Notary client configuration file

This document is for power users of the Notary client who want to facilitate CLI interaction or specify custom options.

The configuration file for Notary client normally resides at ~/.notary/config.json, but the path to a different configuration file can be specified using the -c or --configFile command line flag.

Overview of the file

In addition to the configuration file format, please see the optional password environment variables that the Notary client can take for ease of use.

Here is a full client configuration file example; please click on the top level JSON keys to learn more about the configuration section corresponding to that key:

{
  "trust_dir" : "~/.docker/trust",
  "remote_server": {
    "url": "https://my-notary-server.my-private-registry.com",
    "root_ca": "./fixtures/root-ca.crt",
    "tls_client_cert": "./fixtures/secure.example.com.crt",
    "tls_client_key": "./fixtures/secure.example.com.crt"
  },
  "trust_pinning": {
    "certs": {
      "docker.com/notary": ["49cf5c6404a35fa41d5a5aa2ce539dfee0d7a2176d0da488914a38603b1f4292"]
    }
  }
}

trust_dir section (optional)

The trust_dir specifies the location (as an absolute path or a path relative to the directory of the configuration file) where the TUF metadata and private keys will be stored.

This is normally defaults to ~/.notary, but specifying ~/.docker/trust facilitates interoperability with content trust.

Note that this option can be overridden with the command line flag --trustDir.

remote_server section (optional)

The remote_server specifies how to connect to a Notary server to download metadata updates and publish metadata changes.

Remote server example:

"remote_server": {
  "url": "https://my-notary-server.my-private-registry.com",
  "root_ca": "./fixtures/root-ca.crt",
  "tls_client_cert": "./fixtures/secure.example.com.crt",
  "tls_client_key": "./fixtures/secure.example.com.crt"
}

trust_pinning section (optional)

The trust_pinning specifies how to bootstrap trust for the root of a Notary client’s trusted collection.

This section is optional, Notary will use TOFU over HTTPS by default and trust certificates in the downloaded root file.

In this section, one can provide specific certificates to pin to, or a CA to pin to as a root of trust for a GUN. Multiple sections can be specified, but the pinned certificates will take highest priority for validation, followed by the pinned CA, followed by TOFUS (TOFU over HTTPS). The diagram below describes this validation flow:

Only one trust pinning option will be used to validate a GUN even if multiple sections are specified, and any validation failure will result in a failed bootstrapping of the repo.

Environment variables (optional)

The following environment variables containing signing key passphrases can be used to facilitate Notary client CLI interaction. If provided, these passwords will be used initially to sign TUF metadata. If the passphrase is incorrect, you will be prompted to enter the correct passphrase.

Please note that if provided, the passphrase in NOTARY_DELEGATION_PASSPHRASE will be attempted for all delegation roles that notary attempts to sign with.

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