'\" t
.\"     Title: gitcredentials
.\"    Author: [FIXME: author] [see http://www.docbook.org/tdg5/en/html/author]
.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets vsnapshot <http://docbook.sf.net/>
.\"      Date: 06/29/2026
.\"    Manual: Git Manual
.\"    Source: Git 2.55.0
.\"  Language: English
.\"
.TH "GITCREDENTIALS" "7" "06/29/2026" "Git 2\&.55\&.0" "Git Manual"
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.\" * Define some portability stuff
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.\" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.\" http://bugs.debian.org/507673
.\" http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/groff/2009-02/msg00013.html
.\" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.ie \n(.g .ds Aq \(aq
.el       .ds Aq '
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.\" * set default formatting
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.\" disable hyphenation
.nh
.\" disable justification (adjust text to left margin only)
.ad l
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.\" * MAIN CONTENT STARTS HERE *
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.SH "NAME"
gitcredentials \- Providing usernames and passwords to Git
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.sp
.nf
git config credential\&.https://example\&.com\&.username myusername
git config credential\&.helper "$helper $options"
.fi
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.sp
Git will sometimes need credentials from the user in order to perform operations; for example, it may need to ask for a username and password in order to access a remote repository over HTTP\&. Some remotes accept a personal access token or OAuth access token as a password\&. This manual describes the mechanisms Git uses to request these credentials, as well as some features to avoid inputting these credentials repeatedly\&.
.SH "REQUESTING CREDENTIALS"
.sp
Without any credential helpers defined, Git will try the following strategies to ask the user for usernames and passwords:
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 1.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  1." 4.2
.\}
If the
\fBGIT_ASKPASS\fR
environment variable is set, the program specified by the variable is invoked\&. A suitable prompt is provided to the program on the command line, and the user\(cqs input is read from its standard output\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 2.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  2." 4.2
.\}
Otherwise, if the
\fBcore\&.askPass\fR
configuration variable is set, its value is used as above\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 3.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  3." 4.2
.\}
Otherwise, if the
\fBSSH_ASKPASS\fR
environment variable is set, its value is used as above\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 4.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  4." 4.2
.\}
Otherwise, the user is prompted on the terminal\&.
.RE
.SH "AVOIDING REPETITION"
.sp
It can be cumbersome to input the same credentials over and over\&. Git provides two methods to reduce this annoyance:
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 1.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  1." 4.2
.\}
Static configuration of usernames for a given authentication context\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 2.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  2." 4.2
.\}
Credential helpers to cache or store passwords, or to interact with a system password wallet or keychain\&.
.RE
.sp
The first is simple and appropriate if you do not have secure storage available for a password\&. It is generally configured by adding this to your config:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
[credential "https://example\&.com"]
        username = me
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
Credential helpers, on the other hand, are external programs from which Git can request both usernames and passwords; they typically interface with secure storage provided by the OS or other programs\&. Alternatively, a credential\-generating helper might generate credentials for certain servers via some API\&.
.sp
To use a helper, you must first select one to use (see below for a list)\&.
.sp
You may also have third\-party helpers installed; search for \fBcredential\-*\fR in the output of \fBgit\fR \fBhelp\fR \fB\-a\fR, and consult the documentation of individual helpers\&. Once you have selected a helper, you can tell Git to use it by putting its name into the credential\&.helper variable\&.
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 1.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  1." 4.2
.\}
Find a helper\&.
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ git help \-a | grep credential\-
credential\-foo
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 2.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  2." 4.2
.\}
Read its description\&.
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ git help credential\-foo
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 3.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  3." 4.2
.\}
Tell Git to use it\&.
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ git config \-\-global credential\&.helper foo
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.RE
.SS "Available helpers"
.sp
Git currently includes the following helpers:
.PP
cache
.RS 4
Cache credentials in memory for a short period of time\&. See
\fBgit-credential-cache\fR(1)
for details\&.
.RE
.PP
store
.RS 4
Store credentials indefinitely on disk\&. See
\fBgit-credential-store\fR(1)
for details\&.
.RE
.sp
Popular helpers with secure persistent storage include:
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
git\-credential\-libsecret (Linux)
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
git\-credential\-osxkeychain (macOS)
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
git\-credential\-wincred (Windows)
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
