Azure Key Vault SDK for Python
Secure storage and management for secrets, cryptographic keys, and certificates.
Installation
Environment Variables
Authentication & Lifecycle
🔑 Two rules apply to every code sample below:
- Prefer
DefaultAzureCredential. It works locally (Azure CLI / VS Code / Developer CLI) and in Azure (managed identity, workload identity) with no code change. Avoid connection strings, account/API keys — they bypass Entra audit and rotation.
- Local dev:
DefaultAzureCredentialworks as-is.- Production: set
AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS=prod(orAZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS=<specific_credential>) to constrain the credential chain to production-safe credentials.- Wrap every client in a context manager so HTTP transports, sockets, and token caches are released deterministically:
- Sync:
with <Client>(...) as client:- Async:
async with <Client>(...) as client:andasync with DefaultAzureCredential() as credential:(fromazure.identity.aio)Snippets may abbreviate this setup, but production code should always follow both rules.
Secrets
SecretClient Setup
Secret Operations
Keys
KeyClient Setup
Key Operations
Cryptographic Operations
Certificates
CertificateClient Setup
Certificate Operations
Client Types Table
Async Clients
Error Handling
Best Practices
- Pick sync OR async and stay consistent. Do not mix
azure.xxxsync clients withazure.xxx.aioasync clients in the same call path. Choose one mode per module. - Always use context managers for clients and async credentials. Wrap every client in
with Client(...) as client:(sync) orasync with Client(...) as client:(async). For asyncDefaultAzureCredentialfromazure.identity.aio, also useasync with credential:so tokens and transports are cleaned up. - Use
DefaultAzureCredentialfor code that runs locally. Use a specific token credential for code that runs in Azure. - Use managed identity in Azure-hosted applications
- Enable soft-delete for recovery (enabled by default)
- Use RBAC over access policies for fine-grained control
- Rotate secrets regularly using versioning
- Use Key Vault references in App Service/Functions config
- Cache secrets appropriately to reduce API calls
- Use async clients for high-throughput scenarios

