Skip to content
Kānuka

User Setup

Before you can use Kānuka to manage secrets, you need to set up your user identity. This is a one-time setup that creates your personal configuration file, which stores your email, a unique identifier, and your default device name.

Automatic Setup

Section titled “Automatic Setup”

The easiest way to set up your identity is to simply run kanuka secrets init in a project. If you haven’t configured your identity yet, Kānuka will automatically prompt you:

Terminal window
$ kanuka secrets init
⚠ User configuration not found.


Running initial setup...


Welcome to Kānuka! Let's set up your identity.


Email address: [email protected]
Display name (optional): Alice Smith
Default device name [MacBook-Pro]:


✓ User configuration saved to ~/.config/kanuka/config.toml


Your settings:
  Email:   [email protected]
  Name:    Alice Smith
  Device:  MacBook-Pro
  User ID: 6ba7b810-9dad-11d1-80b4-00c04fd430c8


Initializing project...
✓ Kānuka initialized successfully!
→ Run kanuka secrets encrypt to encrypt your existing .env files

Manual Setup

Section titled “Manual Setup”

You can also set up your identity explicitly before initializing any projects:

Terminal window
kanuka config init

This will prompt you for:

  • Email address (required) - Your identifier across all projects
  • Display name (optional) - For audit log features
  • Default device name - Defaults to your computer’s hostname

Non-Interactive Setup

Section titled “Non-Interactive Setup”

For CI/CD pipelines or scripts, you can provide all values via flags:

Terminal window
kanuka config init --email [email protected] --device my-laptop

Or with all options:

Terminal window
kanuka config init --email [email protected] --name "Alice Smith" --device workstation

What Gets Created

Section titled “What Gets Created”

After setup, Kānuka creates a configuration file at ~/.config/kanuka/config.toml:

[user]
email = "[email protected]"
name = "Alice Smith"
uuid = "6ba7b810-9dad-11d1-80b4-00c04fd430c8"
default_device_name = "MacBook-Pro"


[projects]
# Project entries are added as you initialize projects

This file is personal to you and is never shared with your team.

Viewing Your Configuration

Section titled “Viewing Your Configuration”

To see your current user configuration:

Terminal window
kanuka config show

Example output:

User Configuration (~/.config/kanuka/config.toml):
  Email:          [email protected]
  Name:           Alice Smith
  User ID:        6ba7b810-9dad-11d1-80b4-00c04fd430c8
  Default Device: MacBook-Pro


Projects:
  550e8400... -> workstation (my-awesome-project)

Updating Your Configuration

Section titled “Updating Your Configuration”

To update your email or other settings:

Terminal window
kanuka config init --email [email protected]

Only the fields you provide will be updated; other fields remain unchanged.

Next Steps

Section titled “Next Steps”

Once your identity is configured, you can: