diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 8f15ac53..13f95abc 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -36,6 +36,12 @@ of the new YAML fields below until the version that ships them.
   ([crates/sbproxy-observe/src/alerting/burn_rate.rs],
   [e2e/tests/slo_burn_rate.rs])
 
+- **Vault-style quote-token seed references.** `ai_crawl_control.quote_token.secret_ref`
+  now accepts `secret:` references resolved through `sbproxy-vault`
+  with the existing environment fallback, in addition to the older
+  `secret_ref.env` and inline `seed_hex` paths.
+  ([crates/sbproxy-modules/src/policy/ai_crawl.rs])
+
 - **Operator first-24-hours quickstart.** Added a concise
   `docs/quickstart-operator.md` covering deploy, `/readyz`, metrics,
   Grafana, logs, and rollback, linked from the README and Kubernetes
diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index fc052ed3..cdc09e4f 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -5847,6 +5847,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "sbproxy-plugin",
  "sbproxy-security",
  "sbproxy-transport",
+ "sbproxy-vault",
  "serde",
  "serde_json",
  "sha2 0.11.0",
diff --git a/crates/sbproxy-modules/Cargo.toml b/crates/sbproxy-modules/Cargo.toml
index 8929775d..139f4ea9 100644
--- a/crates/sbproxy-modules/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/sbproxy-modules/Cargo.toml
@@ -144,6 +144,7 @@ tokio-util = { workspace = true }
 # XREAD with BLOCK; the AsyncKVStore facade in sbproxy-platform only
 # exposes GET/SET-shaped operations.
 redis = { workspace = true }
+sbproxy-vault = { version = "0.1.0", path = "../sbproxy-vault" }
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 smallvec.workspace = true
diff --git a/crates/sbproxy-modules/src/policy/ai_crawl.rs b/crates/sbproxy-modules/src/policy/ai_crawl.rs
index 37d2dfa3..3e5e58f0 100644
--- a/crates/sbproxy-modules/src/policy/ai_crawl.rs
+++ b/crates/sbproxy-modules/src/policy/ai_crawl.rs
@@ -1056,7 +1056,26 @@ pub struct LedgerYamlConfig {
 #[derive(Debug, Clone, Deserialize)]
 pub struct LedgerSecretRef {
     /// Environment variable name that holds the hex-encoded HMAC key.
-    pub env: String,
+    #[serde(default)]
+    pub env: Option<String>,
+    /// Logical `secret:<name>` reference resolved through sbproxy-vault.
+    #[serde(default)]
+    pub secret: Option<String>,
+}
+
+fn resolve_secret_ref(sref: &LedgerSecretRef, context: &str) -> anyhow::Result<String> {
+    if let Some(env) = sref.env.as_deref() {
+        return std::env::var(env)
+            .map_err(|_| anyhow::anyhow!("{context}.secret_ref.env: env var '{env}' not set"));
+    }
+    if let Some(secret) = sref.secret.as_deref() {
+        let resolver = sbproxy_vault::SecretResolver::new(None, std::collections::HashMap::new())
+            .with_fallback(sbproxy_vault::ResolveFallback::Env);
+        return resolver
+            .resolve(&format!("secret:{secret}"))
+            .map_err(|e| anyhow::anyhow!("{context}.secret_ref.secret: {e}"));
+    }
+    anyhow::bail!("{context}.secret_ref requires either env or secret")
 }
 
 /// Retry-policy override for the HTTP ledger client.
@@ -1879,17 +1898,12 @@ fn build_multi_rail_plan(
 
     // --- Quote-token signer ---
     let seed_hex = if let Some(sref) = &qt_yaml.secret_ref {
-        std::env::var(&sref.env).map_err(|_| {
-            anyhow::anyhow!(
-                "ai_crawl_control.quote_token.secret_ref.env: env var '{}' not set",
-                sref.env
-            )
-        })?
+        resolve_secret_ref(sref, "ai_crawl_control.quote_token")?
     } else if let Some(inline) = &qt_yaml.seed_hex {
         inline.clone()
     } else {
         anyhow::bail!(
-            "ai_crawl_control.quote_token requires either secret_ref.env or seed_hex (32-byte ed25519 seed, hex-encoded)"
+            "ai_crawl_control.quote_token requires either secret_ref.env, secret_ref.secret, or seed_hex (32-byte ed25519 seed, hex-encoded)"
         );
     };
     let seed_bytes = hex::decode(seed_hex.trim())
@@ -1949,17 +1963,12 @@ fn build_http_ledger(yaml: LedgerYamlConfig) -> anyhow::Result<HttpLedger> {
     use std::time::Duration;
 
     let key_hex = if let Some(ref sref) = yaml.secret_ref {
-        std::env::var(&sref.env).map_err(|_| {
-            anyhow::anyhow!(
-                "ai_crawl_control.ledger.secret_ref.env: env var '{}' not set",
-                sref.env
-            )
-        })?
+        resolve_secret_ref(sref, "ai_crawl_control.ledger")?
     } else if let Some(ref inline) = yaml.key_hex {
         inline.clone()
     } else {
         anyhow::bail!(
-            "ai_crawl_control.ledger requires either secret_ref.env or key_hex (hex-encoded HMAC key)"
+            "ai_crawl_control.ledger requires either secret_ref.env, secret_ref.secret, or key_hex (hex-encoded HMAC key)"
         );
     };
     let key = hex::decode(key_hex.trim())
@@ -3435,6 +3444,34 @@ mod tests {
         );
     }
 
+    #[test]
+    fn quote_token_yaml_resolves_secret_ref_secret_via_env_fallback() {
+        std::env::set_var(
+            "SBPROXY_TEST_QUOTE_SEED",
+            "0001020304050607080910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031",
+        );
+        let policy = AiCrawlControlPolicy::from_config(serde_json::json!({
+            "price": 0.001,
+            "rails": {
+                "x402": {
+                    "chain": "base",
+                    "facilitator": "https://facilitator-base.x402.org",
+                    "asset": "USDC",
+                    "pay_to": "0xabc"
+                }
+            },
+            "quote_token": {
+                "key_id": "quote-kid",
+                "secret_ref": { "secret": "SBPROXY_TEST_QUOTE_SEED" }
+            }
+        }))
+        .expect("policy compiles with secret_ref.secret");
+
+        let jwks = policy.quote_token_jwks().expect("jwks");
+        assert_eq!(jwks["keys"][0]["kid"], "quote-kid");
+        std::env::remove_var("SBPROXY_TEST_QUOTE_SEED");
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn quote_token_yaml_without_rails_is_a_config_error() {
         let err = AiCrawlControlPolicy::from_config(serde_json::json!({