Secrets
A bot asks for a password or a key on a card. The value stays encrypted on its Runner and never enters the chat.
When a bot needs a password, an API key, or a one-time code in the middle of a task, it asks on a card in the chat. You fill it in on any of your devices, and the value goes encrypted to the bot's Runner and stays there. It never enters the chat, your other devices, or what the AI provider sees: the bot uses it by name.
Answer the card
The card says who asks and where the value goes, such as "Developer needs a secret for github.com", why the bot needs it, and a field for each value, which hides what you type. Save sends it, and the card reads "Saved" with what it was; Not now declines. On the phone, tap Fill In to open the fields.
The bot waits up to ten minutes. Writing a message instead, or pressing Stop, sets the card aside. A routine or an event runs with nobody to answer, so it can't ask.
Never paste a password into the chat itself: messages sync to every device and reach the AI provider. Bots are told to ask on a card instead.
Where a secret goes
A bot asks for a secret for one use, and it works only there:
- A site in Browser: typed into the sign-in page of that site in the bot's browser, and only while the browser is on that site, over HTTPS.
- Commands: an environment variable, such as
NPM_TOKEN, for the commands that name it, including a coding agent the bot starts. - A plugin's setting: one of the plugin's own fields, such as its API key.
A secret belongs to the bot that asked. Asking again for the same name replaces it, and deleting the bot deletes its secrets. A bot moved to another Runner asks again there.
Kept out of sight
Wherever a tool shows a saved value back, in a command's output, a page, a coding agent's transcript, or a browser recording, the bot and your devices see the secret's name in its place. An email or Slack draft and a channel reply never carry one.
Manage secrets
Settings › Secrets lists the secrets on the Runner picked in the toolbar: the bot, what the value is for, and where it is used. Click one to give it a new value with Replace, or Delete… it. On the phone, a Runner's screen in Settings has a Secrets section. A new value travels to the Runner encrypted.
Shell access can read them
A bot with shell or file access runs as your user, who can read what Lorca keeps on that computer. Secrets keep values out of chats and models, not away from a bot that can run any command. For a secret only one bot may reach, give that bot a Runner of its own.