Vault

A vault is Ren’s encrypted credential store. API keys, OAuth tokens, environment variables, and service passwords live here so agents and MCPs can authenticate against external services at runtime, without secrets ever appearing in a prompt, an agent definition, or session history.

The key idea: an MCP or skill declares a credential slot (“I need a bearer token called api-key”); the vault holds the actual value. At runtime Ren fills the slot from the vault. The same MCP can use different credentials in different projects just by attaching different vaults.

Credential types

A vault holds up to 20 credentials, each typed so Ren knows how to inject it:

Type	When to use
Bearer	A static API token sent in the Authorization: Bearer header. The most common type.
OAuth	Delegated auth flows (e.g. GitHub, Google Workspace). Ren stores the access token and refreshes it automatically when a refresh token is available.
Env	A raw environment variable, for config values or keys that don’t fit the bearer pattern.
Basic	HTTP Basic auth (username + password), for services that still require it.

Encryption and archival

Each vault is encrypted with its own key, so compromising one vault doesn’t expose another. Ren handles encryption and decryption for you.

Archiving a credential is permanent: the slot remains (so references don’t break) but the secret value is gone and must be re-created if you need it again.

Attaching vaults

Vaults attach to pods and projects with a priority. When the same credential exists in more than one vault, the higher-priority vault wins. This lets you layer secrets: an org vault provides defaults, and a team vault overrides just the keys that differ.

Every pod gets a default vault at creation, so agents always have somewhere to store and retrieve secrets.

How requirements are checked

When a session starts, Ren walks the project’s agents (and the skills and MCPs each one uses) and collects every credential they declare. For each one it checks whether a matching value exists in an attached vault. Anything missing is flagged before the agent runs, so you can see which agents would break and supply the secret up front.

OAuth

For services that need user-delegated access (GitHub, Google Workspace), Ren runs the full OAuth flow and stores the resulting token in the vault. If the access token expires and a refresh token exists, Ren refreshes it automatically. You only re-authorize if the refresh token is revoked.

Using vaults from the CLI

ren vaults list              # view vaults in your workspace
ren vaults create --name "X" # create a vault

Where to go next

• MCPs: how MCPs declare credential slots agents fill from a vault.
• Pods: what vaults attach to, and how priority works.
• Memory stores: persistent state that isn’t secret.