Validate OpenClaw Secrets Plans: Enforce Configuration Rules

Managing secrets can feel like walking through a minefield. One wrong path or a typo in your config, and your whole setup might break. To avoid these headaches, openclaw secrets apply follows a strict contract to make sure your configuration stays clean and functional.

This page defines the strict contract enforced by openclaw secrets apply. If a target does not match these rules, the apply process fails before any configuration is changed.

Plan file shape

When you use openclaw secrets apply --from <plan.json>, the tool expects a targets array. Here is what that structure looks like:

{
  version: 1,
  protocolVersion: 1,
  targets: [
    {
      type: "models.providers.apiKey",
      path: "models.providers.openai.apiKey",
      pathSegments: ["models", "providers", "openai", "apiKey"],
      providerId: "openai",
      ref: { source: "env", provider: "default", id: "OPENAI_API_KEY" },
    },
    {
      type: "auth-profiles.api_key.key",
      path: "profiles.openai:default.key",
      pathSegments: ["profiles", "openai:default", "key"],
      agentId: "main",
      ref: { source: "env", provider: "default", id: "OPENAI_API_KEY" },
    },
  ],
}

Supported target scope

Plan targets are accepted for supported credential paths in:

• SecretRef Credential Surface

Target type behavior

The general rule is that target.type must be recognized and must match the normalized target.path shape.

Compatibility aliases remain accepted for existing plans:

• models.providers.apiKey
• skills.entries.apiKey
• channels.googlechat.serviceAccount

Path validation rules

To keep your configuration safe, each target is validated with these rules:

• type must be a recognized target type.
• path must be a non-empty dot path.
• pathSegments can be omitted. If you provide it, it must normalize to exactly the same path as path.
• Forbidden segments are rejected: __proto__, prototype, constructor.
• The normalized path must match the registered path shape for the target type.
• If providerId or accountId is set, it must match the id encoded in the path.
• auth-profiles.json targets require agentId.
• When creating a new auth-profiles.json mapping, include authProfileProvider.

Failure behavior

If a target fails validation, the apply process exits immediately with an error. You might see something like this:

Invalid plan target path for models.providers.apiKey: models.providers.openai.baseUrl

No writes are committed for an invalid plan, so you don’t have to worry about partial updates.

Runtime and audit scope notes

• Ref-only auth-profiles.json entries (keyRef/tokenRef) are included in runtime resolution and audit coverage.
• secrets apply writes supported openclaw.json targets, supported auth-profiles.json targets, and optional scrub targets.

Operator checks

It is a good idea to validate your plan without actually writing any changes first. You can use the --dry-run flag for this.

# Validate plan without writes
openclaw secrets apply --from /tmp/openclaw-secrets-plan.json --dry-run

# Then apply for real
openclaw secrets apply --from /tmp/openclaw-secrets-plan.json

If the apply fails with an invalid target path message, you should regenerate the plan with openclaw secrets configure or fix the target path to a supported shape.

Related docs

• Secrets Management
• CLI secrets
• SecretRef Credential Surface
• Configuration Reference

Next Steps

• Learn more about Secrets Management
• Explore the CLI secrets commands

Need more help? Check out the AI Setup Assistant.