AGE-INSPECT(1) General Commands Manual AGE-INSPECT(1)

age-inspect - inspect age(1) encrypted files

age-inspect [--json] [INPUT]

age-inspect reads an age(1) encrypted file from INPUT (or standard input) and displays metadata about it without decrypting.

This includes the recipient types, whether it uses post-quantum encryption, and a size breakdown of the file components.

Output machine-readable JSON instead of human-readable text.
Print the version and exit.

When --json is specified, the output is a JSON object with these fields:

○
version: The age format version (e.g., "age-encryption.org/v1").
○
postquantum: Whether the file uses post-quantum encryption: "yes", "no", or "unknown".
○
armor: Boolean indicating whether the file is ASCII-armored.
○
stanza_types: Array of recipient stanza type strings (e.g., ["X25519"] or ["mlkem768x25519"]).
○
sizes: Object containing size information in bytes:
○
header: Size of the age header.
○
armor: Armor encoding overhead (0 if not armored).
○
overhead: Stream encryption overhead.
○
min_payload, max_payload: Payload size bounds (currently always matching).
○
min_padding, max_padding: Padding size bounds (currently always 0).
The fields add up to the total size of the file.

Inspect an encrypted file:

$ age-inspect secrets.age
secrets.age is an age file, version "age-encryption.org/v1".
This file is encrypted to the following recipient types:
- "mlkem768x25519"
This file uses post-quantum encryption.
Size breakdown (assuming it decrypts successfully):
    Header                      1627 bytes
    Encryption overhead           32 bytes
    Payload                       42 bytes
                        -------------------
    Total                       1701 bytes
Tip: for machine-readable output, use --json.

Get JSON output for scripting:

$ age-inspect --json secrets.age
{
    "version": "age-encryption.org/v1",
    "postquantum": "yes",
    "armor": false,
    "stanza_types": [
        "mlkem768x25519"
    ],
    "sizes": {
        "header": 1627,
        "armor": 0,
        "overhead": 32,
        "min_payload": 42,
        "max_payload": 42,
        "min_padding": 0,
        "max_padding": 0
    }
}

age(1), age-keygen(1)

Filippo Valsorda age@filippo.io

December 2025