Token Vault vs HashiCorp Vault for AI Agents
HashiCorp Vault is a general-purpose secrets store you operate; Token Vault is an agent-native access layer that stores nothing. When to use which — and when to use both.
Different tools for different jobs, honestly compared. HashiCorp Vault is a secrets store: it holds your secrets, encrypted server-side, and is very good at it. Token Vault is an agent access layer: it holds nothing, and brokers scoped, policy-gated access to credentials that live on infrastructure you control. If your question is "how do I give AI agents and MCP clients controlled access to API keys," this page is for you.
At a glance
| Token Vault | HashiCorp Vault | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Credential access layer for AI agents | General-purpose secrets management platform |
| Who holds the secret | Your webhook, on your infrastructure — Token Vault never sees it | The Vault server (self-hosted or HCP) — it is the custodian |
| Agent identity | First-class: per-agent keys, grants with expiry, one-click revocation | Via AppRole / tokens / auth methods you assemble yourself |
| MCP support | Native: MCP server, MCP proxy with server-side credential injection, OAuth 2.1 authorization server for MCP clients (dynamic client registration, PKCE) | None built in — you build the integration layer |
| Access policy | ABAC per agent/proxy/token: time windows, IP allowlists, rate limits, usage caps, geo, manual phone approval | Powerful path-based policies (HCL), Sentinel in Enterprise |
| Dynamic secrets | No — brokers stored credentials (webhook can mint short-lived tokens from raw credentials) | Yes — a core strength (databases, cloud IAM, PKI) |
| Operations | Nothing to run except your webhook (a Cloudflare Worker on the free tier is enough) | A server/cluster you operate: storage backend, unsealing, upgrades, HA — or pay for HCP |
| Kill switch | Take your webhook offline — every credential path stops instantly | Seal the Vault server |
| Price | Free | Open source free; HCP / Enterprise paid |
The custody difference
This is the architectural fork, not a feature gap. HashiCorp Vault's model: concentrate secrets in one hardened, audited store. That's the right model for infrastructure secrets at scale — and it means Vault (and whoever operates it) is the custodian.
Token Vault's model: the broker should hold nothing. Your credentials live on a webhook you deploy; Token Vault authenticates agents, evaluates policy, signs a ticket, and steps aside — the credential flows directly from your webhook to the agent, or is injected server-side by your webhook for MCP upstreams. A compromise of Token Vault yields identities and metadata, not one secret. See Architecture.
When HashiCorp Vault is the better answer
- You need dynamic secrets — short-lived database credentials, cloud IAM, PKI issuance.
- You're managing infrastructure secrets at org scale with existing Vault expertise.
- You need Enterprise compliance machinery (HSM integration, namespaces, Sentinel).
When Token Vault is the better answer
- The consumers are AI agents and MCP clients (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor) and you want scoped, revocable, audited access without building an integration layer.
- You want MCP connections without pasting real tokens into client config files — the proxy injects credentials server-side.
- You want an OAuth 2.1 flow so MCP clients connect with no static key at all.
- You don't want to operate a secrets cluster to give a handful of agents controlled API access.
Using both
Common and reasonable: keep infrastructure secrets in HashiCorp Vault, and put Token Vault in front of the agent-facing subset. Your webhook is just an HTTP server — it can read from Vault as its storage backend, giving agents Token Vault's grants, ABAC, and MCP layer while Vault remains your system of record.
Next step
Do the Quickstart → — agent fetching its first credential in about ten minutes, with a free Cloudflare account as the only infrastructure.
Ready to try it?
Sign up free with Google — your credentials stay on your own webhook, and the quickstart gets an agent fetching its first credential in about ten minutes.