SOPS (Secrets OPerationS)

SOPS (Secrets OPerationS) is a command-line secrets management tool designed to securely encrypt and decrypt sensitive data stored in configuration files such as YAML, JSON, ENV, and INI. It integrates with cloud key management services (AWS KMS, GCP KMS, Azure Key Vault), GPG, and age to protect secrets without requiring a dedicated database or server.

Features of SOPS:

• Encrypts and decrypts secrets directly within configuration files while preserving file structure.
• Supports multiple encryption backends including AWS KMS, GCP KMS, Azure Key Vault, GPG, and age.
• CLI-only tool with no database or server dependency.
• Ideal for GitOps workflows and secure source control of secrets.
• Enables fine-grained access control using cloud IAM or key-based encryption.
• Integrates seamlessly with DevOps tools such as Kubernetes, Terraform, Helm, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Works on IP-based systems without requiring domain or HTTPS configuration.

SOPS Usage

$ sudo su
$ sops --version              
  # Check SOPS version
$ sops secrets.yaml           
  # Encrypt or decrypt a secrets file
$ sops -d secrets.yaml        
  # Decrypt secrets file