Argon — Self-Hosted Zero-Knowledge Team Password Manager

Argon is a self-hosted, end-to-end encrypted password manager built for teams that refuse to trust a third party with their secrets. Every credential is encrypted client-side before it ever touches the wire. The server stores ciphertext it cannot decrypt — not during transit, not at rest, not ever. Single binary. BoltDB storage. mTLS transport. Zero knowledge. Argon ships as a single Go binary for the server and a native desktop app (Wails v2) for every platform. No Electron, no cloud dependency, no subscription. Install it on your own infrastructure — airgapped, on-prem, or in the cloud — and own your secrets completely.

Why Argon

Most password managers ask you to trust their cloud. Argon asks you to trust math.

Zero-knowledge architecture — The server never sees plaintext credentials. All encryption and decryption happens on the client. The server stores opaque blobs it cannot read.
Self-hosted — Runs on your hardware, your network, your rules. No phone-home, no telemetry, no vendor lock-in.
Airgap-ready — Designed to operate in fully disconnected environments. No external DNS, no cloud APIs, no internet access required.
Team-native — Built from day one for teams: shared vaults, role-based access, groups, audit logging, and granular ACLs.
mTLS everywhere — Every connection between client and server uses mutual TLS with certificates issued by Argon’s built-in Certificate Authority. No anonymous connections.
No browser required — Native desktop app, browser extension, and CLI. The browser extension works alongside the app, not instead of it.

Feature Overview

Encryption

Argon2id KDF, X25519 key exchange, XChaCha20-Poly1305 envelope encryption

Access Control

Teams, groups, roles, granular ACLs with bitmask permissions and expiring grants

Vault Management

Personal and team vaults, folders, tags, favorites, trash with soft-delete, entry versioning

File Sharing

Share files with Argon users via envelope encryption or with anyone via zero-knowledge magic links

Browser Extension

Manifest V3 extension with inline autofill, form detection, and in-page credential picker

Emergency Access

Dead-man switch with configurable countdown, escrow key wrapping, and automatic invite dispatch

Authentication

Argon2id challenge-response, FIDO2/WebAuthn passkeys, YubiKey support, MFA with TOTP

Audit & Compliance

Tamper-evident audit log with signed entries, category filtering, and full actor attribution

Mobile & CLI

Desktop app (macOS, Windows, Linux), browser extension, CLI admin tool, mobile apps (coming soon)

Quick Start

Build the server

git clone https://github.com/KrakenTech-LLC/argon.git
cd argon
go build -o argon-server ./server/cmd/argon-server/

Build the desktop app

cd gui
wails build

The compiled binary is in gui/build/bin/.

First run

./argon-server --data /var/lib/argon

On first launch, Argon initializes its Certificate Authority, generates the server TLS certificate, and creates the BoltDB database. The first user to register is automatically granted admin privileges.

Default listeners

Service	Default Address	Description
gRPC (mTLS)	`:50051`	Primary API — desktop app and CLI connect here with mutual TLS
gRPC-Web (TLS)	`:50052`	Browser extension and share download pages connect here

Environment variables

Variable	Default	Description
`ARGON_GRPC_ADDR`	`:50051`	gRPC listen address
`ARGON_DATA_DIR`	`./data`	Database and CA storage directory
`ARGON_TLS_HOSTS`	`localhost`	Comma-separated hostnames/IPs for the server TLS certificate
`ARGON_SESSION_EXPIRY`	`24h`	Session token lifetime
`ARGON_RATE_LIMIT`	`10`	Requests per second per client
`ARGON_RATE_BURST`	`20`	Rate limiter burst allowance
`ARGON_PUBLIC_URL`	(derived)	Public base URL for share links (e.g., `https://argon.corp.local:50052`)

Architecture

                Desktop App                    Browser Extension
                (Wails v2)                     (Manifest V3)
                    |                               |
                    | mTLS (port 50051)             | TLS (port 50052)
                    |                               |
                    v                               v
            +----------------------------------------------+
            |              Argon Server (Go)                |
            |                                              |
            |  +-----------+  +----------+  +----------+   |
            |  |  Auth     |  |  Vault   |  |  Share   |   |
            |  |  Service  |  |  Service |  |  Service |   |
            |  +-----------+  +----------+  +----------+   |
            |  +-----------+  +----------+  +----------+   |
            |  |  Team     |  |  Admin   |  |  Passkey |   |
            |  |  Service  |  |  Service |  |  Service |   |
            |  +-----------+  +----------+  +----------+   |
            |  +-----------+  +----------+  +----------+   |
            |  |  Emergency|  |  Sync    |  |  Audit   |   |
            |  |  Service  |  |  Service |  |  Service |   |
            |  +-----------+  +----------+  +----------+   |
            |                                              |
            |  +-----------------------------------------+ |
            |  |        Built-in Certificate Authority   | |
            |  +-----------------------------------------+ |
            |  +-----------------------------------------+ |
            |  |           BoltDB (bbolt)                | |
            |  +-----------------------------------------+ |
            +----------------------------------------------+

Components

Component	Technology	Purpose
Server	Go, gRPC, BoltDB	All business logic, encrypted storage, certificate management
Desktop App	Wails v2 (Go + vanilla JS)	Native app, all crypto operations happen here
Browser Extension	Manifest V3, vanilla JS	Autofill, inline credential picker, passkey auth
CLI	Go	Server administration, user management, backup/restore
Transport	mTLS (gRPC) + TLS (gRPC-Web)	Mutual authentication on desktop, TLS on browser

Dependencies

Module	Purpose
`go.etcd.io/bbolt`	Embedded key-value store (BoltDB)
`google.golang.org/grpc`	RPC framework
`google.golang.org/protobuf`	Protocol buffer serialization
`golang.org/x/crypto`	Argon2id, XChaCha20-Poly1305, HKDF, X25519
`github.com/oklog/ulid/v2`	Time-sortable unique identifiers
`github.com/improbable-eng/grpc-web`	gRPC-Web wrapper for browser access
`github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2`	Native desktop app framework

​Argon — Self-Hosted Zero-Knowledge Team Password Manager

​Why Argon

​Feature Overview