op-cli

1Password CLI (op) — Secure Handling

Core Rule: Never Print Secrets

NEVER use op commands that would print secret values into the conversation. Always pipe directly to the consuming tool or use wc -c / redaction to verify without exposing.

# WRONG — would print secret to stdout (do not run)
# op item get ITEM_ID --vault VAULT --fields label=PASSWORD --reveal

# RIGHT — pipe directly to consumer
op item get ITEM_ID --vault VAULT --fields label=PASSWORD --reveal | \
  wrangler secret put SECRET_NAME --env ENV

# RIGHT — verify a value exists without exposing it
op item get ITEM_ID --vault VAULT --fields label=PASSWORD --reveal 2>/dev/null | wc -c

Item Titles with Slashes

Many 1Password items use path-style titles (e.g. pool-party/testnet-pool-party-public/credentials). The op:// URI format breaks with these because it uses / as a delimiter.

# BROKEN — too many '/' segments
op read "op://pool-party-testnet/pool-party/testnet-pool-party-public/credentials/PASSWORD"
# ERROR: too many '/': secret references should match op://<vault>/<item>[/<section>]/<field>

# WORKS — use item ID instead (avoid printing values)
op item get ITEM_ID --vault VAULT --fields label=FIELD --reveal 2>/dev/null | wc -c

Discovery Workflow

When you don't know the item ID:

# 1. List items in a vault to find the title and ID
op item list --vault VAULT_NAME

# 2. Use the ID (first column) for all subsequent reads
op item get ITEM_ID --vault VAULT_NAME --fields label=FIELD_NAME --reveal 2>/dev/null | wc -c

Reading Multiple Fields from One Item

# Verify which fields exist (safe — shows labels not values)
op item get ITEM_ID --vault VAULT_NAME --format json 2>/dev/null | \
  python3 -c "import json,sys; [print(f['label']) for s in json.load(sys.stdin).get('fields',[]) for f in [s] if f.get('label')]"

# Pipe each field to its destination
op item get ITEM_ID --vault VAULT --fields label=USERNAME --reveal | consumer_cmd ...
op item get ITEM_ID --vault VAULT --fields label=PASSWORD --reveal | consumer_cmd ...

Common Piping Patterns

Cloudflare Workers (wrangler)

op item get ITEM_ID --vault VAULT --fields label=PASSWORD --reveal | \
  npx wrangler secret put POOL_PARTY_PUBLIC_PASSWORD --env testnet

Environment Variable (subshell)

SECRET="$(op item get ITEM_ID --vault VAULT --fields label=TOKEN --reveal 2>/dev/null)"
# Use $SECRET in subsequent commands within the same shell — it won't appear in output

kubectl

op item get ITEM_ID --vault VAULT --fields label=PASSWORD --reveal | \
  kubectl create secret generic my-secret --from-file=password=/dev/stdin

Verification Without Exposure

# Check a value is non-empty (char count)
op item get ITEM_ID --vault VAULT --fields label=PASSWORD --reveal 2>/dev/null | wc -c

# Compare two sources match (exit code only)
if cmp -s <(op item get ID1 --vault V --fields label=F --reveal 2>/dev/null) \
        <(op item get ID2 --vault V --fields label=F --reveal 2>/dev/null); then
  echo "match"
else
  echo "differ"
fi

Troubleshooting

Error	Cause	Fix
too many '/'	Item title has slashes, op:// can't parse it	Use item ID with op item get
could not find item	Wrong vault or title mismatch	Run op item list --vault VAULT to discover
Empty output	Missing --reveal flag	Add --reveal and pipe to consumer (or `
not signed in	Session expired	Run eval "$(op signin)" (avoid printing the session token)