Comparison

tene vs Infisical

Infisical needs a server (self-hosted or SaaS). tene runs on your machine. Same encryption guarantees, completely different ops surface.

Star on GitHub

Infisical is a solid open-source secret manager — but it is a server-side product. You either run their hosted SaaS or self-host the PostgreSQL-backed service. Either way, there's infrastructure to manage, a web dashboard to secure, and a user database to worry about.

tene takes a different approach: the secret manager is the CLI. There is no server. There is no database. The vault is a SQLite file on your machine encrypted with XChaCha20-Poly1305. You get the same encryption-at-rest guarantee as Infisical, without the ops overhead or the signup.

Where Infisical shines

Infisical's workspaces, approval flows, and dashboard are excellent for teams that want governance over secrets. Their integrations (k8s, Vercel, Terraform) and SDK are first-class. For a company of 20+ engineers with compliance requirements, Infisical is a better fit than tene.

Side-by-side

Feature-by-feature comparison. Every row is sourced from the official docs of each product — if you find something stale, open an issue.

DimensionteneInfisical
ArchitectureCLI + local SQLite vault (no server)Server + PostgreSQL + web dashboard (self-hosted or SaaS)
DeploymentSingle Go binaryDocker Compose / Kubernetes / managed SaaS
AI-editor integrationAuto-generates rules for Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, Gemini, CodexNone
Encryption at restXChaCha20-Poly1305 + Argon2id KDFAES-256 (server-side, with KMS on hosted)
Signup requiredNo (CLI is fully local)Yes (for hosted); not for self-hosted
Runtime injection`tene run -- <cmd>``infisical run -- <cmd>` (similar)
Open source licenseMITMIT (core) + Infisical License (enterprise features)
Team syncOptional E2E sync (Pro at app.tene.sh)Built-in (workspaces, RBAC, approval flows)
Offline usability100% offline CLIRequires connectivity to the Infisical server
Best forIndividual devs + small teams + AI-heavy workflowsMid-to-large teams wanting a central dashboard + RBAC

Where tene shines

tene owns two niches Infisical doesn't serve: (1) individual developers who don't want to stand up or pay for a server, and (2) AI-editor workflows where the threat model is secret leakage through LLM context windows. tene's auto-generated rule files (CLAUDE.md, .cursor/rules/tene.mdc, .windsurfrules, GEMINI.md, AGENTS.md) teach every major AI editor to call `tene run --` instead of reading `.env`.

You can use both

tene and Infisical are complements. Use Infisical as the organization-wide source of truth, and `infisical export | tene import` on developer machines so local workflows pick up AI-editor safety without losing the team's central dashboard. `tene run --` then becomes the local runtime wrapper that keeps secrets out of LLM context.

Migrate from Infisical to tene

Export Infisical secrets as .env, then import into tene. Infisical stays available for rollback.

  1. 1
    Export secrets from Infisical
    $ infisical export --format dotenv > .env
  2. 2
    Install tene
    $ curl -sSfL https://tene.sh/install.sh | sh
  3. 3
    Initialize a local vault
    $ tene init
  4. 4
    Import the .env
    $ tene import .env
  5. 5
    Delete the plaintext export
    $ rm .env
  6. 6
    Run your app through tene
    $ tene run -- npm start

After migration: If your team depends on Infisical's dashboard + RBAC, keep Infisical as the shared source and use tene just for local developer runtime + AI-editor safety. The two are complementary — tene doesn't try to replace server-side workspaces.

FAQ

Can I self-host tene's team sync?
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The CLI's team sync goes through app.tene.sh by default, with client-side encryption so the server never sees plaintext. Self-hosting the sync server is on the roadmap. In the meantime, you can use tene locally and Infisical server-side — they don't conflict.
Is tene open source like Infisical?
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Yes, the entire CLI is MIT licensed at github.com/tomo-kay/tene. Infisical's core is MIT as well, but some enterprise features use the Infisical License. Both are auditable.
What if I need RBAC?
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tene doesn't have RBAC (there's nothing to authorize on a local-only tool). If you need RBAC, use Infisical server-side and tene only for developer-machine runtime safety.
How does tene handle dynamic secrets (DB credentials with short TTL)?
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tene is optimized for long-lived developer secrets (API keys, OpenAI tokens, webhook keys). For short-TTL dynamic secrets, Infisical or HashiCorp Vault are the right tools.