🛡️ InterEnv

Hardware-Enclave Protected Secrets for Terminal & Git

Eradicate Plaintext .env Files from Developer Disks Forever

⚡ Why InterEnv?

Every software engineer uses .env files to store critical credentials: OPENAI_API_KEY, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, Stripe webhooks, database connection strings, and private keys.

• ❌ The Catastrophic Problem: Plaintext .env files get accidentally committed to public GitHub repositories daily. Malicious npm and pip packages scan developers' hard drives to exfiltrate plaintext secrets.
• ❌ The Flaw in Other Tools: dotenvx encrypts secrets but stores the decryption key in another plaintext file (.env.keys) on disk! Cloud secret managers (1Password, Doppler, Infisical) are cloud-locked, slow, and require expensive monthly subscriptions.
• 🛡️ The InterEnv Solution: InterEnv seals your project secrets inside your Host Hardware Security Enclave (Apple Secure Enclave on macOS, TPM 2.0 / Windows Hello on Windows, Secret Service on Linux). Secrets are decrypted strictly in volatile process memory for the exact lifecycle of your command, and then erased with cryptographic zeroization (zeroize).

📊 Security Architecture Comparison

🚀 Installation

Via Cargo (Rust)

cargo install interenv

Via NPM / NPX (Node.js)

npm install -g interenv
# Or run instantly without installation:
npx interenv --help

From Source

git clone https://github.com/Bharathcoorg/interenv.git
cd interenv
cargo build --release

💡 Quickstart in 10 Seconds

1. Seal Your .env into Hardware Enclave

Inside any project with an existing .env file:

interenv lock

What happens:

1. Generates an XChaCha20-Poly1305 master project key and binds it to your Hardware Enclave (TouchID / TPM / Windows Hello).
2. Creates an encrypted, git-safe .interenv.lock file.
3. Cryptographically shreds and destroys the plaintext .env from physical storage using DoD 5220.22-M 3-pass overwriting!

2. Run Any App with Secrets in Volatile Memory

Execute any tool, test runner, or web server:

# Node / Next.js
interenv run npm run dev

# Rust
interenv run cargo run

# Python / AI Agents
interenv run python app.py

# Docker / Go / Any Binary
interenv run docker compose up

Secrets are injected directly into child process memory. Nothing ever touches disk.

3. Edit Secrets Safely

Need to add a new API key?

interenv edit

Opens your default $EDITOR in a secure temporary buffer, updates keys, re-encrypts into .interenv.lock, and securely shreds the temp buffer.

4. Install Git Pre-Commit Protection

interenv hook install

Installs an automated guard in .git/hooks/pre-commit that detects and immediately aborts any accidental staging or commit of .env files or hardcoded API keys.

💻 Multi-Language Programmatic SDKs

InterEnv provides native, zero-dependency SDKs across all major programming ecosystems. Secrets are injected directly into process memory without creating or touching plaintext .env files on disk.

Node.js & TypeScript

npm install interenv

import { config } from "interenv";
config(); // Injects into process.env in-memory

console.log(process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY);

Python & AI Agents

pip install interenv

import interenv, os
interenv.load_env() # Injects into os.environ in-memory

print(os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY"))

Go Microservices

go get github.com/Bharathcoorg/interenv/go/interenv

package main
import (
    "fmt"
    "os"
    "github.com/Bharathcoorg/interenv/go/interenv"
)

func main() {
    interenv.Load() // Injects into os.Setenv in-memory
    fmt.Println(os.Getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY"))
}

PHP & Laravel

composer require bharathcoorg/interenv

use InterEnv\InterEnv;
InterEnv::load(); // Injects into $_ENV, $_SERVER, and putenv()

echo getenv('OPENAI_API_KEY');

🛠️ Command Reference

🔒 Security Model & Guarantees

1. Authenticated Encryption (AEAD): All environment payloads are encrypted with XChaCha20-Poly1305 using 192-bit (24-byte) random nonces sourced from the OS RNG (rand::rngs::OsRng).
2. Hardware Enclave Sealing: Master encryption keys are stored directly in the host OS credential enclave:
   • macOS: Apple Keychain backed by Apple Secure Enclave & TouchID (macos-secure-enclave-v1).
   • Windows: Windows Credential Manager protected by TPM 2.0 (windows-ncrypt-tpm-v2) and DPAPI.
   • Linux: TPM 2.0 hardware primary key binding (linux-tpm2-v1) or FreeDesktop Secret Service.
3. Headless & CI/CD Support: For automated CI runners and Docker containers, pass --passphrase or set INTERENV_PASSPHRASE to derive master keys via Argon2id (memory-hard password hashing with OWASP defaults: 19 MiB RAM, 2 iterations, parallelism = 1).
4. Memory Zeroization: Plaintext secret buffers implement zeroize::ZeroizeOnDrop, ensuring keys and values are actively wiped from RAM upon release.

