diff --git a/cmd/cloudflared/tunnel/subcommand_context.go b/cmd/cloudflared/tunnel/subcommand_context.go
index d5b42590..4450cf3c 100644
--- a/cmd/cloudflared/tunnel/subcommand_context.go
+++ b/cmd/cloudflared/tunnel/subcommand_context.go
@@ -261,8 +261,16 @@ func (sc *subcommandContext) delete(tunnelIDs []uuid.UUID) error {
 // and add the TunnelID into any old credentials (generated before TUN-3581 added the `TunnelID`
 // field to credentials files)
 func (sc *subcommandContext) findCredentials(tunnelID uuid.UUID) (connection.Credentials, error) {
-	credFinder := sc.credentialFinder(tunnelID)
-	credentials, err := sc.readTunnelCredentials(credFinder)
+	var credentials connection.Credentials
+	var err error
+	if credentialsContents := sc.c.String(CredContentsFlag); credentialsContents != "" {
+		if err = json.Unmarshal([]byte(credentialsContents), &credentials); err != nil {
+			err = errInvalidJSONCredential{path: "TUNNEL_CRED_CONTENTS", err: err}
+		}
+	} else {
+		credFinder := sc.credentialFinder(tunnelID)
+		credentials, err = sc.readTunnelCredentials(credFinder)
+	}
 	// This line ensures backwards compatibility with credentials files generated before
 	// TUN-3581. Those old credentials files don't have a TunnelID field, so we enrich the struct
 	// with the ID, which we have already resolved from the user input.
diff --git a/cmd/cloudflared/tunnel/subcommand_context_test.go b/cmd/cloudflared/tunnel/subcommand_context_test.go
index be57a081..2155b3dc 100644
--- a/cmd/cloudflared/tunnel/subcommand_context_test.go
+++ b/cmd/cloudflared/tunnel/subcommand_context_test.go
@@ -191,6 +191,51 @@ func Test_subcommandContext_findCredentials(t *testing.T) {
 				TunnelName:   name,
 			},
 		},
+		{
+			name: "TUNNEL_CRED_CONTENTS given contains old credentials contents",
+			fields: fields{
+				log: &log,
+				fs:  fs,
+				c: func() *cli.Context {
+					flagSet := flag.NewFlagSet("test0", flag.PanicOnError)
+					flagSet.String(CredContentsFlag, "", "")
+					c := cli.NewContext(cli.NewApp(), flagSet, nil)
+					_ = c.Set(CredContentsFlag, fmt.Sprintf(`{"AccountTag":"%s","TunnelSecret":"%s"}`, accountTag, secretB64))
+					return c
+				}(),
+			},
+			args: args{
+				tunnelID: tunnelID,
+			},
+			want: connection.Credentials{
+				AccountTag:   accountTag,
+				TunnelID:     tunnelID,
+				TunnelSecret: secret,
+			},
+		},
+		{
+			name: "TUNNEL_CRED_CONTENTS given contains new credentials contents",
+			fields: fields{
+				log: &log,
+				fs:  fs,
+				c: func() *cli.Context {
+					flagSet := flag.NewFlagSet("test0", flag.PanicOnError)
+					flagSet.String(CredContentsFlag, "", "")
+					c := cli.NewContext(cli.NewApp(), flagSet, nil)
+					_ = c.Set(CredContentsFlag, fmt.Sprintf(`{"AccountTag":"%s","TunnelSecret":"%s","TunnelID":"%s","TunnelName":"%s"}`, accountTag, secretB64, tunnelID, name))
+					return c
+				}(),
+			},
+			args: args{
+				tunnelID: tunnelID,
+			},
+			want: connection.Credentials{
+				AccountTag:   accountTag,
+				TunnelID:     tunnelID,
+				TunnelSecret: secret,
+				TunnelName:   name,
+			},
+		},
 	}
 	for _, tt := range tests {
 		t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/cmd/cloudflared/tunnel/subcommands.go b/cmd/cloudflared/tunnel/subcommands.go
index 377230af..6cfe3af2 100644
--- a/cmd/cloudflared/tunnel/subcommands.go
+++ b/cmd/cloudflared/tunnel/subcommands.go
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ const (
 	connsSortByOptions   = "id, startedAt, numConnections, version"
 	CredFileFlagAlias    = "cred-file"
 	CredFileFlag         = "credentials-file"
+	CredContentsFlag     = "credentials-contents"
 	overwriteDNSFlagName = "overwrite-dns"
 
 	LogFieldTunnelID = "tunnelID"
@@ -111,8 +112,13 @@ var (
 		Usage:   "Filepath at which to read/write the tunnel credentials",
 		EnvVars: []string{"TUNNEL_CRED_FILE"},
 	}
-	credentialsFileFlag = altsrc.NewStringFlag(credentialsFileFlagCLIOnly)
-	forceDeleteFlag     = &cli.BoolFlag{
+	credentialsFileFlag     = altsrc.NewStringFlag(credentialsFileFlagCLIOnly)
+	credentialsContentsFlag = altsrc.NewStringFlag(&cli.StringFlag{
+		Name:    CredContentsFlag,
+		Usage:   "Contents of the tunnel credentials JSON file to use. When provided along with credentials-file, this will take precedence.",
+		EnvVars: []string{"TUNNEL_CRED_CONTENTS"},
+	})
+	forceDeleteFlag = &cli.BoolFlag{
 		Name:    "force",
 		Aliases: []string{"f"},
 		Usage: "Cleans up any stale connections before the tunnel is deleted. cloudflared will not " +
@@ -579,6 +585,7 @@ func buildRunCommand() *cli.Command {
 	flags := []cli.Flag{
 		forceFlag,
 		credentialsFileFlag,
+		credentialsContentsFlag,
 		selectProtocolFlag,
 		featuresFlag,
 	}