Swarm External Secrets

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A Docker Swarm secrets plugin that integrates with multiple secret management providers including HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, and OpenBao.

🚀 Updates

🎓 Google Summer of Code 2026

swarm-external-secrets is participating in Google Summer of Code 2026 incubated under the organization OpenScienceLabs!

For more information, check out GSoC Contribution Guidelines

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Architecture

Documentation

Please refer to the docs for more information.

Supported Providers

Features

• Multi-Provider Support: HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, OpenBao
• Multiple Auth Methods: Support for various authentication methods per provider
• Automatic Secret Rotation: Monitor providers for changes and automatically update Docker secrets and services
• Real-time Monitoring: Web dashboard with system metrics, health status, and performance tracking
• Flexible Path Mapping: Customize secret paths and field extraction per provider
• Production Ready: Includes proper error handling, logging, cleanup, and monitoring
• Backward Compatible: Existing Vault configurations continue to work unchanged

New: Multi-Provider Support

The plugin now supports multiple secret providers. Configure with SECRETS_PROVIDER environment variable:

# HashiCorp Vault (default)
docker plugin set swarm-external-secrets:latest SECRETS_PROVIDER="vault"

# AWS Secrets Manager  
docker plugin set swarm-external-secrets:latest SECRETS_PROVIDER="aws"

# Azure Key Vault
docker plugin set swarm-external-secrets:latest SECRETS_PROVIDER="azure"

# OpenBao
docker plugin set swarm-external-secrets:latest SECRETS_PROVIDER="openbao"

For multi-instance usage (for example, Vault + OpenBao with separate plugin names in Swarm), see docs/multi-provider.md.

New: Real-time Monitoring

Access the monitoring dashboard at http://localhost:8080 (configurable port):

• System Metrics: Memory usage, goroutine count, GC statistics
• Secret Rotation: Success/failure rates, error tracking
• Health Status: Overall system health and provider connectivity
• Performance Tracking: Response times, ticker health, uptime

Monitor Configuration

docker plugin set swarm-external-secrets:latest \
    ENABLE_MONITORING="true" \
    MONITORING_PORT="8080"

Installation

1. Build and enable the plugin:

   ./scripts/build.sh

2. Configure the plugin:

   docker plugin set swarm-external-secrets:latest \
       VAULT_ADDR="https://your-vault-server:8200" \
       VAULT_AUTH_METHOD="token" \
       VAULT_TOKEN="your-vault-token" \
       LOG_LEVEL="4" \
       ENABLE_ROTATION="true"

3. Use in docker-compose.yml:

   HashiCorp Vault:

   secrets:
     mysql_password:
       driver: swarm-external-secrets:latest
       labels:
         vault_path: "database/mysql"
         vault_field: "password"

   AWS Secrets Manager:

   secrets:
     api_key:
       driver: swarm-external-secrets:latest
       labels:
         aws_secret_name: "prod/api/key"
         aws_field: "api_key"

   Azure Key Vault:

   secrets:
     database_connection:
       driver: swarm-external-secrets:latest
       labels:
         azure_secret_name: "database-connection-string"

   OpenBao:

   secrets:
     app_secret:
       driver: swarm-external-secrets:latest
       labels:
         openbao_path: "app/config"
         openbao_field: "secret_key"

4. Optional: enable plugin log sidecar (for docker compose logs visibility):

   On Linux, the default plugin log path is /run/swarm-external-secrets/plugin.log. macOS and Windows filesystems do not support this /run/** path by default, so create a writable log directory on the host and point PLUGIN_LOG_PATH at it.

   sudo mkdir -p /run/swarm-external-secrets
   sudo touch /run/swarm-external-secrets/plugin.log
   docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.logs.yml up -d
   docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.logs.yml logs -f secrets-logger

   Example for macOS or Windows Docker Desktop:

   mkdir -p ./logs
   touch ./logs/plugin.log
   docker plugin set swarm-external-secrets:latest \
     PLUGIN_LOG_PATH="$PWD/logs/plugin.log"

Provider	Status	Authentication	Rotation
HashiCorp Vault	✅ Stable	Token, AppRole	✅
AWS Secrets Manager	✅ Stable	IAM, Access Keys	✅
Azure Key Vault	✅ Stable	Service Principal, Access Token	✅
OpenBao	✅ Stable	Token, AppRole	✅
GCP Secret Manager	🚧 Placeholder	-	-

Quick Start Examples

HashiCorp Vault

docker plugin set swarm-external-secrets:latest \
    SECRETS_PROVIDER="vault" \
    VAULT_ADDR="https://vault.example.com:8200" \
    VAULT_TOKEN="hvs.example-token"

AWS Secrets Manager

docker plugin set swarm-external-secrets:latest \
    SECRETS_PROVIDER="aws" \
    AWS_REGION="us-west-2" \
    AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE"

Azure Key Vault

docker plugin set swarm-external-secrets:latest \
    SECRETS_PROVIDER="azure" \
    AZURE_VAULT_URL="https://myvault.vault.azure.net/" \
    AZURE_TENANT_ID="12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012"

License

BSD-3-Clause license

Explore the Repository

If you want to explore the repository or read more, check out Ask DeepWiki.