whats the difference between indenture agreement and bond covenants?
The covenants are contained in the indenture.
The indenture contains additional information, such as the par value of the bond, the maturity date, the coupon rate, the coupon payment dates, the currency in which the par value and the coupon payments are denominated, and so on.
Indenture contains both the Negative and Affirmative covenant.
Negative Covenant constrain the borrowing entity from some certain activities that will endanger the lender’s money, (i.e., you cannot use the same asset backing the borrowed fund as collateral for another borrowing from other set of lenders, e.t.c.)
Affirmative covenant depicts the action the borrowing entity must take to so service its debt (i.e., paying coupon on time, and the repayment of principal as at when due)
As S2000 says, covenants (both negative and affirmative) are just parts of indenture agreement. Collaterals are also part of agreement. What is worse quality of debt (probability of default) will be more such clauses in the debt contract agreement.