vault agent

Start an instance of Vault Agent.

$ vault agent -config <config_file> $ vault agent [-help | -h]

Description

vault agent start an instance of Vault Agent, which automatically authenticates and fetches secrets for client applications.

Related API endpoints

None

Command arguments

None.

Command options

None.

Command flags

-config (string : <required>)

Path to a single Vault Agent configuration file or directory of configuration files with agent directives. Repeat the -config flag as needed to specify more than one discrete configuration file. If you specify more than one configuration file, Agent composes the source files into a single configuration file at runtime.

Example: -config /path/to/file.hcl

-exit-after-auth (bool : false)

Exit with code 0 after a single successful auth. Success indicates successful token retrieval and write to sink.

Example: -exit-after-auth

-log-file (string : "./<service>.log")

Absolute path where Vault Agent saves logging data.

Paths ending with / use the default file name <service>.log. For example, vault.log for Vault and agent.log for Vault Agent.
Paths ending with a name but not an extension use the .log extension.
Paths ending with a name and extension use the provided file name.

Example: -log-file "/var/log/vault-logs/"

[-log-format | VAULT_LOG_FORMAT] (enum : standard)

Format of log data:

standard - Write log data as basic text.
json - Write log data as JSON.

Examples:

CLI flag: -log-format json
Environment variable: export VAULT_LOG_FORMAT=json

[-log-level | VAULT_LOG_LEVEL] (enum : info)

Default logging level for the Vault server.

Enum	Logging behavior
`trace`	Log everything including details about process flow within the server
`debug`	`info` level logging and detailed server state
`info`	`warn` level logging, server events, and general server state
`warn`	`err` level logging, deprecations, and potentially harmful events/states in the server
`err`	Log information about non-fatal errors and handled exceptions

Examples:

CLI flag: -log-level debug
Environment variable: export VAULT_LOG_LEVEL=debug

-log-rotate-bytes (int : <unset>)

File size, in bytes, after which log files must rotate. Leave log-rotate-bytes unset if you prefer not to limit log file size.

Example: -log-rotate-bytes 1000000

-log-rotate-duration (string : "24h")

Amount of time, in <number>[s|m|h|d] format, after which log files must rotate.

Example: -log-rotate-duration "2h"

-log-rotate-max-files (int : 0)

The number of log file archives to preserve over time:

n - Preserve up to n archived logs.
0 - Never delete log archives.
-1 - Always delete log archives.

The archived name of rotated logs includes a timestamp indicating when the log rotated. For example, the file /var/log/agent.log archives to /var/log/agent-{timestamp}.log before resetting.

Example: -log-rotate-max-files 5

Standard flags

[-address | VAULT_ADDR] (string : 'https://127.0.0.1:8200')

Address of the Vault server.

Examples:

CLI flag: -address "https://mydomain/vault:8200"
Environment variable: export VAULT_ADDR="https://mydomain/vault:8200"

[-agent-address | VAULT_AGENT_ADDR] (string : "")

Address of the Vault Agent, if used.

Examples:

CLI flag: -agent-address "https://mydomain/vault-agent:8200"
Environment variable: export VAULT_AGENT_ADDR="https://mydomain/vault-agent:8200"

[-ca-cert | VAULT_CACERT] (string : "")

Path to a PEM-encoded CA certificate file on the local disk. Used to verify SSL certificates for the server. Takes precedence over -ca_path.

Examples:

CLI flag: -ca-cert "/path/to/certs/mycert.pem"
Environment variable: export VAULT_CACERT="/path/to/certs/mycert.pem"

[-ca-path | VAULT_CAPATH] (string : "")

Path to a directory with PEM-encoded CA certificate files on the local disk. Used to verify SSL certificates for the server.

Examples:

CLI flag: -ca-path "/path/to/certs/dir"
Environment variable: export VAULT_CAPATH="/path/to/certs/dir"

[-client-cert | VAULT_CLIENT_CERT] (string : "")

Path to a PEM-encoded CA certificate file on the local disk. Used for TLS communication with the server. The specified certificate must match to the private key specified with -client-cert.

