kiln – Git-native, decentralized secret management using age

In plain words

Kiln is a Git-native secret management tool that encrypts environment variables and credentials using age encryption, allowing development teams to store secrets directly in version control with auditable access. Designed for regulated industries and teams wanting to avoid external dependencies, it eliminates the need for complex systems like Vault while preventing secrets from being exposed in chat or plaintext files. The tool integrates with Git workflows to keep sensitive data self-hosted and instantly recoverable.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

Encrypt your secrets with ease, share safely with your team, deploy with confidence—all from a command line that you control.

Seamlessly decrypt and expose secrets as environment variables to your apps with a single command, or export to a file. No servers, databases, or external dependencies. Your secrets stay with your code. Works completely offline with local files. Deploy anywhere, anytime. Encrypted files commit safely alongside your code. No separate infrastructure. Built-in access control and recipient management. Add team members, create groups, and manage permissions effortlessly. Separate encrypted files for dev, staging, and production with independent accessfrom kiln.sh

In the maker’s words, at launch

Hi HN, I've been building this tool for the past couple of weeks to solve a problem that seems universal across development teams: sharing environment variables securely. You know the drill - someone needs the staging database URL, so it gets shared over chat. Production API keys end up in plaintext files. Or you set…

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