Agent Vault
Open-source credential broker that prevents AI agent credential exfiltration via transparent proxy.
Agent Vault fills a critical security gap for AI agent workflows by preventing credential leaks via prompt injection. Its self-hosted nature requires operator effort, but it's the most robust solution for production agentic workflows using tools like Claude Code or OpenClaw. If you run agents in sandboxes or CI/CD, this is a must-consider layer. Alternatives like traditional secret managers (HashiCorp Vault, Doppler) don't solve the exfiltration vector.
Verified 1d ago · liveness 75/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/agent-vault
- Developers running AI coding agents (Claude Code, OpenClaw) securely
- Teams building custom agent harnesses with secret management needs
- Platforms offering ephemeral sandboxed agents to untrusted users
- Organizations enforcing credential security in AI agent workflows
- Non-technical users without self-hosting capabilities
- Teams looking for a managed SaaS credential vault (use Infisical directly)
- Use cases where agents need to handle secrets directly (e.g., local offline agents)
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Skip Agent Vault if you want a fully managed, zero-ops credential vault or if you're not comfortable self-hosting a proxy and managing TLS/auth.
Self-hosting means you pay for server infrastructure (compute, storage, bandwidth) — no hidden SaaS fees but operational overhead.
Agent Vault is free to self-host, making it ideal for developers and small teams who can manage their own infrastructure. For organizations needing managed support, the enterprise edition from Infisical likely costs more than open-source alternatives like HashiCorp Vault or Doppler, but adds the unique proxy-based security for agents.
In short
Agent Vault — Open-source credential broker that prevents AI agent credential exfiltration via transparent proxy. Best for Developers running AI coding agents (Claude Code, OpenClaw) securely, Teams building custom agent harnesses with secret management needs, Platforms offering ephemeral sandboxed agents to untrusted users. Free to use.
What people actually say about Agent Vault — is it worth it?
We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.
44 mentions across 4 sources (Hacker News, Product Hunt, GitHub, Lemmy) · researched Jul 30, 2026.
- +Prevents credential exfiltration via prompt injection effectively.
- +Open-source and self-hosted with no vendor lock-in.
- +Supports integration with HashiCorp Vault and Bitwarden.
- +Active development with responsive maintainers on GitHub.
- +Works with popular agents like Claude Code and Codex.
- −MITM setup requires trust in the proxy itself.
- −Only supports HTTP/HTTPS, not other protocols.
- −Setup can be complex for non-developer users.
- −Some features like websocket auth are not yet supported.
- −Competing tools like Claw Patrol offer broader protocol support.
- • Self-hosting requires infrastructure (server, networking)
- • Enterprise pricing not publicly disclosed
Viability Score
How well maintained and how widely used is Agent Vault? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: July 2026
How we score →Key Features
- MITM proxy intercepts outbound HTTP/HTTPS requests from AI agents
- Dummy credential substitution (e.g., __anthropic_api_key__ → real key)
- Self-hosted via binary or Docker on separate host
- Management UI on port 14321 for configuration
- RESTful API for managing vaults, credentials, services, agents
- CLI for agent environment bootstrapping
- Agent construct with short-lived tokens for ephemeral sandboxes
- Supports multiple credential stores (Infisical, plaintext, etc.)
- Out-of-the-box integration with LLM providers, GitHub, Stripe
- Works with agents using API, CLI, SDK, or MCP interfaces
- Service rules match target host for credential injection
- Open-source with active community development
- Enterprise managed edition with support and SLAs
About Agent Vault
Agent Vault is an open-source credential broker and MITM proxy by Infisical that sits between AI agents and the APIs they call (LLM providers, GitHub, Stripe, etc.). It intercepts outbound HTTP requests from agents, swapping dummy credentials for real ones so agents never hold secrets. This prevents credential exfiltration via prompt injection. You self-host via binary or Docker on a separate machine, configure credential stores and service rules, then route agent traffic through Agent Vault. Supports agents using any interface (API, CLI, SDK, MCP). Includes a management UI (port 14321), MITM proxy (port 14322), CLI, and RESTful API. An enterprise managed edition is available through Infisical with support and SLAs. Built for developers running AI coding agents like Claude Code, OpenClaw, Cursor, Codex, Hermes Agent, OpenCode, or custom agent harnesses.
Behind the Verdict
Agent Vault addresses a real and growing threat: credential exfiltration from AI agents via prompt injection. Traditional secrets managers return credentials to the application, which is unsafe for agents vulnerable to manipulation. Agent Vault avoids this by acting as a transparent proxy—agents only ever hold dummy credentials like '__anthropic_api_key__'. The architecture is clean: deploy on a separate host, configure credential stores (e.g., Infisical, plaintext files), define service rules matching target hosts, and set the agent's HTTPS_PROXY to Agent Vault. The management UI at port 14321 is straightforward for configuration, while the CLI and API enable automation for ephemeral sandboxes. Setup is simple via Docker or binary download. The agent construct with short-lived tokens is ideal for orchestrators spinning up sandboxed agents. Integration guides for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, and OpenCode make onboarding easy. The main drawback: it's self-hosted only—no managed free tier. You must manage TLS, authentication, and uptime. The MITM proxy requires careful network isolation—exposing port 14322 to the public internet without auth is risky. For teams already using Infisical, the enterprise edition adds support and SLAs. Overall, Agent Vault is essential for any serious agent deployment. It's not for casual users or those without self-hosting skills.
