A Secret is a resource for sensitive configuration, with access controlled by the surrounding cluster. Base64 encoding in a manifest is reversible and doesn't make a value safe to publish. This course uses fictional tokens only. Use stringData for readable input when appropriate, then connect the consuming container through a Secret reference. Both the resource name and the selected key must exist. A valid-looking reference to the wrong key produces a configuration failure before the application can start. Your tasks separate credential creation from consumption and keep the value out of image defaults and ordinary ConfigMaps.