#Directives

Directives are comments that control encryption, typing, validation, and push targets. They sit on the line immediately above the key they apply to:

# @encrypt
# @type=string @format=url @not-empty
DATABASE_URL="postgres://user:pass@localhost:5432/mydb"

# @plaintext
# @type=enum("development", "preview", "production")
NODE_ENV="production"

# @plaintext
# @type=number @min=0 @max=65535
PORT=3000

Directives must start with # — writing @directive without # is a parse error.

#Available directives

#File-level directives

These go at the top of the .sec file (or in dotsec.schema) and apply to the whole file:

#Encryption directives

#Type directives

#Constraint directives

#Metadata directives

#Examples

# String with format and pattern validation
# @type=string @format=url @pattern="^https://"
CALLBACK_URL="https://example.com/webhook"

# Number with range
# @type=number @min=1024 @max=65535
PORT=3000

# String with length constraints
# @type=string @min-length=1 @max-length=255 @not-empty
APP_NAME="my-app"

# Optional key (not required in schema validation)
# @optional
SENTRY_DSN="https://sentry.io"

# Deprecated key
# @deprecated="Use NEW_API_KEY instead"
OLD_API_KEY="sk-..."

# Format validators
# @format=email
ADMIN_EMAIL="admin@example.com"

# @format=uuid
SESSION_ID="550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000"

# @format=semver
APP_VERSION="2.1.0"

#Push target syntax

# Simple
# @push=aws-ssm

# With parameters (values must be quoted)
# @push=aws-ssm(path="/myapp/prod", prefix="/app")

# Multiple targets
# @push=aws-ssm(path="/myapp/prod"), aws-secrets-manager(path="/myapp/prod/db")

#Schema files

When a project has multiple .sec files (dev, staging, production), per-key directives would be duplicated across all files. A schema file (dotsec.schema) solves this by extracting shared directives into one place.

#Schema format

The schema uses the same directive syntax, but keys have no values:

# @default-encrypt

# @type=string @push=aws-ssm @not-empty
DATABASE_URL

# @type=number @min=0 @max=65535
PORT

# @type=enum("development", "staging", "production")
NODE_ENV

# @optional @format=url
SENTRY_DSN

#How it works

With a schema in place:

• Schema file (dotsec.schema) holds all per-key directives: @type, @push, @encrypt, @format, @pattern, @min/@max, @optional, @deprecated, etc.
• .sec files hold only file-level directives (@provider, @key-id, @region) and key=value pairs
• dotsec validate checks .sec entries against the schema: missing keys, extra keys, type mismatches, constraint violations
• dotsec set automatically writes new key directives to the schema (not inline in .sec)
• Inline per-key directives in .sec files are an error when a schema exists — use dotsec remove-directives to clean them up

#Directive classification

#Discovery

The schema file is found automatically:

1. --schema CLI flag
2. DOTSEC_SCHEMA environment variable
3. dotsec.schema in the same directory as the .sec file

#Creating a schema

Run dotsec extract-schema on an existing .sec file to extract per-key directives into dotsec.schema:

dotsec extract-schema

See extract-schema command for details.

#Choosing between inline and schema

Use inline directives when you have a single environment or a small project. Everything lives in one .sec file — nothing extra to manage.

Use a schema file when you have multiple environments, collaborate with a team, or want to generate typed code. A shared dotsec.schema keeps directive definitions in one place and prevents drift.

Migration path: start with inline directives, then run dotsec extract-schema when you're ready. This moves per-key directives to dotsec.schema and strips them from your .sec file.

#Variable interpolation

${VAR} references are resolved at runtime by dotsec run. Single-quoted values are not interpolated (bash convention).

# @type=string
BASE_URL="https://api.example.com"

# @type=string
WEBHOOK_URL="${BASE_URL}/webhooks"

#Configuration

All file-level configuration lives in the .sec file as directives — no external config file needed:

# @provider=local @default-encrypt

DATABASE_URL="postgres://..."
API_KEY="sk-..."

Use --sec-file to specify a different .sec file:

dotsec --sec-file .sec.production show