Initialize a new database

Use the init command to initialize a new password database. This command takes a single argument specifying the location of the database file:

ironclad init my/secret/passwords.db

Ironclad will create a new database file at the specified location. You can call the file anything you like — Ironclad doesn't require any particular file extension for databases. (In fact, database files have no special markers and are indistinguishable from random data.)

You'll be prompted to enter two passwords: a master password which will be used to encrypt your database file, and a cache password which will be used to encrypt your master password while it's temporarily cached in memory between application runs. (Ironclad defaults to caching your master password for 15 minutes but you can customize this timeout using the config command.)

Think of it like this: your master password protects your database file from the world so it needs to be long and complex. Your cache password protects your master password from people who have access to your computer while it's cached in memory — this is a much smaller attack surface so it can be considerably shorter and easier to type.

(Setting your cache password to an empty string will disable the prompt completely. This means that your master password is effectively unencrypted while cached in memory, but you may judge that the extra convenience is worth the risk.)

Add entries

Use the add command to add a new entry to your database:

ironclad add

You'll be prompted to supply values for the entry's fields — simply press return to leave any unwanted field empty.

View entries

Use the list command to see a list of all the database's entries:

ironclad list

Use the show command to view the full details of each entry in the list:

ironclad show

You can specify the entries to list or show by ID or by title, e.g.

ironclad show 123
ironclad show gmail

Titles are checked for a case-insensitive substring match.

Copy a password or username

Use the pass command to copy a password to the clipboard. The clipboard is automatically overwritten after a default timeout of 15 seconds. (You can customize this timeout using the config command.)

ironclad pass <entry>

You can specify the entry by its ID or by any unique set of case-insensitive substrings of its title.

The user command works identically for usernames.

Command line help

Use the --help flag to view Ironclad's command line help, including a list of all available commands:

ironclad --help

Use the help command to view detailed help for any individual command:

ironclad help <command>