> putting secrets into environment variables in the first place - that is apparently acceptable to them and sets off a red flag for me

Isn't that standard? The other options I've seen are .env files (amazing dev experience but not as secure), and AWS Secrets Manager and similar competition like Infisical. Even in the latter, you need keys to authenticate with the secrets manager and I believe it's recommended to store those as env vars.

Edit: Formatting

You can use native authentication methods with Infisical that don't require you to use keys to authenticate with your secrets manager: - https://infisical.com/docs/documentation/platform/identities... - https://infisical.com/docs/documentation/platform/identities...

[dead]