joao

a very wip configuration manager. keep config as YAML in the filesystem, backs it up to 1password. Makes it available to services via 1Password Connect + vault.

Why

So I wanted to operate on my configuration mess...

• With a workflow something like SOPS',
• but that talks UNIX like go-config-yourself (plus it's later bash + jq + yq re-implementation's multi-storage improvements),
• git-crypt's sweet git filters,
• compatibility with 1Password's neat ecosystem, and finally
• a way to make it all available through Hashicorp's Vault without touching git

So I set to write me, yet again, some configuration toolchain that:

• Allows the structure of config trees to live happily in the filesystem: that is, I like to structure the configuration values I operate with as nested trees, and want a tool that understands these.
• Keeps secrets off remote repositories: I really dig git-crypt's filters, not quite sure about how to safely operate them yet...
• Makes it easy to edit locally, as well as on web and native apps: I mean, it's YAML locally, and 1Password's tools are pretty great for quick edits.
• Operates on configuration trees, wether from a single file or a set of them, with ease: my home+cloud DC needs a lot of configuration that feels weird to keep in a single file; my one-off services don't really need the whole folder structure. I don't wanna use two tools.
• Is capable of bootstrapping other secret mangement processes: A single binary can talk to op's CLI (hello, touch ID on macos!), to a 1password-connect server, and to vault as a plugin.

Configuration

Schema for configuration and non-secret values live along the code, and are pushed to remote origins. Secrets can optionally and temporally be flushed to disk for editing or other sorts of operations. Git filters are available to prevent secrets from being pushed to remotes. Secrets are grouped into files, and every file gets its own 1Password item.

Secret values are specified using the !!secret YAML tag.

The ideal workflow is:

1. configs are written to disk, temporarily
2. joao flush --redactes them to 1password, and removes secrets from disk
3. configuration values, secret or not, are read from:

• joao get as needed by local processes. Mostly thinking of the human in the loop here, where op and suitable auth (i.e. touchid) workflows are available.
• from 1Password Connect, for when vault is not configured or available (think during provisioning)
• from Hashicorp Vault, for any automated process, after provisioning is complete.

---

joao operates on two modes, repo and single-file. Repo mode is useful when keeping all configurations in a single folder and expecting their filenames to map to their item names. Single-file mode is useful when a single file contains all of the desired configuration, and its 1Password details are better kept in that same file.

Repo mode

Basically, configs are kept in a directory and their relative path maps to their 1Password item name. A .joao.yaml file must exist at the root configuration directory, specifying the 1Password vault to use, and optionally a prefix to prepend ot every item name

# config/.joao.yaml
# the 1password vault to use as storage
vault: infra
# the optional prefix to prepend to all configs from this directory
# without it, config/host/juazeiro.yaml turns into host:juazeiro
# with `bahianos` specified, name would be bahianos:host:juazeiro
# prefix: bahianos

# config/host/juazeiro.yaml => infra/host:juazeiro
address: 142.42.42.42
dc: bah0
mac: !!secret 00:11:22:33:44:55
tls:
  cert: !!secret |
    -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
    ...
    -----END CERTIFICATE-----    
roles:
  - consul-client
  - nomad-client
  - http
token:
  bootstrap: !!secret 01234567-89ab-cdfe-0123-456789abcdef

Single file mode

In single file mode, joao expects every file to have a _joao: !!config key with a vault name, and a name for the 1Password item.

# src/git/config.yaml
_config: !!joao 
  vault: bahianos
  name: service:git
smtp:
  server: smtp.example.org
  username: git@example.org
  password: !!secret quatro-paredes
  port: 587

Usage

# NAME can be either a filesystem path or a colon delimited item name
# for example: config/host/juazeiro.yaml or host:juazeiro

# DOT_DELIMITED_PATH is 
# for example: tls.cert, roles.0, dc

# get a single value/tree from a single item/file
joao get NAME [--output|-o=(raw|json|yaml|op)] [--remote] [jq expr]
# set/update a single value in a single item/file
joao set NAME DOT_DELIMITED_PATH [--secret] [--flush] [--input=/path/to/input|<<<"value"]
# sync local changes upstream
joao flush NAME [--dry-run] [--redact]
# sync remote secrets to filesystem
joao fetch NAME [--dry-run]
# check for differences between local and remote items
joao diff NAME [--cache]
# initialize a new joao repo
joao repo init [PATH]
# list the item names within prefix
joao repo list [PREFIX]
# print the repo config root
joao repo root
# 
joao repo status
joao repo filter clean FILE
joao repo filter diff PATH OLD_FILE OLD_SHA OLD_MODE NEW_FILE NEW_SHA NEW_MODE
joao repo filter smudge FILE