Examples:

CLI flag: -client-cert "/path/to/certs/mycert.pem"
Environment variable: export VAULT_CLIENT_CERT="/path/to/certs/mycert.pem"

[-client-key | VAULT_CLIENT_KEY] (string : "")

Path to a PEM-encoded private key that matches the client certificate set with -client-cert.

Examples:

CLI flag: -client-key "/path/to/keys/myprivatekey.pem"
Environment variable: export VAULT_CLIENT_KEY="/path/to/keys/myprivatekey.pem"

[-disable-redirects | VAULT_DISABLE_REDIRECTS] (bool : false)

Disable the default CLI redirect behavior so the CLI honors the first redirect response from the underlying API instead of following the full HTTP redirect chain.

Examples:

CLI flag: -disable-redirects
Environment variable: export VAULT_DISABLE_REDIRECTS=1

Warning

Disabling the default redirect behavior may cause commands that redirect requests to primary cluster notes (like vault operator raft snapshot) to misbehave.

-header (string : "")

Optional HTTP header in the form "<key>=<value>" for the CLI request. Repeat the -header flag as needed with one string per flag. User-defined headers cannot start with X-Vault-

Example: -header "Cache-Control=max-age=0"

[-mfa | VAULT_MFA] (string : "") Enterprise

A multi-factor authentication (MFA) credential, in the format mfa_method_name[:key[=value]], that the CLI should use to authenticate to Vault. The CLI adds MFA credentials to the X-Vault-MFA header when calling the underlying API endpoint.

Examples:

CLI flag: -mfa "totp:password=12345"
Environment variable: export VAULT_MFA="totp:password=12345"

Note

The VAULT_MFA environment variable only accepts one MFA method specification and one credential for the specified method. To supply multiple credentials or MFA methods, use the -mfa CLI flag and repeat the flag as needed.

[-namespace | -ns | VAULT_NAMESPACE] (string : <unset>)

Root namespace for the CLI command. Setting a default namespace allow relative mount paths.

Examples:

CLI flag: -namespace "admin"
Environment variable: export VAULT_NAMESPACE="admin"

-non-interactive (bool : false)

Prevent the CLI from asking users for input through the terminal.

Example: -non-interactive

-output-curl-string (bool : false)

Print the API call(s) required to execute the CLI command as cURL strings then exit without running the command.

Example: -output-curl-string

-output-policy (bool : false)

Print the Vault policy required to execute the CLI command as HCL then exit without running the command.

Example: -output-policy

-policy-override (bool : false)

Overrides any Sentinel policy where enforcement_level is "soft-mandatory".

Example: -policy-override

[-tls-server-name | VAULT_TLS_SERVER_NAME] (string : "")

Name of the SNI host for TLS handshake resolution for TLS connections to Vault.

Examples:

CLI flag: -tls-server-name "hostname.domain"
Environment variable: export VAULT_TLS_SERVER_NAME="hostname.domain"

[-tls-skip-verify | VAULT_SKIP_VERIFY] (bool : false)

Disable verification for all TLS certificates. Use with caution. Disabling TLS certificate verification decreases the security of data transmissions to and from the Vault server.

Examples:

CLI flag: -tls-skip-verify
Environment variable: export VAULT_SKIP_VERIFY=1

-unlock-key (string : <unset>)

Plaintext key that unlocks the underlying API endpoint for a given namespace.

Example: -unlock-key "7oXtdlmvRQ"

[-wrap-ttl | VAULT_WRAP_TTL] (string : "")

Default time-to-live in <number>[s|m|h|d] format for the Cubbyhole token used to wrap CLI responses. You must use vault unwrap to view response data before the duration expires. Leave wrap_ttl unset to leave CLI responses unwrapped.

Examples:

CLI flag: -wrap-ttl "5m"
Environment variable: export VAULT_WRAP_TTL="5m"

Examples

Start Vault Agent with a single configuration file:

$ vault agent -config=/etc/vault/agent/config.hcl

Start Vault Agent with a two discrete configuration files:

$ vault agent                                   \    -config=/etc/vault/agent/base-config.hcl    \    -config=/etc/vault/agent/auto-auth-config.hcl

Start Vault Agent with a set of configuration files under the `` directory:

$ vault agent -config=/etc/vault/agent/config-files/