gcp-secret-manager – DevOps & Infrastructure skill for AI agents

GCP Secret Manager

Store and manage secrets securely in Google Cloud Platform.

Prerequisites

• GCP project with billing enabled
• gcloud CLI installed and authenticated
• Secret Manager API enabled (secretmanager.googleapis.com)
• IAM permissions: roles/secretmanager.admin for management, roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor for reading
• For GKE: Workload Identity configured on the cluster

Enable the API

# Enable Secret Manager API
gcloud services enable secretmanager.googleapis.com

# Verify it's enabled
gcloud services list --enabled --filter="name:secretmanager"

Secret Creation and Management

# Create a secret (creates the secret resource, not the value)
gcloud secrets create db-password \
  --replication-policy="automatic" \
  --labels="env=production,team=platform"

# Add the secret value (first version)
gcloud secrets versions add db-password --data-file="/private/approved-secret-input"

# Create secret with value in one command
gcloud secrets create db-credentials --data-file="/private/approved-credentials-input" \
  --replication-policy="automatic" \
  --labels="env=production,team=platform"

# Create with specific region replication
gcloud secrets create regional-secret \
  --replication-policy="user-managed" \
  --locations="us-central1,us-east1"

# Create with customer-managed encryption key (CMEK)
gcloud secrets create sensitive-secret \
  --replication-policy="user-managed" \
  --locations="us-central1" \
  --kms-key-name="projects/my-project/locations/us-central1/keyRings/my-ring/cryptoKeys/my-key"

# Access the latest version
gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=db-password --out-file="/private/new-secret-output"

# Access a specific version
gcloud secrets versions access 3 --secret=db-password --out-file="/private/new-version-output"

# Add a new version (rotation)
gcloud secrets versions add db-password --data-file="/private/approved-new-secret-input"

# List all secrets
gcloud secrets list --format="table(name, createTime, labels)"

# List versions of a secret
gcloud secrets versions list db-password --format="table(name, state, createTime)"

# Disable a version (makes it inaccessible but recoverable)
gcloud secrets versions disable 1 --secret=db-password

# Enable a disabled version
gcloud secrets versions enable 1 --secret=db-password

# Destroy a version (permanent)
gcloud secrets versions destroy 1 --secret=db-password

# Delete the entire secret
gcloud secrets delete db-password

# Set expiration on a secret
gcloud secrets update db-password \
  --expire-time="2026-06-01T00:00:00Z"

# Set TTL-based expiration
gcloud secrets update temp-token \
  --ttl="2592000s"  # 30 days

# Update labels
gcloud secrets update db-password \
  --update-labels="rotation=enabled,last-rotated=2025-01-15"

# Add version aliases
gcloud secrets update db-password --update-version-aliases="production=5"

IAM Bindings

# Grant secret accessor role to a service account
gcloud secrets add-iam-policy-binding db-password \
  --member="serviceAccount:[email protected]" \
  --role="roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor"

# IAM secretAccessor is granted at the secret level, not a fictitious secretVersionAccessor role.
# Separate secrets if different values need different reader permissions.

# Grant admin to security team
gcloud secrets add-iam-policy-binding db-password \
  --member="group:[email protected]" \
  --role="roles/secretmanager.admin"

# View IAM policy for a secret
gcloud secrets get-iam-policy db-password

# Remove access
gcloud secrets remove-iam-policy-binding db-password \
  --member="serviceAccount:[email protected]" \
  --role="roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor"

# Project-level IAM for all secrets
gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding my-project \
  --member="serviceAccount:[email protected]" \
  --role="roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor" \
  --condition='expression=resource.name.startsWith("projects/my-project/secrets/myapp-"),title=myapp-secrets-only'

Workload Identity for GKE

# Enable Workload Identity on cluster (if not already)
gcloud container clusters update my-cluster \
  --zone us-central1-a \
  --workload-pool=my-project.svc.id.goog

# Create GCP service account for the workload
gcloud iam service-accounts create myapp-gke-sa \
  --display-name="MyApp GKE Service Account"

