HivemindOS manual

Shared env values

API keys and other credentials need a different home from ordinary notes. Hive Superbrain keeps their values in Shared Env, outside the Obsidian vault, while safe key-name and set/missing references can remain searchable in Operations/Secure/.

Add a credential in HivemindOS

  1. Open Brain, then Shared Env.
  2. Add the key name requested by the provider or agent, such as OPENAI_API_KEY.
  3. Paste the value and save it. HivemindOS stores the value without adding it to a note or chat.
  4. If you use more than one trusted machine, choose whether Hivemind Sync should copy the credential to those machines.

Missing-credential messages can also open the same setup in place. After you save the key, the current task can continue without sending the secret back through the conversation.

Safe handling

  • Never put a plaintext secret in an Obsidian note, project file, prompt, or screenshot.
  • Check whether a key exists by name. A normal status check should not print its value.
  • Give a machine Shared Env access only when agents on that machine should use the stored credentials.
  • Use one shared value as the default, then override it inside a project only when that project genuinely needs a different account or provider key.

Which value wins

A value set by the current project or shell wins over Shared Env. If the project does not define the key, HivemindOS falls back to the shared value. This lets most projects reuse one credential while a specific project keeps its own override.

Open the terminal, sync, and storage reference

Storage and permissions

The canonical file is:

~/.hivemindos/.env

Agents, scripts, and app services should load from that file at runtime when they need shared credentials.

Agent runtimes have Shared env permission by default. Fleet operators can restrict an individual machine to Ask or Deny; when restricted, HivemindOS leaves the stored values untouched and stops before starting a runtime that requested them.

Why It Exists

The Hive Superbrain has two different storage layers:

  • The Obsidian vault stores durable knowledge, work state, skills, and service notes.
  • Shared env stores secrets and runtime credentials.

That split matters. The vault is meant to be read by agents. Secrets are not.

Precedence: Project First, Hive Env Fallback

The shared file is a default, not an override. When something inside a project needs a variable, it reads the project’s own value first — the project’s .env/.env.local, its config, or an explicit shell export — and falls back to ~/.hivemindos/.env only for keys the project does not set itself.

That gives you easy per-project overrides: set a key inside the project to override the shared value for that project alone, and leave it unset to inherit the fleet-wide default. Nothing shared changes.

hive-env-run -- <command> already follows this order — it loads ~/.hivemindos/.env as a base, then overlays the current process environment, so anything the project or shell already set wins on top. HivemindOS-managed agents get the same rule in their instructions.

The Helpers

Setup installs these helpers into ~/.local/bin:

hive-env-add
hive-env-remove
hive-env-delete
hive-env-check
hive-env-run

Use them like this:

hive-env-add OPENAI_API_KEY
hive-env-add ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=...
hive-env-remove OPENAI_API_KEY
hive-env-delete ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
hive-env-add --import-env
hive-env-check OPENAI_API_KEY
hive-env-run -- pnpm dev

hive-env-add KEY prompts for the value without putting it in shell history. hive-env-add KEY=value is useful when the value is already coming from a safe command or paste flow.

hive-env-remove KEY removes a key from the same store and syncs that removal through the same machinery. hive-env-delete KEY is the same command under the other obvious verb.

hive-env-check KEY tells you whether a key exists without printing the value.

hive-env-run -- command runs a command with the shared env loaded into the child process.

Runtime Compatibility

Some runtimes still need their own native env files. That is a compatibility layer, not the source of truth.

Use explicit runtime writes when needed:

hive-env-add --runtime hermes ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
hive-env-add --runtime aeon OPENAI_API_KEY
hive-env-add --runtime openclaw TAVILY_API_KEY
hive-env-remove --runtime aeon OPENAI_API_KEY

The default should still be the shared file at ~/.hivemindos/.env.

Sync To Machines

When Hivemind Sync is enabled, HivemindOS can push shared env keys and removals to trusted peer machines.

hive-env-add --reconcile
hive-env-add --pull-from USER@HOST

Pushes use ready collector /env endpoints on trusted machine links. Pulls from a peer still use Tailscale SSH because the remote machine has to export its local shared env set.

