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macOS data protection keychain for Electron apps

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Hey HN,I've been working on Hansel [1] (an encrypted personal data store you can query with agents), and there wasn't a good way to use the modern macOS Data Protection Keychain.Electron's safeStorage [2] uses the legacy file-based keychain, which allows other apps/agents to query it with the `security` CLI. Not great when you have a dozen agents running in the background! The Data Protection Keychain is nice because it limits access via code-signing access groups and lets you set access rules like Touch ID and/or password.1: https://hansel.so/2. https://www.electronjs.org/docs/latest/api/safe-storage

HN · launched Aug 18, 2026 · 24 upvotes (top 22%) · 0 views

Niche: encryption and cryptography tools · 147 launches, 21 in the last 7 days ▲ +40% · Explore this niche →

Category and tags
  • Horizontal
  • Dev tools
  • Developer
  • Not AI
  • Hobby / open-source project

Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗

More like this: all 147 launches in encryption and cryptography tools →

Could you build this?

Partial Integrating macOS Data Protection Keychain into Electron requires writing native Objective-C/C++ Node native addons (N-API) and dealing with macOS entitlements and code-signing.

What it would actually take: This requires a native Node.js addon (via N-API / node-gyp) interfacing with Apple's `Security.framework` (`SecItemAdd`, `kSecAttrAccessible`), avoiding the legacy `SecKeychain` API. The challenging aspects include dealing with hardened runtime requirements, sandboxing entitlements, code signing identities, and multi-threaded IPC between Node.js and macOS security daemons. It requires specialized knowledge of macOS native APIs and C++ Node addon architecture.

Discussion

3 comments analyzed.

Concerns raised: Security risk with CLI accessing safeStorage on distributed agents, Limited to macOS, defeats Electron's cross-platform purpose, Lacks Linux and Windows support

Feature requests: Expand support to Linux and Windows equivalents

Competitors

Other products that read as similar to this one : 193 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.

Attention rank: #47 of 194 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).

Launched 292 days after the earliest competitor.

  • Securelytix Data VaultKey · ph · 2026-09-10 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.45
  • Safe8bit · ph · 2026-11-10 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.43
  • MyPWD Database · ph · 2026-11-14 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.42
  • ULDA · hn · 2026-10-19 · 21 upvotes · similarity 0.41
  • SecureKit Private Vault · ph · 2026-09-22 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.40
  • Fydra · ph · 2026-11-12 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.40
  • Security Vault · ph · 2026-10-26 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.39
  • Klaus · hn · 2026-03-11 · 160 upvotes · similarity 0.39

Related data

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