baoctx

baoctx

A CLI tool to manage context profiles for OpenBao. This allows you to save connection and configuration details, which would otherwise be set using environment variables — into named context profiles, and easily switch between them.

Installation

1. Download the latest release from the Releases page.
2. Install the package for your distribution:
   • Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install baoctx-<version>.deb
   • Fedora/RHEL: sudo dnf install baoctx-<version>.rpm
   • Arch Linux (AUR): yay -S baoctx-bin.

Example use case

There are two OpenBao clusters, one for Dev (http://dev-openbao:8200) and one for Prod (https://prod-openbao:8200).

Running bao CLI commands locally will by default attempt to connect to https://localhost:8200. To connect to another cluster, you need to set the appropriate BAO_* environment variables. baoctx lets you save multiple sets of connection details into context profiles and switch between them easily.

What Is a Context Profile?

A context profile is a named set of configuration parameters for an OpenBao instance. For example, a prod context profile might have an endpoint of https://prod-openbao:8200, a namespace of admin/prod, and a token. Selecting that profile renders the corresponding export BAO_ADDR=...; export BAO_NAMESPACE=...; export BAO_TOKEN=... commands, which can be applied to the current shell with eval.

Example usage

eval $(baoctx select prod)

Supported Tools

• OpenBao

Configuring baoctx For Your Shell

baoctx can set default context profiles that are automatically loaded into new shell sessions via environment variables. To enable this, configure your shell's startup script with:

baoctx config --path "~/.zshrc"

Using fish instead of bash / zsh

baoctx config --path "~/.config/fish/config.fish" --shell fish

This appends a small helper script that sources all defaults when a new shell session starts.

OpenBao

Create Example

baoctx create staging \
  --endpoint "https://staging-openbao.example.com:8200" \
  --cacert "/path/to/ca.pem" \
  --cert "/path/to/client.pem" \
  --key "/path/to/client-key.pem" \
  --skip-verify true \
  --cli-no-colour true \
  --client-timeout "60s" \
  --format "json"

Create Example with OIDC

baoctx create testing \
        --endpoint https://testing-openbao.example.com:8200 \
        --auth-method oidc \
        --oidc-callback-host localhost \
        --oidc-listen-addr 127.0.0.1 \
        --oidc-role device \
        --oidc-callback-mode device

Update Example

baoctx update staging \
  --endpoint "https://staging-openbao.example.com:8200" \
  --cacert "/path/to/new-ca.pem" \
  --skip-verify true \
  --format "json"

Delete Example

baoctx delete staging

List Example

baoctx list

Setting Default Context Profiles

Set a default context profile with the set-default sub command:

baoctx set-default staging

Once a default has been set, new shell sessions will spawn with those environment variables already exported.

Switching Context Profiles

Switch context using the select sub command:

baoctx select dev

This prints all export BAO_* commands for the selected context profile. To apply them in the current shell:

eval $(baoctx select dev)