Secret values should not appear in command arguments, logs, shared notes, or chat transcripts.

Retry Queue

Push replication is no longer fire-and-forget. When a peer cannot take an update — its collector is down, unreachable, or the push fails — the key name, scope, runtime, and per-machine delivery receipts (never values) are queued in:

~/.hivemindos/env-sync-pending.json

Every later sync-enabled hive-env-add run drains the queue automatically, and the telemetry collector retries it on a timer. Queued removals propagate too. Entries clear once every enumerated ready peer has acknowledged, and expire after 14 days. Manual drain:

hive-env-add --retry-pending

Periodic Pull-Reconcile

Each machine’s telemetry collector also runs hive-env-add --sync-maintenance every 10 minutes (configurable with AGENT_TELEMETRY_ENV_SYNC_INTERVAL_MS, disable with AGENT_TELEMETRY_ENV_SYNC_DISABLED=1). That retries the queue, then pulls shared keys from every ready peer collector and merges them newest-wins using the per-key updatedAt metadata stored next to each env file. A machine that was offline when a key was added converges on its own. Keys removed locally keep a meta timestamp tombstone, so peers holding older copies cannot resurrect them. Manual runs:

hive-env-add --pull-reconcile --dry-run   # report what would be merged
hive-env-add --pull-reconcile             # merge newer/missing peer keys
curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8787/env/sync-maintenance   # collector-driven run now

Maintenance status (last run, last summary, errors) is reported in the collector /health payload under envSync.maintenance. Reconcile assumes tailnet machines keep reasonable NTP clock sync.

Advanced targeting uses:

HIVE_ENV_TAILNET_TARGETS
HIVE_ENV_TAILNET_USER
HIVE_ENV_TAILNET_SYNC
HIVE_ENV_COLLECTOR_PORTS

Peers are auto-discovered from tailscale status and probed for a ready collector; machines that appear under two tailnet nodes (system tailscaled plus embedded link node) are deduplicated by machine id. Prefer auto-discovery: pinning HIVE_ENV_TAILNET_TARGETS to raw IPs silently blackholes pushes when a node’s address changes. When HIVE_ENV_COLLECTOR_PORTS is set explicitly it is authoritative — default ports are not appended.

AEON GitHub Secrets

Managed private AEON repos can receive changed shared env values as GitHub Actions secrets.

HivemindOS tracks sync state with fingerprints, not secret values:

~/.hivemindos/aeon-env-sync-repos.json
~/.hivemindos/aeon-env-sync-state.json

Public AEON repos are skipped. If a managed repo becomes public, HivemindOS removes the secrets it managed.

Encrypted Backup

If GPG is configured, hive-env-add can refresh an encrypted backup:

Operations/Secure/hive.env.gpg

That file can live in the vault because it is encrypted. Plaintext env files cannot.

Backup settings use:

HIVE_ENV_BACKUP_DIR
HIVE_ENV_GPG_RECIPIENT
HIVE_ENV_PUBLIC_KEY

Hard Rules

  • Do not put plaintext secrets in Obsidian notes.
  • Do not print secret values during checks.
  • Do not copy shared env values into project files just because it is convenient.
  • Prefer hive-env-check KEY when you only need to prove a key exists.
  • Prefer hive-env-remove KEY when a shared key should stop being available.
  • Prefer hive-env-run -- command when a tool needs the shared env for one run.
  • If a project needs shared credentials, load ~/.hivemindos/.env at runtime instead of persisting secrets into the repo.
  • Resolve project-first: use the project’s own env value when it is set, and fall back to ~/.hivemindos/.env only for keys the project does not define.

Main Code Paths

  • scripts/hive-env-add
  • scripts/hive-env-remove
  • scripts/hive-env-delete
  • scripts/hive-env-check
  • scripts/hive-env-run
  • src/app/api/env/route.ts
  • scripts/agent-telemetry-collector.mjs
  • src/features/dashboard/views/UtilityPanels.tsx
  • src/lib/services/runtime-integrations.ts
  • src/lib/services/runtime-adapters/aeon.ts
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