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Accessing Secrets

Prerequisites

Before accessing secrets, make sure you've installed and initialized the Secrets Manager SDK.

Basic Usage

After initializing the SDK, you can retrieve secrets with a simple function call:

Go
package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "log"

    "github.com/bytehide/bytehide-secrets-go/secrets"
)

func main() {
    // Auto-initializes from environment variables
    dbPassword, err := secrets.Get("database-connection")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    fmt.Println("Connection string:", dbPassword)
}

Creating and Updating Secrets

You can create or update secrets directly from your application:

Go
// Create a new secret
err := secrets.Set("api-key", "sk_test_abc123xyz")
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
}

// Update an existing secret
err = secrets.Set("database-connection", "postgres://admin:secret@new-server:5432/myapp")
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
}

Error Handling

When a secret doesn't exist or there's an error, the SDK returns an error. Handle this with idiomatic Go error handling:

Go
secret, err := secrets.Get("non-existent-key")
if err != nil {
    // Handle missing secret
    fmt.Printf("Secret not found: %v\n", err)

    // You might want to create the secret or use a default value
    err = secrets.Set("non-existent-key", "default-value")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
}

Best Practices

Cache Configuration

The SDK includes built-in caching to improve performance:

Go
import (
    "time"

    "github.com/bytehide/bytehide-secrets-go/secrets"
)

// Configure cache with 10 minutes TTL
secrets.ConfigureCache(true, 10*time.Minute)

// Clear cache
secrets.ClearCache()

// Disable cache
secrets.ConfigureCache(false, 0)

Security Best Practices

  • Never print or log full secret values
  • Don't store secret values in plain text files
  • Clear secrets from memory when no longer needed
  • Use environment-specific secrets

Common Usage Patterns

Configuration Helper

Create a configuration helper for your application:

Go
package config

import (
    "strconv"

    "github.com/bytehide/bytehide-secrets-go/secrets"
)

func GetDatabaseConnection() (string, error) {
    return secrets.Get("database-connection")
}

func GetApiKey() (string, error) {
    return secrets.Get("api-key")
}

func GetCacheTimeout() (int, error) {
    value, err := secrets.Get("cache-timeout-minutes")
    if err != nil {
        return 10, nil // Default to 10
    }
    return strconv.Atoi(value)
}

Database Connection Example

Go
package main

import (
    "database/sql"
    "fmt"
    "log"

    "github.com/bytehide/bytehide-secrets-go/secrets"
    _ "github.com/lib/pq"
)

func connectToDatabase() (*sql.DB, error) {
    dbHost, err := secrets.Get("DB_HOST")
    if err != nil {
        return nil, err
    }

    dbUser, err := secrets.Get("DB_USER")
    if err != nil {
        return nil, err
    }

    dbPass, err := secrets.Get("DB_PASS")
    if err != nil {
        return nil, err
    }

    connStr := fmt.Sprintf("host=%s user=%s password=%s sslmode=disable", dbHost, dbUser, dbPass)
    return sql.Open("postgres", connStr)
}

func main() {
    db, err := connectToDatabase()
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    defer db.Close()

    fmt.Println("Connected to database successfully!")
}

Next Steps

Previous
Installation
Next
Multi-Environment Setup