docs(secrets): add dedicated apply plan contract page

docs/cli/secrets.md

@@ -97,6 +97,10 @@ openclaw secrets apply --from /tmp/openclaw-secrets-plan.json --dry-run
 openclaw secrets apply --from /tmp/openclaw-secrets-plan.json --json
 ```
 
+Plan contract details (allowed target paths, validation rules, and failure semantics):
+
+- [Secrets Apply Plan Contract](/gateway/secrets-plan-contract)
+
 ## Why no rollback backups
 
 `secrets apply` intentionally does not write rollback backups containing old plaintext values.

docs/docs.json

@@ -1141,6 +1141,7 @@
                       "gateway/configuration-examples",
                       "gateway/authentication",
                       "gateway/secrets",
+                      "gateway/secrets-plan-contract",
                       "gateway/trusted-proxy-auth",
                       "gateway/health",
                       "gateway/heartbeat",

docs/gateway/index.md

@@ -19,6 +19,9 @@ Use this page for day-1 startup and day-2 operations of the Gateway service.
   <Card title="Secrets management" icon="key-round" href="/gateway/secrets">
     SecretRef contract, runtime snapshot behavior, and migrate/reload operations.
   </Card>
+  <Card title="Secrets plan contract" icon="shield-check" href="/gateway/secrets-plan-contract">
+    Exact `secrets apply` target/path rules and ref-only auth-profile behavior.
+  </Card>
 </CardGroup>
 
 ## 5-minute local startup

docs/gateway/secrets-plan-contract.md

@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+---
+summary: "Contract for `secrets apply` plans: allowed target paths, validation, and ref-only auth-profile behavior"
+read_when:
+  - Generating or reviewing `openclaw secrets apply` plan files
+  - Debugging `Invalid plan target path` errors
+  - Understanding how `keyRef` and `tokenRef` influence implicit provider discovery
+title: "Secrets Apply Plan Contract"
+---
+
+# Secrets apply plan contract
+
+This page defines the strict contract enforced by `openclaw secrets apply`.
+
+If a target does not match these rules, apply fails before mutating config.
+
+## Plan file shape
+
+`openclaw secrets apply --from <plan.json>` expects a `targets` array of plan targets:
+
+```json5
+{
+  version: 1,
+  protocolVersion: 1,
+  targets: [
+    {
+      type: "models.providers.apiKey",
+      path: "models.providers.openai.apiKey",
+      pathSegments: ["models", "providers", "openai", "apiKey"],
+      providerId: "openai",
+      ref: { source: "env", provider: "default", id: "OPENAI_API_KEY" },
+    },
+  ],
+}
+```
+
+## Allowed target types and paths
+
+| `target.type`                        | Allowed `target.path` shape                               | Optional id match rule                              |
+| ------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- |
+| `models.providers.apiKey`            | `models.providers.<providerId>.apiKey`                    | `providerId` must match `<providerId>` when present |
+| `skills.entries.apiKey`              | `skills.entries.<skillKey>.apiKey`                        | n/a                                                 |
+| `channels.googlechat.serviceAccount` | `channels.googlechat.serviceAccount`                      | `accountId` must be empty/omitted                   |
+| `channels.googlechat.serviceAccount` | `channels.googlechat.accounts.<accountId>.serviceAccount` | `accountId` must match `<accountId>` when present   |
+
+## Path validation rules
+
+Each target is validated with all of the following:
+
+- `type` must be one of the allowed target types above.
+- `path` must be a non-empty dot path.
+- `pathSegments` can be omitted. If provided, it must normalize to exactly the same path as `path`.
+- Forbidden segments are rejected: `__proto__`, `prototype`, `constructor`.
+- The normalized path must match one of the allowed path shapes for the target type.
+- If `providerId` / `accountId` is set, it must match the id encoded in the path.
+
+## Failure behavior
+
+If a target fails validation, apply exits with an error like:
+
+```text
+Invalid plan target path for models.providers.apiKey: models.providers.openai.baseUrl
+```
+
+No partial mutation is committed for that invalid target path.
+
+## Ref-only auth profiles and implicit providers
+
+Implicit provider discovery also considers auth profiles that store refs instead of plaintext credentials:
+
+- `type: "api_key"` profiles can use `keyRef` (for example env-backed refs).
+- `type: "token"` profiles can use `tokenRef`.
+
+Behavior:
+
+- For API-key providers (for example `volcengine`, `byteplus`), ref-only profiles can still activate implicit provider entries.
+- For `github-copilot`, if the profile has no plaintext token, discovery will try `tokenRef` env resolution before token exchange.
+
+## Operator checks
+
+```bash
+# Validate plan without writes
+openclaw secrets apply --from /tmp/openclaw-secrets-plan.json --dry-run
+
+# Then apply for real
+openclaw secrets apply --from /tmp/openclaw-secrets-plan.json
+```
+
+If apply fails with an invalid target path message, regenerate the plan with `openclaw secrets configure` or fix the target path to one of the allowed shapes above.
+
+## Related docs
+
+- [Secrets Management](/gateway/secrets)
+- [CLI `secrets`](/cli/secrets)
+- [Configuration Reference](/gateway/configuration-reference)

docs/gateway/secrets.md

@@ -355,6 +355,10 @@ openclaw secrets apply --from /tmp/openclaw-secrets-plan.json
 openclaw secrets apply --from /tmp/openclaw-secrets-plan.json --dry-run
 ```
 
+For strict target/path contract details and exact rejection rules, see:
+
+- [Secrets Apply Plan Contract](/gateway/secrets-plan-contract)
+
 ## One-way safety policy
 
 OpenClaw intentionally does **not** write rollback backups that contain pre-migration plaintext secret values.
@@ -376,6 +380,7 @@ For static credentials, OpenClaw runtime no longer depends on plaintext `auth.js
 ## Related docs
 
 - CLI commands: [secrets](/cli/secrets)
+- Plan contract details: [Secrets Apply Plan Contract](/gateway/secrets-plan-contract)
 - Auth setup: [Authentication](/gateway/authentication)
 - Security posture: [Security](/gateway/security)
 - Environment precedence: [Environment Variables](/help/environment)