Give one secret for a time
At the end, one command (yours or Claude’s) runs with one secret from your vault, for as long as you chose on your phone, and the secret never appears in Claude’s conversation.
You need this computer connected first: Claude Code in 5 to 8 minutes does that.
The example
vando add STRIPE_KEY
vando run --secret STRIPE_KEY -- node scripts/refund.jsThe first line saves the key in your vault. The second asks your phone for it, waits for your Give, and runs node scripts/refund.js with STRIPE_KEY in its environment. Nothing is written to a file, and the key goes to that one program.
Save the secret
vando add STRIPE_KEYWhere the value comes from depends on where you run it:
- In your own terminal, it asks for the value with a hidden prompt:
Value of STRIPE_KEY (hidden):. - Run by Claude (no terminal), it opens a page in your browser on this computer. Paste the value there and press Send. The page works once, for 5 minutes, and the value never passes through the terminal or Claude.
- With
--on-phone, nothing is sent from the computer: the first time a command asks forSTRIPE_KEY, your phone offers to add it.
Your phone then shows Save STRIPE_KEY? with where it came from (Pasted in a page on that laptop: check it’s yours.) and How careful?, the level it gets. Tap Save. The terminal says Saved on your phone.
vando add refuses a value on its command line (vando add STRIPE_KEY sk_live_…) or piped into it: the first stays in your shell history, the second would pass through whatever piped it, an AI’s transcript for one.
You can skip vando add altogether: if vando run asks for a name your vault doesn’t have, your phone offers to add it there.
Run a command with it
vando run --secret STRIPE_KEY -- node scripts/refund.jsEverything after -- is the command. Your phone gets an ask:
- Who is asking (Claude Code on your computer), the command and the folder it runs in, marked said by the laptop.
- Which secret: its folder and its level. If you have more than one
STRIPE_KEY, it asks which; if you have none, it offers to add it. - For how long: Once, 1 hour, 8 hours, 1 day or Custom.
Tap Give once (or Give for 8 hours), then do the lock’s steps. The command runs as soon as your phone answers, in the same run.
Inside a project with a .vando.toml, a name is looked up in the project’s current environment folder. To name one thing anywhere in your vault, give its path: --secret STRIPE_KEY=Personal/stripe/STRIPE_KEY.
How long to give it for
| Choice | What it means |
|---|---|
| Once | This run only. The next run asks again. |
| 1 hour, 8 hours, 1 day | Every vando run on this computer that asks for the same secret gets it until then, without asking. |
| Custom | A number of hours, up to the level’s limit. |
The longest you can give depends on the secret’s level: Easy up to 7 days, Just me up to 1 day, Fort Knox up to 8 hours. Fort Knox starts on Once, and any longer choice says plainly what it means: anything running as you on that laptop can read it without asking you again. Things at Two devices can’t be given to a program yet coming. Access windows explains the rules behind this.
A command can suggest a shorter choice, never a longer one: --ttl once, --ttl 1h, --ttl 8h or --ttl 1d pre-selects that chip on your phone. You still choose.
Waiting, and no
If your phone doesn’t answer in time, nothing runs:
Waiting for your phone. Run the same command again to continue.
vando: pending request=…That is exit code 75. Without a terminal (Claude’s commands), vando run waits 45 seconds; in your own terminal, up to 5 minutes. The ask stays in your Inbox for 10 minutes, so approve it and run the same command again: it picks up the same ask.
If you tap Deny:
You said no on your phone. Nothing was run.That is exit code 77. For 5 minutes the same ask is refused without ringing your phone again. The program never started in either case, so a 75 or 77 is always Vando’s, never the program’s own.
Every exit code: the errors reference.
Want to ask early, before the command is ready? vando request --secret STRIPE_KEY sends the ask and returns at once.
See what this computer can use
vando grantsWhat this computer can use now
… until 18:00 · used 3 timesEach line is a grant: what your phone gave, until when, and how often it was used. Your phone shows the same list under Connections → Claude Code → Can use now.
End it early
From the computer:
vando grants end --allEnded everything this computer could use. Programs that already started keep what they got. To end one, give its id: vando grants end <id>. vando logout ends everything, disconnects this computer and removes its keys.
From your phone: Can use now, the grant, Revoke. The switch Also stop programs it started (on by default) stops a program vando run started with it: vando checks once a minute.
A grant also ends by itself when its time runs out, when you change the secret’s lock, or when you move it to the Trash. A running program isn’t stopped when its time runs out, unless you started it with --stop-at-end.
What Claude sees
When the program’s output goes back to Claude, vando run replaces the secret with [vando:STRIPE_KEY] and says afterwards:
vando: hid STRIPE_KEY in this output 2 times.The honest limits
- Hiding is best effort. It catches the value as it is, and its JSON and URL forms. A program that changes the value before printing it (base64, a slice) gets past it, and so does anything written to a file or sent over the network. Output written to a file is never changed. More.
- Revoke is not recall. Ending access stops the next run. A program that already read the secret keeps it, and so does an AI that saw it. If that matters, change the secret where you got it. More.
- While a grant is live, anything running as you on this computer can use it: your own scripts, your AI, another program. Give it for as short a time as the job needs. More.
vando get STRIPE_KEYprints the value, so it only works in your own terminal. Your terminal may keep what it showed.
What can go wrong
Every flag of these commands is in the CLI reference: vando run, vando add, vando grants.
- “Name what the command needs: a secret, a folder, or an environment of this project.”
- Add
--secret NAMEbefore the--, or run it in a project set up withvando init. - “Put the command after --.”
vando run --secret STRIPE_KEY -- node scripts/refund.js: the two dashes come before the command.- The thing can’t go to a program (a Two devices thing, one in the Trash, or a kind that isn’t a secret). Your phone says which, and why.
- “That access has ended. Nothing was run. Run the command again to ask your phone.”
- The grant ran out or was revoked. Running the command again asks for a new one.
- “No browser could be opened here”
vando addhad nowhere to show its page (a remote shell). Add the secret on your phone instead: the first time a command asks for it, your phone offers to add it.
Last verified
Connect Claude Code
Connect Claude Code on your computer to the Vando app on your phone. Then risky commands wait for your OK, and Claude asks you for a secret instead of reading it from a file. The first time takes about 5 to 8 minutes, with the app already on your phone.
A whole project
At the end, a project’s .env files live in your vault as one folder per environment, and `vando run -- pnpm dev` gives the program everything it needs after one Give on your phone.