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Agent Vault actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
You deploy Agent Vault via Docker, configure your Anthropic API key as a credential, set up a service rule for api.anthropic.com, then bootstrap Claude Code with dummy key and HTTPS_PROXY. All Claude Code API calls are proxied without the agent ever seeing the real key.
Outcome: Claude Code runs securely: even a prompt injection cannot exfiltrate the real API key.
You set up Agent Vault with an orchestrator agent that can mint short-lived tokens. For each sandbox, you inject the token and dummy credentials via environment variables. Agent Vault swaps them on the fly.
Outcome: Ephemeral agents use real credentials transiently, with no risk of leaked secrets persisting in the sandbox image.
Use Cases
- Secure Claude Code sessions by routing all API calls through Agent Vault to prevent API key theft.
- Deploy ephemeral coding agents in sandboxes where agents use dummy credentials that the vault substitutes in transit.
- Integrate with OpenClaw or Hermes Agent to proxy GitHub/Stripe calls without exposing secrets to the agent process.
- Run a multi-tenant agent platform where each agent gets a short-lived token linked to specific vault credentials.
- Adopt as a security layer in CI/CD pipelines to protect API keys used by agentic scripts.
Limitations
- Self-hosted only: no managed free tier, requires server setup and maintenance.
- The MITM proxy needs proper TLS and authentication configuration for remote access.
- Currently no mobile/web app for management — only CLI and API.
as of 2026-07-30
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Plans compared
For each published Agent Vault tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Open Source (Self-Hosted)
$0/mo
Ideal for
Developers and small teams comfortable self-hosting, who want free, full-featured credential proxying for agents.
What this tier adds
Free, self-managed — you handle deployment, maintenance, and support via community.
Enterprise (Managed by Infisical)
Custom
Ideal for
Organizations needing managed hosting, SLAs, and advanced features for production agent infrastructure.
What this tier adds
Adds enterprise support, SLAs, and advanced capabilities; pricing available via demo.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Agent Vault's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Agent Vault is free to self-host, making it ideal for developers and small teams who can manage their own infrastructure. For organizations needing managed support, the enterprise edition from Infisical likely costs more than open-source alternatives like HashiCorp Vault or Doppler, but adds the unique proxy-based security for agents.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Agent Vault — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
For a developer: deploy Agent Vault with Docker in about 5 minutes (docker run), configure a vault and credentials via the UI or API, then bootstrap an agent using the CLI — total ~15 minutes to first secure API call. For platform engineers setting up with an orchestrator and ephemeral tokens: plan 1-2 hours for initial configuration and integration testing.
Switching to or from Agent Vault
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From manual credential injection in agent scripts: set up Agent Vault, configure dummy credentials, and update agent environment variables (AGENT_VAULT_ADDR, AGENT_VAULT_TOKEN, AGENT_VAULT_VAULT) and HTTPS_PROXY.
- →From Infisical Secret Management (non-proxy): continue using Infisical as a credential store; Agent Vault can reference Infisical via its credential store support.
- ↗To traditional secret manager (e.g., HashiCorp Vault): stop using Agent Vault, expose credentials to agents directly via environment variables or files — loses exfiltration protection.
Integrations
Resources & Guides
Official links
Featured Head-to-Head Comparisons
Agent Vault vs Mostly Ai
Mostly AI and Agent Vault solve completely different problems. Pick Mostly AI if your priority is generating high-fidelity synthetic data for ML training or analytics under privacy constraints. Pick Agent Vault if you run AI coding agents and need a simple, self-hosted way to stop credential leaks from prompt injection. They complement each other rather than compete.
Agent Vault vs Push Security
Choose Push Security if you need a comprehensive browser security platform to defend against AI-powered phishing, session hijacking, and shadow AI usage across all browsers. Choose Agent Vault if you are a developer who needs an open-source way to prevent credential exfiltration from AI coding agents. They solve different problems—Push secures the human browsing experience, Agent Vault secures machine-to-machine agent calls.
Agent Vault vs Temporal Ai
If you need your AI agents to survive crashes and recover state automatically, choose Temporal AI. If your primary concern is preventing credential exfiltration from AI agents via prompt injection, go with Agent Vault. Both are open-source freemium tools — Temporal focuses on reliability and orchestration; Agent Vault focuses on security and secret isolation.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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