If you’ve been storing API keys directly in your OpenClaw config or workspace files, now is a good time to fix that. OpenClaw v2026.2.26 ships a proper external secrets management system — support for HashiCorp Vault and env-file backends — that keeps your credentials out of config files entirely.

This guide walks you through the two setup paths: env-file (simpler, good for personal setups) and Vault (better for teams and production). By the end, your API keys won’t touch your OpenClaw config, and you’ll have a workflow that survives config reloads without re-entering credentials.

Why This Matters

Before v2026.2.26, the cleanest available option was to set environment variables before starting OpenClaw and reference them in config. This worked, but had gaps:

  • Environment dumps (from printenv, logs, crash reports) could expose keys
  • No structured rotation — changing a key meant updating config and restarting
  • No audit trail for secret access
  • Keys in .env files committed to version control by mistake

The new external secrets backend moves key resolution to runtime: OpenClaw fetches the secret at startup from an external source, never writing it to disk or config. The config file references a secret name, not the secret value.

The env-file backend lets you store secrets in a dedicated file that’s separate from your OpenClaw config. The file is never committed to git, never included in config exports, and can be locked down with file permissions.

Step 1: Create your secrets file

Create a file outside your OpenClaw workspace — somewhere your OS user can read but that won’t accidentally end up in a repository:

mkdir -p ~/.openclaw-secrets
touch ~/.openclaw-secrets/secrets.env
chmod 600 ~/.openclaw-secrets/secrets.env

Populate it with your secrets in KEY=value format:

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
DISCORD_TOKEN=...
TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=...

Step 2: Configure OpenClaw to use the env-file backend

In your OpenClaw config (typically ~/.openclaw/config.yaml or your gateway config), add a secrets block:

secrets:
  backend: env-file
  path: ~/.openclaw-secrets/secrets.env
  snapshot_on_load: true

snapshot_on_load: true activates runtime snapshot mode — secrets are loaded into memory at startup and not re-read from disk unless the gateway restarts. This is the recommended setting for stability.

Step 3: Reference secrets in config by name

Anywhere in your OpenClaw config where you previously put a literal API key, switch to a secret reference:

# Before:
anthropic:
  api_key: "sk-ant-abc123..."

# After:
anthropic:
  api_key: "${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY}"

The ${VAR_NAME} syntax tells OpenClaw to resolve this value from the secrets backend at startup.

Step 4: Restart the gateway

openclaw gateway restart

Check the logs to confirm secrets loaded correctly:

openclaw gateway status
# Look for: "Secrets backend: env-file — loaded N secrets"

If you’re running OpenClaw in a team context, or want centralized secret management with rotation and audit logs, the Vault backend is the right choice.

Prerequisites

  • A running HashiCorp Vault instance (self-hosted or HCP)
  • A Vault token with read access to the path where your secrets live
  • OpenClaw v2026.2.26 or later

Step 1: Store your secrets in Vault

# Authenticate to Vault
vault login

# Write your secrets (using KV v2 engine)
vault kv put secret/openclaw \
  ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-... \
  DISCORD_TOKEN=... \
  TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=...

Step 2: Configure the Vault backend

secrets:
  backend: vault
  vault:
    address: "https://your-vault-host:8200"
    token: "${VAULT_TOKEN}"          # Can itself be an env var
    path: "secret/data/openclaw"     # KV v2 path
    token_refresh: true              # Auto-renew token before expiry
  snapshot_on_load: true

Note: The token field here supports a bootstrap ${ENV_VAR} reference — you still need one credential (the Vault token) accessible at startup, typically via environment variable or a local token file. This is the standard pattern for Vault integration.

Step 3: Reference secrets exactly as in Method 1

anthropic:
  api_key: "${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY}"

OpenClaw resolves these by fetching from Vault at startup. If token_refresh: true, it will renew the token automatically based on TTL.

Step 4: Restart and verify

openclaw gateway restart
openclaw gateway status
# Look for: "Secrets backend: vault — loaded N secrets from secret/data/openclaw"

Migrating Existing Auth Profiles

If you have existing auth profiles stored in OpenClaw that contain inline credentials, v2026.2.26 includes a migration helper:

openclaw secrets migrate-profiles

This command:

  1. Reads your current auth profiles
  2. Extracts any inline credentials it finds
  3. Writes them to your configured secrets backend
  4. Rewrites the profiles to use ${SECRET_NAME} references
  5. Creates a backup of the original profiles at ~/.openclaw/profiles.backup.yaml

Run it after configuring your backend. Review the backup before deleting it.

Verifying Your Setup

After migration, confirm no literal secrets remain in your config:

grep -r "sk-ant-\|sk-\|bot[0-9]\{9\}" ~/.openclaw/

This should return nothing. If it returns matches, check those files and move the values to your secrets backend.

You can also inspect what secrets are loaded without revealing their values:

openclaw secrets list
# Output: Lists secret names and their source, not values

What to Do Next

  • Add ~/.openclaw-secrets/ to your .gitignore if it’s near any repository
  • Set a calendar reminder to rotate keys on a regular schedule (quarterly is common)
  • If using Vault: configure Vault audit logging so you have a record of when secrets are accessed
  • Review which of your skills store credentials in their own config files — skills like GitHub, Discord, or any OAuth-based integrations may need similar treatment

Sources

  1. UCStrategies: OpenClaw 2.26 Update — External Secrets Management Explained
  2. PatchBot.io: OpenClaw v2026.2.26 Release Notes — External Secrets Workflow
  3. HashiCorp Vault Documentation — KV Secrets Engine v2

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