Where can I generate a KEY and a SECRET for the Docker Instalation

[RocketRene]

Hi, the Documentation says I should generate a new Key and Secret

# Make sure to change sensitive values (KEY, SECRET, ...) in production

docker run \
  -p 8055:8055 \
  -e KEY=255d861b-5ea1-5996-9aa3-922530ec40b1 \
  -e SECRET=6116487b-cda1-52c2-b5b5-c8022c45e263 \
  directus/directus

But I have no Idea where I can do that. Can I use my Password Manager (LastPass) and just generate 2 long Passwords?

Sorry for the dump question.

[benhaynes]

CC @erondpowell

[mattbisme]

Personally, I just run a cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/uuid and use the result; once for KEY and again for SECRET. I don't know if there is a better way… I think each just needs to be a long random string.

Related question: what are the KEY and SECRET used for? I always assumed for salt/hash, but changing them doesn't seem to affect my ability to login.

[azrikahar]

Personally, I just run a cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/uuid and use the result; once for KEY and again for SECRET. I don't know if there is a better way… I think each just needs to be a long random string.

Thanks for sharing! cc @erondpowell

Alternatively, there's also openssl rand (-hex/-base64) <number of bytes>, such as

• openssl rand -hex 16 (example output: 96c268dcecf92a9b76e8f0b7e113e8df)

• openssl rand -base64 24 (example output: HBy8Ox5rLhluN7hEYwYVOxapPp6ZFpvX)

Related question: what are the KEY and SECRET used for?

The KEY is a unique identifier for the current project, which allows things to have a unique identifier to make sure there's no duplication errors eg. when running multiple node processes for the same project in parallel (load balanced). The SECRET is used to sign the JWTs used in auth 👍

I always assumed for salt/hash, but changing them doesn't seem to affect my ability to login.

Changing it will only affect existing (distributed/given) tokens being invalidated, such as old password reset tokens in an email's link. If by salt/hash you mean the ones for passwords themselves, those are generated by Argon2 instead. You can find more info on it over here: https://docs.directus.io/configuration/config-options/#hashing

[mattbisme]

Thanks for the information!

[syahzuan]

Thank you. Big help!

[onlinemoose]

Awesome - THANK YOU. This really ought to be explained in the Directus documentation.

[reld]

Brilliant! this helps a lot.