How To Manage User Secrets In Asp.net Core May 2026

To use user secrets, you must first initialize your project. This adds a UserSecretsId to your .csproj file, which maps your project to a specific folder in your local user profile.

In ASP.NET Core, WebApplication.CreateBuilder automatically includes the user secrets configuration source when the environment is set to . You can access these secrets using the standard Configuration API or the Options Pattern . Using IConfiguration: How to manage user secrets in ASP.NET Core

The tool in ASP.NET Core provides a safe way to store this information during local development by keeping it outside your project directory. 1. Enable Secret Storage To use user secrets, you must first initialize your project

Once initialized, secrets are stored in a secrets.json file located in your user profile folder (e.g., %APPDATA%\Microsoft\UserSecrets\ on Windows or ~/.microsoft/usersecrets/ on macOS/Linux). To use user secrets