scientific-skills/modal/references/secrets.md
Modal Secrets securely deliver credentials and sensitive data to functions as environment variables. Secrets are stored encrypted and only available to your workspace.
# Create with key-value pairs
modal secret create my-api-keys API_KEY=sk-xxx DB_PASSWORD=hunter2
# Create from existing environment variables
modal secret create my-env-keys API_KEY=$API_KEY
# List all secrets
modal secret list
# Delete a secret
modal secret delete my-api-keys
Navigate to https://modal.com/secrets to create and manage secrets. Templates are available for common services (Postgres, MongoDB, Hugging Face, Weights & Biases, etc.).
# From a dictionary (useful for development)
secret = modal.Secret.from_dict({"API_KEY": "sk-xxx"})
# From a .env file
secret = modal.Secret.from_dotenv()
# From a named secret (created via CLI or dashboard)
secret = modal.Secret.from_name("my-api-keys")
@app.function(secrets=[modal.Secret.from_name("my-api-keys")])
def call_api():
import os
api_key = os.environ["API_KEY"]
# Use the key
response = requests.get(url, headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {api_key}"})
return response.json()
@app.function(secrets=[
modal.Secret.from_name("openai-keys"),
modal.Secret.from_name("database-creds"),
])
def process():
import os
openai_key = os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"]
db_url = os.environ["DATABASE_URL"]
...
Secrets are applied in order — if two secrets define the same key, the later one wins.
@app.cls(secrets=[modal.Secret.from_name("huggingface")])
class ModelService:
@modal.enter()
def load(self):
import os
token = os.environ["HF_TOKEN"]
self.model = AutoModel.from_pretrained("model-name", token=token)
# Reads .env file from current directory
@app.function(secrets=[modal.Secret.from_dotenv()])
def local_dev():
import os
api_key = os.environ["API_KEY"]
The .env file format:
API_KEY=sk-xxx
DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:pass@host/db
DEBUG=false
| Service | Typical Keys |
|---|---|
| OpenAI | OPENAI_API_KEY |
| Hugging Face | HF_TOKEN |
| AWS | AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY |
| Postgres | PGHOST, PGPORT, PGUSER, PGPASSWORD, PGDATABASE |
| Weights & Biases | WANDB_API_KEY |
| GitHub | GITHUB_TOKEN |
.from_name() in production (not .from_dict())