Cross-platform secret storage with cross-keychain

I shipped cross-keychain, a TypeScript library that stores secrets in your OS's native credential manager—macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager, or Linux Secret Service. One API, zero plaintext config files.

Born out of mcp-tool-selector (still work in progress 😅), where I needed to manage API keys for multiple MCP servers without scattering secrets across .env files or worse, committing them to repos. It turned into a solid cross-platform utility, so I published it.

At a glance

• Works on macOS, Windows, and Linux with native backend support
• Provides both programmatic API and CLI for storing/retrieving secrets
• Automatic fallback when native modules aren't available
• Zero deps on the public API, TS-first, Node 18+, ESM/CJS

Docs & API: read the GitHub repo and the npm package page.

Quick taste: store & retrieve secrets

Programmatic usage:

import { setPassword, getPassword } from "cross-keychain";

// Store a secret
await setPassword("myapp", "api-token", "sk-1234567890");

// Retrieve it later
const token = await getPassword("myapp", "api-token");
console.log(token); // "sk-1234567890"

// Delete when done
await deletePassword("myapp", "api-token");

CLI usage:

# Store a secret
npx cross-keychain set myapp api-token

# Retrieve it
npx cross-keychain get myapp api-token

# Delete it
npx cross-keychain delete myapp api-token

Why this matters

Storing secrets in plaintext .env files or config files is a common pattern, but it's risky. You have to remember to .gitignore them, rotate them when they leak, and manage them across environments. Native OS credential stores are designed for this—encrypted at rest, access-controlled, and integrated with your system.

cross-keychain gives you a consistent API across platforms, so you can write once and trust the OS to handle the heavy lifting.

This is my third AI-engineered project (after mcp-server-giphy and env-interpolation), built with multiple AI agents. If you're tired of managing secrets in plaintext, this should make your life easier.