Every time a new developer joins your team, there is a moment of risk: they need access to databases, APIs, cloud services, and other systems that require credentials. How you handle that credential transfer matters.
The Onboarding Credentials Challenge
New developers need access to staging databases, API keys for third-party services, SSH keys for servers, environment variables for local development, and cloud console credentials. The challenge is getting all of this to them securely — especially if they are remote.
Typical Insecure Methods (and Why They Fail)
Slack Messages
Sending credentials in Slack means they are stored in the message history indefinitely. Other team members can see them, and they are searchable.
Shared Documents
Google Docs or Notion pages with credentials create a permanent, shareable record. If the document permissions change or the link is shared, credentials are exposed.
Email stores passwords in sent and received folders, is often unencrypted in transit, and creates backups on multiple servers.
Verbal/Call
While secure from a digital perspective, dictating long API keys or database connection strings over a call is error-prone and impractical.
A Secure Onboarding Checklist
Secrets Manager Setup (HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager)
For ongoing access to production secrets, use a dedicated secrets manager. These tools provide access control, audit logging, and automatic rotation. New developers should be granted access to the vault, not given individual credentials to copy.
One-Time Links for Initial Access (PassLink)
For the initial credential exchange — the staging database password they need to set up their local environment, the API key for a test service — use a self-destructing one-time link. The credential is encrypted, viewed once, and destroyed. No trace remains in any messaging system.
Rotating Credentials After Sharing
After the onboarding period, rotate any credentials that were shared directly. This limits the window of exposure and ensures that the shared credentials are no longer valid.
Step-by-Step with PassLink
- 1Gather the credentials the new developer needs for initial setup
- 2Go to PassLink and paste each credential into the encrypted form
- 3Set a short expiration time (1 hour) and enable password protection
- 4Send the link via Slack or email — it is just a URL, the secret is encrypted
- 5Share the link password via a separate channel (e.g., voice call)
- 6Once the developer has set up, rotate any shared credentials
Conclusion
Developer onboarding does not have to be a security gap. By combining secrets managers for ongoing access with one-time links for initial credential sharing, you can get new team members productive quickly without compromising your security posture.