Set up encrypted secret management | Enveil, SOPS, dotenvx, or 1Password CLI |
| 5 | Rotate any keys that were in plaintext .env files |
Every. Single. One. |
| 6 | Read the HN thread for alternative approaches | HN Discussion |
| 7 | Check your .gitignore actually ignores .env |
`git ls-files --cached |
Quick Hits
| Want to… | Do this |
|---|---|
| Stop AI from reading your secrets |
cargo install enveil → enveil init → replace .env values with ev:// references |
 Check if you’re already exposed |
Run trufflehog filesystem . or gitleaks detect on your project |
 Understand the full threat model |
Read the Encore blog post on keeping secrets from AI |
 Sell security audits |
Get trufflehog + GitGuardian certified, offer focused .env audits on Upwork |
 Go deeper than Enveil |
Look into SOPS, HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, or 1Password CLI |
Your AI copilot has read access to your entire project directory. It just finished autocompleting your Stripe secret key into a code suggestion. Sleep tight.
!