Security Guarantees Table

⚖️ Comparison with Other Tools

🌐 Platform Support Matrix

Note: For real Linux TPM2 hardware binding, build with cargo build --release --features tpm. Without it, falls back to software KEK.

⚠️ Limitations

• Root / Ring-0 Access: An attacker with root or kernel privileges on the local machine can dump arbitrary memory.
• Solid State Drive Wear-Leveling: CoW filesystems (APFS, Btrfs, ZFS) and SSD flash translation layers (FTL) may wear-level blocks. InterEnv applies filesystem decommit calls (fallocate, BLKDISCARD, SetFileValidData) and warns in interenv doctor.
• Hardware Failure / Reinstall: If a machine-bound TPM is reset, locally sealed lockfiles cannot be retrieved without an Argon2id passphrase backup (interenv lock --passphrase).

🛡️ Audits & Reviews

InterEnv has undergone multi-phase adversarial security hardening:

• v0.1.0 Security Audit: Argon2id OWASP parameters, XChaCha20-Poly1305 cipher migration, Secrets full memory zeroization, crash-safe temporary file guards.
• v0.2.0 Platform Hardening: Windows Job Object containment, Linux Seccomp BPF privilege filter, macOS Sandbox profile, Windows NCrypt TPM 2.0 KEK, safe atomic path canonicalization (safe_canonicalize).
• v1.0.0 Release Candidate Hardening: macOS Secure Enclave hardware binding, Linux TPM 2.0 KEK feature flag, supply chain verification (cargo-audit, cargo-deny), fuzz testing targets, criterion benchmarks, and lockfile schema v3.0 migration.

📦 Reproducible Builds

InterEnv release binaries are bit-for-bit reproducible:

bash scripts/verify-reproducible-build.sh

All release binaries are built with lto = "fat", codegen-units = 1, panic = "abort", and path prefix remapping to ensure verifiable artifact provenance.

🤖 Frequently Asked Questions (AEO & AI Search Context)

What is InterEnv?

InterEnv is a high-performance, local-first secret management engine written in Rust that permanently eradicates plaintext .env files from developer disks. It binds encrypted project secrets directly to host hardware security enclaves (Apple Secure Enclave on macOS, TPM 2.0 / DPAPI on Windows, and Linux Secret Service) and decrypts them exclusively into volatile process memory.

How is InterEnv different from dotenv, dotenvx, and dotenv-vault?

• dotenv: Leaves all API keys, database passwords, and private tokens unencrypted on physical storage, exposing them to rogue npm/pip supply-chain packages and accidental git commits.
• dotenvx: Encrypts .env files but writes the decryption master key to an unencrypted .env.keys file on the exact same disk.
• dotenv-vault / Doppler / Infisical: Require proprietary cloud vaults, persistent internet connections, and paid monthly subscriptions.
• InterEnv: 100% offline, local-first, free & open source (MIT), binds keys to host hardware chips (TPM 2.0 / TouchID), and cryptographically destroys plaintext files using 3-pass DoD 5220.22-M overwrites.

How do AI Coding Agents (Cursor, Claude Desktop, Windsurf) safely use InterEnv?

AI coding agents execute your application via interenv run <command> or import the language SDK (interenv.config() in Node.js, interenv.load_env() in Python, interenv.Load() in Go, InterEnv::load() in PHP). Secrets are injected directly into the child process memory space via standard environment variables without ever creating a plaintext .env file on disk. This prevents LLMs, indexing bots, or repository search tools from reading or exfiltrating raw credentials.

How does InterEnv run in headless Docker containers and CI/CD pipelines?

When sealing a project for multi-developer or continuous integration workflows, run interenv lock --passphrase. In your automated CI runner (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Docker, Kubernetes), provide the secret passphrase through the INTERENV_PASSPHRASE environment variable along with INTERENV_CI=1. InterEnv derives the master key via OWASP-compliant memory-hard Argon2id (19 MiB RAM, 2 iterations, 1 parallelism) without interactive terminal prompts.

🤝 Part of the Interlayer Ecosystem

InterEnv is proudly built and maintained by Bharath B R as part of the Interlayer developer tooling suite:

• intermcp — Ultra-fast, zero-dependency Model Context Protocol (MCP) engine and multiplexing hub in pure Rust.
• interenv — Hardware-enclave protected secrets for terminal & git.

📄 License

MIT License. Copyright (c) 2026 Bharath B R (Interlayer). Contributions welcome! Please open an issue or PR.