Keep passwords and other sensitive information out of your inboxes and chat logs.

A onetime secret is a link that can be viewed only once. A single-use URL.

Try it out on OnetimeSecret.com

When you send people sensitive info like passwords and private links via email or chat, there are copies of that information stored in many places. If you use a Onetime link instead, the information persists for a single viewing which means it can't be read by someone else later. This allows you to send sensitive information in a safe way knowing it's seen by one person only. Think of it like a self-destructing message.

Get up and running in 30 seconds:

# 1. Start Redis
docker run -d --name valkey -p 6379:6379 valkey/valkey

# 2. Generate and save a secure secret
openssl rand -hex 32

# 3. Set the secret securely (paste the secret from step 2)
echo -n "Enter secret: "; read -s SECRET

# 4. Start Onetime Secret
docker run -p 3000:3000 \
  -e SECRET=$SECRET \
  -e REDIS_URL=redis://host.docker.internal:6379/0 \
  ghcr.io/onetimesecret/onetimesecret:latest

Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser.

# Using pre-built image
docker pull ghcr.io/onetimesecret/onetimesecret:latest

# Or build from source
docker build -t onetimesecret .

For detailed setup instructions, see our Docker Guide.

For our self-contained, ephemeral "lite" image, see Docker Lite Guide.

While we recommend Docker for most users, a manual installation is possible. For detailed steps, see our Manual Installation Guide.

• Any recent Linux distro (we use Debian) or *BSD or macOS
• Ruby 3.4+ (3.1-3.3 may work but not officially supported)
• Valkey/Redis server 5+
• Node.js 22+ (for frontend development)
• Minimum specs: 2 core CPU, 1GB memory, 4GB disk

Onetime Secret requires a config.yaml file for all installations. The configuration file uses ERB templating to incorporate environment variables, allowing for flexible deployment scenarios.

For detailed configuration instructions, including how to use environment variables, .env files, and advanced settings, see our Configuration Guide.

For tips on debugging, frontend development, setting up pre-commit hooks, and other development-related topics, see our Development Guide.

This is the actively developed and maintained version with the most recent features and security updates.

Pre-1.0 Status: Onetime Secret is currently in active development with pre-1.0 version numbers (e.g., v0.23.0). While we recommend using the latest tag for the newest features, production deployments should pin to a specific version tag (e.g., v0.23.0) for stability.

⚠️ Breaking Changes: Expect potential breaking changes between "major-minor" releases (e.g., v0.22.x → v0.23.0). We follow semantic versioning principles but treat pre-1.0 minor version bumps as potentially breaking changes.

This section provides an overview of services similar to our project, highlighting their unique features and how they compare. These alternatives may be useful for users looking for specific functionalities or wanting to explore different options in the same domain. By presenting this information, we aim to give our users a comprehensive view of the available options in the secure information sharing space.

Note: Our in-house legal counsel (codium-pr-agent-pro bot) suggested adding this introduction and the disclaimer at the end.

Summarized, fetched, and collated by Cohere Command R+, formatted by Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and proofread by GitHub Copilot.

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

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