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wtf is vault-lambda-extension?

mbeacom/vault-lambda-extension — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-07-18 · repo last pushed 2020-10-08

Audience · ops devopsComplexity · 3/5DormantSetup · moderate

TL;DR

An AWS Lambda extension that automatically fetches secrets from HashiCorp Vault before your function starts, writing them to a local file your code can read.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Authenticates to Vault
      Fetches secrets
      Writes to local file
    Tech stack
      AWS Lambda
      HashiCorp Vault
    Use cases
      Secure Lambda secrets
      Avoid hardcoded credentials
      Simplify function code
    Audience
      Cloud engineers
      DevOps teams
    Limits
      No secret refresh
      Risk with long-lived concurrency

Code map

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filefunction / class

Why would anyone build with this?

REASON 1

Give a Lambda function access to Vault-stored secrets without writing custom authentication code.

REASON 2

Replace hardcoded credentials in Lambda functions with secrets fetched via the function's own AWS identity.

REASON 3

Simplify application code by reading pre-fetched secrets from a local JSON file instead of calling Vault directly.

What's in the stack?

AWS LambdaHashiCorp Vault

How it stacks up

mbeacom/vault-lambda-extension0verflowme/alarm-clock0verflowme/seclists
Language—CSS—
Last pushed2020-10-082022-10-032020-05-03
MaintenanceDormantDormantDormant
Setup difficultymoderateeasyeasy
Complexity3/52/51/5
Audienceops devopsvibe coderops devops

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you spin it up?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Doesn't refresh secrets after initial fetch, risky for long-lived provisioned concurrency.

Not specified in the explanation.

Yoink these prompts

Prompt 1
Show me how to add vault-lambda-extension as a layer to my AWS Lambda function and configure the environment variables for my Vault server.
Prompt 2
Write example code for a Lambda function that reads secrets from /tmp/vault/secret.json written by vault-lambda-extension.
Prompt 3
Explain the AWS Lambda extensions mechanism and how vault-lambda-extension uses it to fetch secrets before my function runs.
Prompt 4
What are the risks of using vault-lambda-extension with provisioned concurrency, given it doesn't refresh expired secrets?

Frequently asked questions

wtf is vault-lambda-extension?

An AWS Lambda extension that automatically fetches secrets from HashiCorp Vault before your function starts, writing them to a local file your code can read.

Is vault-lambda-extension actively maintained?

Dormant — no commits in 2+ years (last push 2020-10-08).

What license does vault-lambda-extension use?

Not specified in the explanation.

How hard is vault-lambda-extension to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is vault-lambda-extension for?

Mainly ops devops.

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