\m[blue]\fBGit Credential Manager\fR\m[]\&\s-2\u[1]\d\s+2
(cross platform, included in Git for Windows)
.RE
.sp
The community maintains a comprehensive list of Git credential helpers at \m[blue]\fBhttps://git\-scm\&.com/doc/credential\-helpers\fR\m[]\&.
.SS "OAuth"
.sp
An alternative to inputting passwords or personal access tokens is to use an OAuth credential helper\&. Initial authentication opens a browser window to the host\&. Subsequent authentication happens in the background\&. Many popular Git hosts support OAuth\&.
.sp
Popular helpers with OAuth support include:
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
\m[blue]\fBGit Credential Manager\fR\m[]\&\s-2\u[1]\d\s+2
(cross platform, included in Git for Windows)
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
\m[blue]\fBgit\-credential\-oauth\fR\m[]\&\s-2\u[2]\d\s+2
(cross platform, included in many Linux distributions)
.RE
.SH "CREDENTIAL CONTEXTS"
.sp
Git considers each credential to have a context defined by a URL\&. This context is used to look up context\-specific configuration, and is passed to any helpers, which may use it as an index into secure storage\&.
.sp
For instance, imagine we are accessing \fBhttps://example\&.com/foo\&.git\fR\&. When Git looks into a config file to see if a section matches this context, it will consider the two a match if the context is a more\-specific subset of the pattern in the config file\&. For example, if you have this in your config file:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
[credential "https://example\&.com"]
        username = foo
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
then we will match: both protocols are the same and both hosts are the same\&. However, this context would not match:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
[credential "https://kernel\&.org"]
        username = foo
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
because the hostnames differ\&. Nor would it match \fBfoo\&.example\&.com\fR; Git compares hostnames exactly, without considering whether two hosts are part of the same domain\&. Likewise, a config entry for \fBhttp://example\&.com\fR would not match: Git compares the protocols exactly\&. However, you may use wildcards in the domain name and other pattern matching techniques as with the \fBhttp\&.\fR\fI<URL>\fR\fB\&.*\fR options\&.
.sp
If the "pattern" URL does include a path component, then this must match as a prefix path: the context \fBhttps://example\&.com/bar\fR will match a config entry for \fBhttps://example\&.com/bar/baz\&.git\fR but will not match a config entry for \fBhttps://example\&.com/other/repo\&.git\fR or \fBhttps://example\&.com/barry/repo\&.git\fR (even though it is a string prefix)\&.
.SH "CONFIGURATION OPTIONS"
.sp
Options for a credential context can be configured either in \fBcredential\&.*\fR (which applies to all credentials), or \fBcredential\&.\fR\fI<URL>\fR\fB\&.*\fR, where <URL> matches the context as described above\&.
.sp
The following options are available in either location:
.PP
helper
.RS 4
The name of an external credential helper, and any associated options\&. If the helper name is not an absolute path, then the string
\fBgit\fR
\fBcredential\-\fR
is prepended\&. The resulting string is executed by the shell (so, for example, setting this to
\fBfoo\fR
\fB\-\-option=bar\fR
will execute
\fBgit\fR
\fBcredential\-foo\fR
\fB\-\-option=bar\fR
via the shell\&. See the manual of specific helpers for examples of their use\&.
.sp
If there are multiple instances of the
\fBcredential\&.helper\fR
configuration variable, each helper will be tried in turn, and may provide a username, password, or nothing\&. Once Git has acquired both a username and a non\-expired password, no more helpers will be tried\&.
.sp
If
\fBcredential\&.helper\fR
is configured to the empty string, this resets the helper list to empty (so you may override a helper set by a lower\-priority config file by configuring the empty\-string helper, followed by whatever set of helpers you would like)\&.
.RE
.PP
username
.RS 4
A default username, if one is not provided in the URL\&.
.RE
.PP
useHttpPath
.RS 4
By default, Git does not consider the "path" component of an http URL to be worth matching via external helpers\&. This means that a credential stored for
\fBhttps://example\&.com/foo\&.git\fR
will also be used for
\fBhttps://example\&.com/bar\&.git\fR\&. If you do want to distinguish these cases, set this option to
\fBtrue\fR\&.
.RE
.SH "CUSTOM HELPERS"
.sp
You can write your own custom helpers to interface with any system in which you keep credentials\&.
.sp
Credential helpers are programs executed by Git to fetch or save credentials from and to long\-term storage (where "long\-term" is simply longer than a single Git process; e\&.g\&., credentials may be stored in\-memory for a few minutes, or indefinitely on disk)\&.
.sp
Each helper is specified by a single string in the configuration variable \fBcredential\&.helper\fR (and others, see \fBgit-config\fR(1))\&. The string is transformed by Git into a command to be executed using these rules:
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 1.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  1." 4.2
.\}
If the helper string begins with "!", it is considered a shell snippet, and everything after the "!" becomes the command\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 2.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  2." 4.2
.\}
Otherwise, if the helper string begins with an absolute path, the verbatim helper string becomes the command\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 3.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  3." 4.2
.\}
Otherwise, the string "git credential\-" is prepended to the helper string, and the result becomes the command\&.
.RE
.sp
The resulting command then has an "operation" argument appended to it (see below for details), and the result is executed by the shell\&.
.sp
Here are some example specifications:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
# run "git credential\-foo"
[credential]
        helper = foo

