Best Practices for secrets.yml

Follow these guidelines to manage your secrets securely and efficiently:

Never commit secrets.yml to version control: Use environment variables or secure vaults.
Use encrypted storage: Encrypt secrets.yml when storing or transferring it.
Leverage infrastructure secrets management tools: Integrate with tools like AWS Secrets Manager or HashiCorp Vault.
Minimize secrets surface: Avoid storing unnecessary secrets in your application.
Set strict permissions: Only let trusted team members access it.
Log carefully: Avoid logging sensitive values in production environments.
Automate testing for secrets: Check that the correct environment variables are passed for each configuration.
Use CI/CD securely: Automate secrets injection and ensure they're not hardcoded in the build steps.

Example Best Practice Implementation

```yaml
# secrets.yml
database_url: ${DB_URL}
stripe_api_key: ${STRIPE_SECRET_KEY}
```

This YAML file loads configuration from environment variables at runtime, avoiding direct exposure of credentials in the file or runtime memory.

Environment File Example (.env)

DB_URL=postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/dbname
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=sk_test_1234567890

Store these environment variables safely and ensure they are not committed to source control. Use a .env file and add it to .gitignore or similar versioning excludes.