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write

The write command writes data to Vault at the given path. The data can be credentials, secrets, configuration, or arbitrary data. The specific behavior of this command is determined at the thing mounted at the path.

Data is specified as "key=value" pairs on the command line. If the value begins with an "@", then it is loaded from a file. If the value for a key is "-", Vault will read the value from stdin rather than the command line.

Some API fields require more advanced structures such as maps. These cannot directly be represented on the command line. However, direct control of the request parameters can be achieved by using - as the only data argument. This causes vault write to read a JSON blob containing all request parameters from stdin. This argument will be ignored if used in conjunction with any "key=value" pairs.

For a full list of examples and paths, please see the documentation that corresponds to the secrets engines in use.

Examples

Persist data in the KV secrets engine:

$ vault write secret/my-secret foo=bar

Create a new encryption key in the transit secrets engine:

$ vault write -f transit/keys/my-key

Upload an AWS IAM policy from a file on disk:

$ vault write aws/roles/ops policy=@policy.json

Configure access to Consul by providing an access token:

$ echo $MY_TOKEN | vault write consul/config/access token=-

Usage

The following flags are available in addition to the standard set of flags included on all commands.

Output Options

  • -field (string: "") - Print only the field with the given name. Specifying this option will take precedence over other formatting directives. The result will not have a trailing newline making it ideal for piping to other processes.

  • -format (string: "table") - Print the output in the given format. Valid formats are "table", "json", or "yaml". This can also be specified via the VAULT_FORMAT environment variable.

Command Options

  • -force (bool: false) - Allow the operation to continue with no key=value pairs. This allows writing to keys that do not need or expect data. This is aliased as "-f".