# same as above, but pass an argument to the helper
[credential]
        helper = "foo \-\-bar=baz"

# the arguments are parsed by the shell, so use shell
# quoting if necessary
[credential]
        helper = "foo \-\-bar=\*(Aqwhitespace arg\*(Aq"

# store helper (discouraged) with custom location for the db file;
# use `\-\-file ~/\&.git\-secret\&.txt`, rather than `\-\-file=~/\&.git\-secret\&.txt`,
# to allow the shell to expand tilde to the home directory\&.
[credential]
        helper = "store \-\-file ~/\&.git\-secret\&.txt"

# you can also use an absolute path, which will not use the git wrapper
[credential]
        helper = "/path/to/my/helper \-\-with\-arguments"

# or you can specify your own shell snippet
[credential "https://example\&.com"]
        username = your_user
        helper = "!f() { test \e"$1\e" = get && echo \e"password=$(cat $HOME/\&.secret)\e"; }; f"
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
Generally speaking, rule (3) above is the simplest for users to specify\&. Authors of credential helpers should make an effort to assist their users by naming their program "git\-credential\-$NAME", and putting it in the \fB$PATH\fR or \fB$GIT_EXEC_PATH\fR during installation, which will allow a user to enable it with \fBgit\fR \fBconfig\fR \fBcredential\&.helper\fR \fB$NAME\fR\&.
.sp
When a helper is executed, it will have one "operation" argument appended to its command line, which is one of:
.PP
\fBget\fR
.RS 4
Return a matching credential, if any exists\&.
.RE
.PP
\fBstore\fR
.RS 4
Store the credential, if applicable to the helper\&.
.RE
.PP
\fBerase\fR
.RS 4
Remove matching credentials, if any, from the helper\(cqs storage\&.
.RE
.sp
The details of the credential will be provided on the helper\(cqs stdin stream\&. The exact format is the same as the input/output format of the \fBgit\fR \fBcredential\fR plumbing command (see the section \fBINPUT/OUTPUT\fR \fBFORMAT\fR in \fBgit-credential\fR(1) for a detailed specification)\&.
.sp
For a \fBget\fR operation, the helper should produce a list of attributes on stdout in the same format (see \fBgit-credential\fR(1) for common attributes)\&. A helper is free to produce a subset, or even no values at all if it has nothing useful to provide\&. Any provided attributes will overwrite those already known about by Git\(cqs credential subsystem\&. Unrecognised attributes are silently discarded\&.
.sp
While it is possible to override all attributes, well behaving helpers should refrain from doing so for any attribute other than username and password\&.
.sp
If a helper outputs a \fBquit\fR attribute with a value of \fBtrue\fR or \fB1\fR, no further helpers will be consulted, nor will the user be prompted (if no credential has been provided, the operation will then fail)\&.
.sp
Similarly, no more helpers will be consulted once both username and password had been provided\&.
.sp
For a \fBstore\fR or \fBerase\fR operation, the helper\(cqs output is ignored\&.
.sp
If a helper fails to perform the requested operation or needs to notify the user of a potential issue, it may write to stderr\&.
.sp
If it does not support the requested operation (e\&.g\&., a read\-only store or generator), it should silently ignore the request\&.
.sp
If a helper receives any other operation, it should silently ignore the request\&. This leaves room for future operations to be added (older helpers will just ignore the new requests)\&.
.SH "GIT"
.sp
Part of the \fBgit\fR(1) suite
.SH "NOTES"
.IP " 1." 4
Git Credential Manager
.RS 4
\%https://github.com/git-ecosystem/git-credential-manager
.RE
.IP " 2." 4
git-credential-oauth
.RS 4
\%https://github.com/hickford/git-credential-oauth
.RE
