hexpass

Generate cryptographically secure hexadecimal passwords and secrets.

Install

Using npm:

npm install -g hexpass

Or run directly with npx:

npx hexpass

Usage

hexpass [length]
hexpass --bytes <n>
hexpass --count <n>
hexpass --env <NAME>
hexpass --json
hexpass --help
hexpass --version

• Default: hexpass outputs a 32-character hex string.
• hexpass 64 outputs a 64-character string.
• hexpass 33 supports odd lengths (generates the necessary extra byte and truncates to the requested number of hex characters).
• hexpass --bytes 16 uses 16 random bytes (32 hex characters).
• hexpass 32 --count 5 generates 5 secrets, each on its own line.
• hexpass 48 --env JWT_SECRET outputs JWT_SECRET=<secret> format.
• hexpass 32 --json outputs a JSON object with length, bytes, and hex fields (single secret only).

Options

| Option | Description | | --- | --- | | length | Desired hex string length (default 32, max 1024) | | --bytes <n> | Generate from n bytes (output has n×2 characters) | | --count <n>, -n | Generate n secrets (default 1, max 100) | | --env <NAME>, -e | Output as NAME=secret instead of raw secret (only valid for single secret) | | --json, -j | Output as JSON object (single secret only; incompatible with --env and --copy) | | --copy, -c | Copy the generated hex string to the clipboard (single secret only) | | --help, -h | Show usage information | | --version, -v | Show version number |

Notes on compatibility

• --json is only supported for single-secret output (--count must be 1).
• --env and --json are incompatible — use one or the other depending on whether you want an assignment string or structured data.
• --copy works only for single-secret output and is incompatible with --json.

Examples

# Quickly generate a secret (default 32 chars)
hexpass

# Generate a longer secret
hexpass 64

# Use explicit byte count (generates n * 2 hex chars)
hexpass --bytes 32 > api-key.txt

# Generate and copy a secret (single secret)
hexpass 48 --copy

# Generate multiple secrets in one go
hexpass 32 --count 5

# Output as environment variable format
hexpass 48 --env JWT_SECRET
# Output: JWT_SECRET=a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1f2a3b4c5d6e7f8a9b0c1d2e3f

# Output as JSON for automation (single secret)
hexpass 32 --json
# Output: {"length":32,"bytes":16,"hex":"a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1f2a3b4c5d6"}

Security

hexpass always uses crypto.randomBytes() from Node.js for cryptographically strong randomness. No weak sources like Math.random() are used.

Testing

The repository includes a small CLI test script used during development. You can exercise common invocations with:

npm test

This runs several hexpass variants to validate behavior (lengths, bytes, --count, --env, and --json).

Version

This README reflects the changes introduced in version 1.0.1 (modular refactor and new CLI options).

License

MIT