Does AI-Proxy now support Reference Format replacement for retrieving secrets from GCP Secret Manager?

[mohamedDev]

Hello,
Does AI-Proxy now support Reference Format replacement for retrieving secrets from GCP Secret Manager?

Would the following example work?

name: ai-proxy
enable: true
config:
provider: gemini
auth:
header:
Authorization: "Bearer $secret://gcp/xxxxx/apisix-sa-ai-providers-api-key/gemini_key"
logging:
summaries: true
payloads: false
timeout: 300000

In other words, can APISIX retrieve the secret from GCP Secret Manager and replace the $secret://... reference with the actual secret value in the Authorization header?
@dosu

[dosubot[bot]]

Yes, $secret:// references work with the ai-proxy plugin, so your example configuration would work — with one prerequisite.

What changed: PR #13312 introduced centralized secret resolution for all plugins. Previously, only specific plugins (like key-auth, limit-count, etc.) explicitly called fetch_secrets(). Now, plugin.filter() resolves $secret:// and $env:// references in every plugin's configuration before execution — including ai-proxy [1].

What you need to set up first: Register GCP Secret Manager as a secret provider resource in APISIX via the Admin API [2]:

curl "http://127.0.0.1:9180/apisix/admin/secrets/gcp/xxxxx" -X PUT -d '{
  "auth_config": {
    "client_email": "...",
    "private_key": "...",
    "project_id": "my-project"
  }
}'

Once registered, your ai-proxy config with $secret://gcp/xxxxx/apisix-sa-ai-providers-api-key/gemini_key will resolve correctly. The reference format is $secret://gcp/{confid}/{secret_name}/{sub_key}, where {confid} matches the ID used when registering the GCP secret resource, {secret_name} is the secret name in GCP Secret Manager, and {sub_key} is the JSON key within the secret value [3].

One thing to watch for: If the secret reference fails to resolve (e.g., wrong credentials or missing secret resource), APISIX will use the literal $secret://... string as the header value and log an error — it won't silently succeed [4]. So check the error logs if your provider rejects the request.

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[mohamedDev]

@dosu
The configuration as it is currently set up does not work as intended

[dosubot[bot]]

@mohamedDev That makes sense — there are two issues with the configuration you shared:

1. gemini is not a supported provider in open-source APISIX

The ai-proxy plugin schema in the open-source repo only accepts these providers: openai, deepseek, aimlapi, and openai-compatible [1]. There is no gemini driver in the codebase [2]. The Gemini example from the docs is explicitly noted as applying "only to API7 Enterprise from version 3.9.2 and is not applicable in APISIX" [3] — apologies for the confusion in my earlier answer.

2. The logging field is not in the open-source schema either

The open-source ai-proxy schema does not include logging.summaries / logging.payloads fields [4]. That feature also appears to be API7 Enterprise-only.

Your options:

• Use openai-compatible as the provider and point it at the Gemini OpenAI-compatible endpoint (https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai/chat/completions) via the override.endpoint field [3]. The $secret://gcp/... reference for the auth header will still work, since secret resolution is handled centrally for all plugins [5].

Here's what that would look like:

name: ai-proxy
enable: true
config:
  provider: openai-compatible
  auth:
    header:
      Authorization: "$secret://gcp/xxxxx/apisix-sa-ai-providers-api-key/gemini_key"
  override:
    endpoint: "https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai/chat/completions"
  options:
    model: gemini-2.5-flash

• Use API7 Enterprise if you need native gemini provider support and the logging configuration.

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[mohamedDev]

@dosu,
My problem is this config line Authorization: "$secret://gcp/xxxxx/apisix-sa-ai-providers-api-key/gemini_key"
So, references are not supported with the ai-proxy.

[dosubot[bot]]

@mohamedDev you're right — $secret:// references are not currently supported in the ai-proxy plugin's auth.header fields. The plugin's base.lua passes ai_instance.auth.header directly to the AI driver without resolving secret references [1], and the ai-proxy.lua plugin itself never calls fetch_secrets [2]. The schema also defines auth.header values as plain strings with no secret-aware handling [3].

