Nysm (Now You See Me)

Manage your secrets via the command line

Nysm is a command line utility designed to make interacting with secrets management providers simple and intuitive. Whether you need to quickly view a secret, update configuration values, or manage your secrets workflow, Nysm provides a streamlined interface with support for multiple data formats and your preferred editor.

Features

• List all secrets in your account with names and descriptions
• View secret values in multiple formats (JSON, YAML, plain text)
• Edit secrets using your preferred editor with format conversion
• Create new secrets interactively with optional descriptions
• Delete secrets when no longer needed
• Multi-format support for seamless workflow integration
• Syntax highlighting and pagination for better readability

Installation

cargo install nysm

Usage

List secrets:

nysm list

Show a specific secret:

nysm show some-secret-id

Edit an existing secret:

nysm edit some-secret-id

Create a new secret:

nysm create some-new-secret-id -d "This is a description for the secret"

Delete a secret:

nysm delete some-secret-id

Advanced Usage

Format Options

Nysm supports multiple data formats for viewing and editing secrets:

• json - JSON format (default for stored secrets)
• yaml - YAML format (default for editing)
• text - Plain text format

You can specify different formats for storage and editing:

# View a JSON secret as YAML (default behavior)
nysm show my-secret

# View a secret as JSON
nysm show my-secret --print-format json

# Edit a secret, converting from JSON storage to YAML for editing
nysm edit my-secret --secret-format json --edit-format yaml

# Create a secret and store it as JSON (converted from YAML editing)
nysm create my-new-secret --secret-format json --edit-format yaml

Region Selection

Specify a different region using the -r or --region flag:

nysm -r us-west-2 list
nysm --region eu-west-1 show my-secret

Editor Integration

When creating or editing secrets, Nysm will open your preferred editor:

• Uses the EDITOR environment variable (defaults to vim)
• Temporary files are created with appropriate extensions for syntax highlighting
• Changes are only saved if the file content is modified

Configuration

AWS Credentials

Nysm uses standard AWS credential resolution:

1. Environment variables (AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY)
2. AWS credentials file (~/.aws/credentials)
3. IAM roles (when running on EC2)
4. AWS SSO

Required Permissions

Your AWS credentials need the following IAM permissions:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "secretsmanager:ListSecrets",
        "secretsmanager:GetSecretValue",
        "secretsmanager:CreateSecret",
        "secretsmanager:UpdateSecret",
        "secretsmanager:DeleteSecret"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Examples

Managing Application Configuration

# List all secrets to find your app config
nysm list

# View current database configuration
nysm show myapp/database/config

# Update database password
nysm edit myapp/database/config

# Create new API key secret
nysm create myapp/api/keys -d "API keys for external services"

Working with Different Formats

# View a plaintext secret (like an SSL certificate)
nysm show ssl-cert --print-format text --secret-format text

# Convert YAML configuration to JSON storage
nysm create app-config --secret-format json --edit-format yaml