> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.interactive.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.interactive.ai/infrastructure/secrets.md).
# Secrets
A secret is a named set of key-value pairs holding **credentials** your agents and services need: API tokens, database passwords, anything that should not sit in a configuration file. Secrets belong to the project and nothing outside it can read them.
Grouping matters here. One secret can carry a host, a user, and a password together rather than forcing three separate entries, so a secret usually maps to a system rather than to a single credential. Add the pairs one at a time, or paste a whole set in with Import from JSON.
Values are **write-only**. Once saved, a secret's keys stay visible but its values cannot be read back, so editing means supplying new ones. Individual keys can be replaced or removed without touching the rest.
### Using a secret
Agents and services attach secrets rather than copying values out of them. Select the ones a deployment needs, on an agent's Runtime step or a service's Environment and Secrets section, and every key inside each attached secret arrives as an environment variable when the container starts.
Those environment variables are what the `${...}` reference fields elsewhere in the platform read. A password field on an agent's database connection takes `${MY_SECRET_KEY}` rather than the password itself, so the credential never appears in a configuration or in its version history.
### Database secrets
Creating a database generates its credentials for you. Two secrets appear, typed `database` rather than `project`, one for application access and one for the superuser, each holding the connection details: database name, host, the connection URIs, and credentials. Attach the application one to whatever needs to connect and leave the superuser for administrative work.
{% hint style="info" %}
Secrets can also be managed from the command line. See the [CLI documentation](https://docs.interactive.ai/cli/) for `iai secrets`.
{% endhint %}
---
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