open-vault/website/source/docs/concepts/dev-server.html.md

layout	page_title	sidebar_current	description
docs	Dev Server Mode	docs-concepts-devserver	The dev server in Vault can be used for development or to experiment with Vault.

"Dev" Server Mode

Vault can start itself as a server in "dev" mode. This dev-mode server requires no further setup, and your local vault CLI will be authenticated to talk to it. This makes it easy to experiment with Vault or start a Vault instance for development.

Every feature of Vault is available in "dev" mode. The "dev" flag just shortcircuits a lot of setup to insecure defaults.

~> Warning: Never, ever, ever run a "dev" mode server in production. It is insecure and will lose data on every restart (since it stores data in-memory). It is only made for development or experimentation.

Properties

The properties of the dev server:

• Initialized and unsealed - The server will be automatically initialized and unsealed. You don't need to use vault unseal. It is ready for use immediately.

• In-memory storage - All data is stored (encrypted) in-memory. Vault server doesn't require any file permissions.

• Bound to local address without TLS - The server is listening on 127.0.0.1:8200 (the default server address) without TLS.

• Automatically Authenticated - The server stores your root access token so vault CLI access is ready to go. If you are accessing Vault via the API, you'll need to authenticate using the token printed out.

• Single unseal key - The server is initialized with a single unseal key. The Vault is already unsealed, but if you want to experiement with seal/unseal, then only the single outputted key is required.

Use Case

The dev server should be used for experimentation with Vault features, such as different authentication backends, secret backends, audit backends, etc.

In addition to experimentation, the dev server is very easy to automate for development environments.