The good news is that PR #13312 adds centralized secret resolution for all plugins — including ai-proxy — so $secret:// and $env:// references will work in any plugin string field without plugins needing to handle it themselves. That PR has been merged, but it hasn't shipped in a stable release yet.

For now, your options are:

1. Pass the API key directly in the config (less secure but works today).
2. Watch for the next APISIX release that includes PR feat: extend secret references to all plugins with central resolution #13312, which will make $secret://gcp/... work seamlessly in ai-proxy auth headers.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[jmrplens]

Short answer: yes, both parts work, and both of the things you were told above are wrong for current APISIX. They also both changed in the same release, 3.17.0, which is probably where the confusion comes from. I built this and measured it rather than reading the code alone, on 3.18.0 with etcd and a real secret manager.

$secret:// in ai-proxy's auth.header does resolve

Route with provider: openai-compatible, auth.header.Authorization set to $secret://vault/demo/aiproxy/gemini_key, upstream pointed at a server that echoes what it receives. The upstream got:

Authorization: CLAVE-SECRETA-REAL-12345

The reference was substituted, not forwarded. The mechanism is #13312 (merged 2026-04-30), which moved resolution into plugin.filter(): it calls resolve_plugin_conf on every plugin conf in the chain, which calls secret.fetch_secrets, which walks the conf recursively. That recursion is what reaches a nested field like auth.header, and it is why the plugin does not need a fetch_secrets call of its own. You can see it in a stack trace when resolution fails:

secret.lua:332  collect_secret_values
secret.lua:321  _collect_secret_values   <- recursing into nested tables
plugin.lua:106  resolve_plugin_conf
plugin.lua:655  filter

The same PR also relaxed ai-proxy's own schema check, adding if sa_json and not secret.is_secret_ref(sa_json), precisely so a secret reference is accepted where a literal was expected before.

gemini is a supported provider

Also true from 3.17.0. apisix/plugins/ai-providers/schema.lua lists:

_M.providers = {
    "openai", "deepseek", "aimlapi", "anthropic",
    "openai-compatible", "azure-openai", "openrouter",
    "gemini", "vertex-ai", "bedrock",
}

That file does not exist at all in 3.16.0, which is why the older answer about "only openai, deepseek, aimlapi and openai-compatible" was once correct. I confirmed it end to end: a route with provider: gemini is accepted, and a request against it reaches Google, which answers with its own error shape rather than an APISIX one:

{"error": {"code": 400, "message": "Missing or invalid Authorization header.", "status": "INVALID_ARGUMENT"}}

That is Google replying, so the driver exists and proxied the call.

The part worth knowing, because it looks exactly like "not supported"

When a reference cannot be resolved, APISIX logs it and then forwards the literal string as the header value. During my first attempt the upstream received:

authorization: $secret://vault/demo/aiproxy/gemini_key

with this in the error log:

secret.lua:244: retrieve_refs(): failed to resolve secret reference:
  $secret://vault/demo/aiproxy/gemini_key, field: Authorization, err: no value

From the provider's side that is indistinguishable from "references are not supported here", and it is my best guess at what you actually hit. Before concluding anything, grep your error log for retrieve_refs. If the line is there, the feature is working and the lookup is what is failing.

In my case the cause was the secret path: with a Vault KV v2 mount the lookup returns no value, because the value is nested one level deeper than the provider expects. Moving the same secret to a KV v1 mount made it resolve immediately, with nothing else changed. Your GCP equivalent would be the resource path and version in the reference.

Scope of what I tested

I used Vault rather than GCP Secret Manager, since I do not have credentials for yours. The resolution layer is provider agnostic, it is the same fetch_secrets path in plugin.filter() for every manager, so the auth.header question is answered. What I did not exercise is the GCP provider itself, so if the reference still does not resolve for you after checking the log, the remaining suspect is the GCP registration rather than ai-proxy.

Which APISIX version are you on? If it is 3.16 or older, both of the earlier answers are correct for you and upgrading to 3.17.0 or later is what changes them.