See What Is Stored in a Vault with vault list
vault list prints one line per stored file with its size, modification time and name. This guide reads the output, narrows it with a prefix and explains why some records never show.
The route
Jump straight to the step you need, or tick off Done means at the end.
Allow about five minutes. You need a key and a vault with at least one file. Nothing is changed, and it takes only a shared lock, so it can run alongside other readers.
1. List everything
$ vault list
$ vault lsls is an alias. Each line has a human-readable size, the modification time in local time at minute resolution, and the name, sorted by name.
2. Narrow with a prefix
$ vault list work
$ vault list work/2026/report.pdfA prefix that names a file shows just that file. One that names a folder shows the files under it.
3. Understand the silent skips
Records your passphrase cannot open are skipped without a word. That is by design: with the decoy passphrase you see only decoy files, and filler is never listed. An empty result can therefore mean the wrong passphrase as much as an empty vault.
Checkpoint
If a listing looks too short, confirm you typed the passphrase you meant. Nothing in the output tells you.
4. Point it elsewhere
$ vault list --vault /srv/vault --key /mnt/usb/vault.key5. Follow up
Fetch a file with vault-get(1), rename with vault-mv(1) or delete with vault-rm(1). Shared options are in vault(1).
Done means
- The listing matches what you expected to be stored.
- You know an incomplete listing may mean a different passphrase, not missing data.
- Prefixes were used to narrow output rather than filtering it with other tools.
- The correct key and vault paths were used.