sops-cop

SOPS-Cop

SOPS-Cop is a CLI tool to enforce SOPS encryption rules without requiring the SOPS binary or encryption keys; designed for commit hooks and CI jobs.

How it works

• Discovers your existing SOPS configuration and verifies encryption rules are followed.
• Reports each unencrypted key path to stderr with file path and line:column location.

Exit codes

• 0: all checked values are encrypted
• 2: invalid arguments (for example, unresolvable target path)
• 3: file read error (for example, file missing or permission denied)
• 4: invalid YAML input
• 5: one or more unencrypted values were found
• 6: .sops.yaml config error (for example, invalid regex)

Requirements

• Go 1.23+

If you install from release binaries, Go is not required.

Install

Option 1: go install

go install github.com/binbashing/sops-cop@latest

Option 2: prebuilt release binary (no Go required)

Download the correct archive from the GitHub Releases page for your OS/arch, extract it, and place sops-cop on your PATH.

Build

go build -o sops-cop .

Usage

./sops-cop

Or start from any path inside the project:

./sops-cop -target path/to/any/subdir

Print version:

./sops-cop -version

Help:

./sops-cop -h

Examples

Encrypted YAML (ok.yaml):

apiVersion: ENC[AES256_GCM,data:abc]
kind: ENC[AES256_GCM,data:def]
spec:
  db:
    password: ENC[AES256_GCM,data:ghi]
sops:
  version: 3.9.0

Run from anywhere in that repo:

./sops-cop -target ./secrets
# exit code: 0

Unencrypted YAML (bad.yaml):

spec:
  db:
    password: plaintext

Run:

./sops-cop -target .
# stderr:
# /path/to/repo/secrets/bad.yaml:3:15: unencrypted value found at 'spec.db.password'
# exit code: 5

Test

go test ./...
go vet ./...

CI

GitHub Actions runs tests on push and pull request via:

• .github/workflows/ci.yml

Project structure

• main.go: CLI entrypoint and YAML validation logic
• config.go: .sops.yaml loading and rule matching
• main_test.go: table-driven unit tests
• .sops.yaml: example SOPS config for the included fixture
• secrets.example.yaml: example encrypted Kubernetes Secret
• go.mod / go.sum: module and dependency locks

Design notes

• Uses the SOPS library (github.com/getsops/sops/v3) for config parsing, rule matching, and encryption path selection — ensuring exact behavioral parity with SOPS.
• Uses gopkg.in/yaml.v3 node traversal for line:column error reporting.
• Keeps implementation in a single executable package for simplicity and portability.
• Follows fail-fast CLI behavior with deterministic exit codes for CI/pipeline integration.