# Grant secret accessor role
gcloud secrets add-iam-policy-binding db-password \
  --member="serviceAccount:[email protected]" \
  --role="roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor"

# Bind Kubernetes SA to GCP SA
gcloud iam service-accounts add-iam-policy-binding \
  [email protected] \
  --role="roles/iam.workloadIdentityUser" \
  --member="serviceAccount:my-project.svc.id.goog[production/myapp-sa]"

Kubernetes Manifests

# Kubernetes service account annotated with GCP SA
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: myapp-sa
  namespace: production
  annotations:
    iam.gke.io/gcp-service-account: "[email protected]"
---
# Secrets Store CSI Driver for GCP
apiVersion: secrets-store.csi.x-k8s.io/v1
kind: SecretProviderClass
metadata:
  name: gcp-secrets
  namespace: production
spec:
  provider: gcp
  parameters:
    secrets: |
      - resourceName: "projects/my-project/secrets/db-password/versions/latest"
        path: "db-password"
      - resourceName: "projects/my-project/secrets/db-credentials/versions/latest"
        path: "db-credentials"
      - resourceName: "projects/my-project/secrets/api-key/versions/latest"
        path: "api-key"
  secretObjects:
    - secretName: myapp-secrets
      type: Opaque
      data:
        - objectName: db-password
          key: DB_PASSWORD
        - objectName: api-key
          key: API_KEY
---
# Deployment using the secrets
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: myapp
  namespace: production
spec:
  replicas: 3
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: myapp
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: myapp
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: myapp-sa
      containers:
        - name: myapp
          image: gcr.io/my-project/myapp:v1.0.0
          env:
            - name: DB_PASSWORD
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: myapp-secrets
                  key: DB_PASSWORD
          volumeMounts:
            - name: secrets
              mountPath: "/var/secrets"
              readOnly: true
      volumes:
        - name: secrets
          csi:
            driver: secrets-store.csi.k8s.io
            readOnly: true
            volumeAttributes:
              secretProviderClass: "gcp-secrets"

Application SDK Examples

Python

from google.cloud import secretmanager
from google.api_core import exceptions
import json

def get_secret(project_id: str, secret_id: str, version: str = "latest") -> str:
    """Access a secret version from GCP Secret Manager."""
    client = secretmanager.SecretManagerServiceClient()
    name = f"projects/{project_id}/secrets/{secret_id}/versions/{version}"

    try:
        response = client.access_secret_version(request={"name": name}, timeout=10)
        return response.payload.data.decode("UTF-8")
    except exceptions.NotFound:
        raise ValueError(f"Secret {secret_id} version {version} not found")
    except exceptions.PermissionDenied:
        raise PermissionError(f"No access to secret {secret_id}")

def get_json_secret(project_id: str, secret_id: str) -> dict:
    """Access and parse a JSON secret."""
    raw = get_secret(project_id, secret_id)
    return json.loads(raw)

def create_secret(project_id: str, secret_id: str, value: str, labels: dict = None) -> str:
    """Create a new secret with an initial version."""
    client = secretmanager.SecretManagerServiceClient()
    parent = f"projects/{project_id}"

    secret_config = {
        "replication": {"automatic": {}},
    }
    if labels:
        secret_config["labels"] = labels

    secret = client.create_secret(
        request={"parent": parent, "secret_id": secret_id, "secret": secret_config}
    )

    client.add_secret_version(
        request={"parent": secret.name, "payload": {"data": value.encode("UTF-8")}}
    )
    return secret.name

def rotate_secret(project_id: str, secret_id: str, new_value: str) -> str:
    """Add a new version to rotate the secret."""
    client = secretmanager.SecretManagerServiceClient()
    parent = f"projects/{project_id}/secrets/{secret_id}"

    version = client.add_secret_version(
        request={"parent": parent, "payload": {"data": new_value.encode("UTF-8")}}
    )
    return version.name

def list_secrets(project_id: str, filter_str: str = "") -> list:
    """List all secrets in a project."""
    client = secretmanager.SecretManagerServiceClient()
    parent = f"projects/{project_id}"

    secrets = []
   

… (full content is in the download package)