sei - Save Env Inject

You don’t leave your front door open just because you’ll need to get back in tomorrow.

Manages environment secrets in GNOME Keyring instead of .env files. TUI for editing, CLI for injection.

Why?

.env files sit in the project directory — any tool with file access can read them:

AI agents (Claude Code, Copilot) read project files for context analysis
Security scanners with vulnerabilities (e.g. Trivy — secrets were exfiltrated)
CI/CD pipelines and build tools scan the working directory
git add . accidentally commits secrets

sei stores secrets in GNOME Keyring — encrypted, protected by GUI prompt, invisible to file-based tools.

Architecture

Installation

Script (recommended)

curl -fsSL https://xi72yow.github.io/sei/install.sh | sudo bash

This adds the sei APT repository and installs the package. Updates come via apt upgrade.

Manual (build from source)

Requires Podman.

git clone https://github.com/xi72yow/sei.git
cd sei
./build.sh --install

Or build only and install separately:

./build.sh
sudo apt install --reinstall ./dist/sei_*.deb

Prerequisite

A running Secret Service daemon — GNOME Keyring (gnome-keyring-daemon), KeePassXC, or any other daemon implementing the freedesktop Secret Service API.

Usage

TUI

sei

On startup, sei scans for .env* files in the current directory. If new or changed files are found, the Import tab opens automatically with a diff view. Stage names are derived from the file suffix (.env → default, .env.production → production).

After import, the Store tab shows all keyring entries:

Each entry gets a 3-digit ID (001–999) for quick CLI access. Entries matching the current directory are highlighted. All keybindings are shown in the footer.

Running Commands

# Inline picker — choose entry interactively
sei node server.js

# By ID (skip picker)
sei 001 node server.js
sei 002 podman compose up -d

# By path + stage
sei run -s production -- node server.js
sei run -p ~/projects/api -s prod -- node server.js

# -- only needed when cmd starts with a flag
sei run --id 001 -- --some-flag

When no ID is given, sei shows an inline picker to select an entry before running the command. Entries matching the current directory are shown first.

Secrets are passed via environment inheritance — no temp files, no CLI arguments. The keyring is locked after loading.

Compose Integration

sei injects env vars into the process it spawns. For Compose, reference the variables in your compose.yml:

services:
  app:
    image: myapp
    environment:
      - DB_HOST        # value from host env (set by sei)
      - DB_PORT
      - API_KEY

sei 001 podman compose up -d

Security Model

Attack Vector	Without sei	With sei
AI agent reads project files	`.env` directly readable	No file present
AI agent uses `secret-tool`	—	GUI prompt blocks terminal
Scanner exfiltrates secrets	`.env` is found	Nothing on disk
`git add .` / `git commit -a`	`.env` gets committed	Nothing to commit
Shoulder surfing	`.env` open in editor	Values masked
Process monitoring (`ps`)	—	Secrets not in CLI arguments
Root access / disk forensics	`.env` plaintext	Keyring encrypted

Technical Details

Language: Rust (no unsafe)
TUI: ratatui + ratatui-textarea + crossterm
Keyring: zbus (D-Bus, freedesktop Secret Service API, pure Rust)
Collection: sei-secrets (own collection, own password)
Metadata: 3-digit ID, created/updated timestamps per entry
Async: tokio + futures-util
CLI: clap (derive) + ID shorthand
Build: Container-based via Podman
Package: .deb for amd64 (stripped, LTO)

sei