---
summary: "Contract for `secrets apply` plans: target validation, path matching, and `auth-profiles.json` target scope"
read_when:
  - Generating or reviewing `openclaw secrets apply` plans
  - Debugging `Invalid plan target path` errors
  - Understanding target type and path validation behavior
title: "Secrets apply plan contract"
---

This page defines the strict contract enforced by `openclaw secrets apply`. If a target does not match these rules, apply fails before mutating any file.

## Plan file shape

`openclaw secrets apply --from <plan.json>` expects a `targets` array of plan targets:

```json5
{
  version: 1,
  protocolVersion: 1,
  targets: [
    {
      type: "models.providers.apiKey",
      path: "models.providers.openai.apiKey",
      pathSegments: ["models", "providers", "openai", "apiKey"],
      providerId: "openai",
      ref: { source: "env", provider: "default", id: "OPENAI_API_KEY" },
    },
    {
      type: "auth-profiles.api_key.key",
      path: "profiles.openai:default.key",
      pathSegments: ["profiles", "openai:default", "key"],
      agentId: "main",
      ref: { source: "env", provider: "default", id: "OPENAI_API_KEY" },
    },
  ],
}
```

`openclaw secrets configure` generates plans in this shape. You can also hand-write or edit one.

## Provider upserts and deletes

Plans may also include two optional top-level fields that mutate the `secrets.providers` map alongside the per-target writes:

- `providerUpserts` -- an object keyed by provider alias. Each value is a provider definition (the same shape accepted under `secrets.providers.<alias>` in `openclaw.json`, e.g. an `exec` or `file` provider).
- `providerDeletes` -- an array of provider aliases to remove.

`providerUpserts` runs before `targets`, so a `target.ref.provider` may reference a provider alias that the same plan introduces in `providerUpserts`. Without this ordering, plans that reference an alias not yet configured in `openclaw.json` fail with `provider "<alias>" is not configured`.

```json5
{
  version: 1,
  protocolVersion: 1,
  providerUpserts: {
    onepassword_anthropic: {
      source: "exec",
      command: "/usr/bin/op",
      args: ["read", "op://Vault/Anthropic/credential"],
    },
  },
  providerDeletes: ["legacy_unused_alias"],
  targets: [
    {
      type: "models.providers.apiKey",
      path: "models.providers.anthropic.apiKey",
      pathSegments: ["models", "providers", "anthropic", "apiKey"],
      providerId: "anthropic",
      ref: { source: "exec", provider: "onepassword_anthropic", id: "credential" },
    },
  ],
}
```

Exec providers introduced via `providerUpserts` are still subject to the exec consent rules in [Exec provider consent behavior](#exec-provider-consent-behavior): plans containing exec providers require `--allow-exec` in write mode.

## Supported target scope

Plan targets are accepted for supported credential paths in [SecretRef Credential Surface](/reference/secretref-credential-surface).

## Target type behavior

`target.type` must be a recognized target type, and the normalized `target.path` must match that type's registered path shape.

Some target types accept a compatibility alias as `target.type` for existing plans, in addition to their canonical type name:

| Canonical type                       | Accepted alias                                  |
| ------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------- |
| `models.providers.apiKey`            | `models.providers.*.apiKey`                     |
| `skills.entries.apiKey`              | `skills.entries.*.apiKey`                       |
| `channels.googlechat.serviceAccount` | `channels.googlechat.accounts.*.serviceAccount` |

## Path validation rules

Each target is validated with all of the following:

- `type` must be a recognized target type.
- `path` must be a non-empty dot path.
- `pathSegments` can be omitted. If provided, it must normalize to exactly the same path as `path`.
- Forbidden segments are rejected: `__proto__`, `prototype`, `constructor`.
- The normalized path must match the registered path shape for the target type.
- If `providerId` or `accountId` is set, it must match the id encoded in the path.
- `auth-profiles.json` targets require `agentId`.
- When creating a new `auth-profiles.json` mapping, include `authProfileProvider`.

## Failure behavior

If a target fails validation, apply exits with an error like:

```text
Invalid plan target path for models.providers.apiKey: models.providers.openai.baseUrl
```

No writes are committed for an invalid plan: target resolution and path validation run before any file is touched. Separately, once a valid plan starts writing, apply snapshots every touched file first and restores those snapshots if a later write in the same run fails, so a partial write never leaves config, auth-profile, or env state out of sync.

## Exec provider consent behavior

- `--dry-run` skips exec SecretRef checks by default.
- Plans containing exec SecretRefs/providers are rejected in write mode unless `--allow-exec` is set.
- When validating/applying exec-containing plans, pass `--allow-exec` in both dry-run and write commands.

## Runtime and audit scope notes

- Ref-only `auth-profiles.json` entries (`keyRef`/`tokenRef`) are included in runtime credential resolution and audit coverage.
- `secrets apply` writes supported `openclaw.json` targets, supported `auth-profiles.json` targets, and three optional scrub passes, each on by default: `scrubEnv` (removes migrated plaintext values from `.env`), `scrubAuthProfilesForProviderTargets` (clears plaintext/unused-ref residue in `auth-profiles.json` for providers a plan just migrated), and `scrubLegacyAuthJson` (drops migrated `api_key` entries from legacy `auth.json` stores). Set any of `options.scrubEnv`, `options.scrubAuthProfilesForProviderTargets`, `options.scrubLegacyAuthJson` to `false` in the plan to skip that pass.

## Operator checks

```bash
# Validate plan without writes
openclaw secrets apply --from /tmp/openclaw-secrets-plan.json --dry-run

# Then apply for real
openclaw secrets apply --from /tmp/openclaw-secrets-plan.json

# For exec-containing plans, opt in explicitly in both modes
openclaw secrets apply --from /tmp/openclaw-secrets-plan.json --dry-run --allow-exec
openclaw secrets apply --from /tmp/openclaw-secrets-plan.json --allow-exec
```

If apply fails with an invalid target path message, regenerate the plan with `openclaw secrets configure` or fix the target path to a supported shape above.

## Related docs

- [Secrets Management](/gateway/secrets)
- [CLI `secrets`](/cli/secrets)
- [SecretRef Credential Surface](/reference/secretref-credential-surface)
- [Configuration Reference](/gateway/configuration-reference)