This repository is never used as standalone. It is usually imported in each pattern as a subtree. In order to import the common/ the very first time you can use https://github.com/validatedpatterns/multicloud-gitops/blob/main/common/scripts/make_common_subtree.sh

In order to update your common subtree inside your pattern repository you can either use https://github.com/validatedpatterns/utilities/blob/main/scripts/update-common-everywhere.sh or do it manually by doing the following:

git remote add -f upstream-common https://github.com/validatedpatterns/common.git
git merge -s subtree -Xtheirs -Xsubtree=common upstream-common/ha-vault

There are two different secret formats parsed by the ansible bits. Both are documented here