Configuration options

Git Credential Manager works out of the box for most users.

Git Credential Manager (GCM) can be configured using Git's configuration files, and follows all of the same rules Git does when consuming the files.

Global configuration settings override system configuration settings, and local configuration settings override global settings; and because the configuration details exist within Git's configuration files you can use Git's git config utility to set, unset, and alter the setting values. All of GCM's configuration settings begin with the term credential.

GCM honors several levels of settings, in addition to the standard local > global > system tiering Git uses. URL-specific settings or overrides can be applied to any value in the credential namespace with the syntax below.

Additionally, GCM respects several GCM-specific environment variables which take precedence over configuration options. System administrators may also configure default values for many settings used by GCM.

GCM will only be used by Git if it is installed and configured. Use git config --global credential.helper manager-core to assign GCM as your credential helper. Use git config credential.helper to see the current configuration.

Example:

credential.microsoft.visualstudio.com.namespace is more specific than credential.visualstudio.com.namespace, which is more specific than credential.namespace.

In the examples above, the credential.namespace setting would affect any remote repository; the credential.visualstudio.com.namespace would affect any remote repository in the domain, and/or any subdomain (including www.) of, 'visualstudio.com'; where as the credential.microsoft.visualstudio.com.namespace setting would only be applied to remote repositories hosted at 'microsoft.visualstudio.com'.

For the complete list of settings GCM understands, see the list below.

Available settings

credential.interactive

Permit or disable GCM from interacting with the user (showing GUI or TTY prompts). If interaction is required but has been disabled, an error is returned.

This can be helpful when using GCM in headless and unattended environments, such as build servers, where it would be preferable to fail than to hang indefinitely waiting for a non-existent user.

To disable interactivity set this to false or 0.

Compatibility

In previous versions of GCM this setting had a different behavior and accepted other values. The following table summarizes the change in behavior and the mapping of older values such as never:

Value(s)	Old meaning	New meaning
`auto`	Prompt if required – use cached credentials if possible	(unchanged)
`never`, `false`	Never prompt – fail if interaction is required	(unchanged)
`always`, `force`, `true`	Always prompt – don't use cached credentials	Prompt if required (same as the old `auto` value)

Example

git config --global credential.interactive false

Defaults to enabled.

Also see: GCM_INTERACTIVE

credential.provider

Define the host provider to use when authenticating.

ID	Provider
`auto` (default)	[automatic] (learn more)
`azure-repos`	Azure Repos
`github`	GitHub
`bitbucket`	Bitbucket
`gitlab`	GitLab (supports OAuth in browser, personal access token and Basic Authentication)
`generic`	Generic (any other provider not listed above)

Automatic provider selection is based on the remote URL.

This setting is typically used with a scoped URL to map a particular set of remote URLs to providers, for example to mark a host as a GitHub Enterprise instance.

Example

git config --global credential.ghe.contoso.com.provider github

Also see: GCM_PROVIDER

credential.authority (deprecated)

This setting is deprecated and should be replaced by credential.provider with the corresponding provider ID value.

See the migration guide for more information.

Select the host provider to use when authenticating by which authority is supported by the providers.

Authority	Provider(s)
`auto` (default)	[automatic]
`msa`, `microsoft`, `microsoftaccount`, `aad`, `azure`, `azuredirectory`, `live`, `liveconnect`, `liveid`	Azure Repos (supports Microsoft Authentication)
`github`	GitHub (supports GitHub Authentication)
`bitbucket`	Bitbucket.org (supports Basic Authentication and OAuth), Bitbucket Server (supports Basic Authentication)
`gitlab`	GitLab (supports OAuth in browser, personal access token and Basic Authentication)
`basic`, `integrated`, `windows`, `kerberos`, `ntlm`, `tfs`, `sso`	Generic (supports Basic and Windows Integrated Authentication)

Example

git config --global credential.ghe.contoso.com.authority github

Also see: GCM_AUTHORITY

credential.guiPrompt

Permit or disable GCM from presenting GUI prompts. If an equivalent terminal/ text-based prompt is available, that will be shown instead.

To disable all interactivity see credential.interactive.

Example

git config --global credential.guiPrompt false

Defaults to enabled.

Also see: GCM_GUI_PROMPT

credential.autoDetectTimeout

Set the maximum length of time, in milliseconds, that GCM should wait for a network response during host provider auto-detection probing.

See auto-detection for more information.

Note: Use a negative or zero value to disable probing altogether.

Defaults to 2000 milliseconds (2 seconds).

Example

git config --global credential.autoDetectTimeout -1

Also see: GCM_AUTODETECT_TIMEOUT

credential.allowWindowsAuth

Allow detection of Windows Integrated Authentication (WIA) support for generic host providers. Setting this value to false will prevent the use of WIA and force a basic authentication prompt when using the Generic host provider.

Note: WIA is only supported on Windows.

Note: WIA is an umbrella term for NTLM and Kerberos (and Negotiate).

Value	WIA detection
`true` (default)	Permitted
`false`	Not permitted

Example

git config --global credential.tfsonprem123.allowWindowsAuth false

Also see: GCM_ALLOW_WINDOWSAUTH

credential.httpProxy (deprecated)

This setting is deprecated and should be replaced by the standard http.proxy Git configuration option.

See HTTP Proxy for more information.

Configure GCM to use the a proxy for network operations.

Note: Git itself does not respect this setting; this affects GCM only.

Example

git config --global credential.httpsProxy http://john.doe:password@proxy.contoso.com

Also see: GCM_HTTP_PROXY

credential.bitbucketAuthModes

Override the available authentication modes presented during Bitbucket authentication. If this option is not set, then the available authentication modes will be automatically detected.

Note: This setting only applies to Bitbucket.org, and not Server or DC instances.

Note: This setting supports multiple values separated by commas.

Value	Authentication Mode
(unset)	Automatically detect modes
`oauth`	OAuth-based authentication
`basic`	Basic/PAT-based authentication

Example

git config --global credential.bitbucketAuthModes "oauth,basic"

Also see: GCM_BITBUCKET_AUTHMODES

credential.bitbucketAlwaysRefreshCredentials

Forces GCM to ignore any existing stored Basic Auth or OAuth access tokens and always run through the process to refresh the credentials before returning them to Git.

This is especially relevant to OAuth credentials. Bitbucket.org access tokens expire after 2 hours, after that the refresh token must be used to get a new access token.

Enabling this option will improve performance when using Oauth2 and interacting with Bitbucket.org if, on average, commits are done less frequently than every 2 hours.

Enabling this option will decrease performance when using Basic Auth by requiring the user the re-enter credentials every time.

Value	Refresh Credentials Before Returning
`true`, `1`, `yes`, `on`	Always
`false`, `0`, `no`, `off`(default)	Only when the credentials are found to be invalid

Example

git config --global credential.bitbucketAlwaysRefreshCredentials 1

Defaults to false/disabled.

Also see: GCM_BITBUCKET_ALWAYS_REFRESH_CREDENTIALS

credential.gitHubAuthModes

Override the available authentication modes presented during GitHub authentication. If this option is not set, then the available authentication modes will be automatically detected.

Note: This setting supports multiple values separated by commas.

Value	Authentication Mode
(unset)	Automatically detect modes
`oauth`	Expands to: `browser, device`
`browser`	OAuth authentication via a web browser (requires a GUI)
`device`	OAuth authentication with a device code
`basic`	Basic authentication using username and password
`pat`	Personal Access Token (pat)-based authentication

Example

git config --global credential.gitHubAuthModes "oauth,basic"

Also see: GCM_GITHUB_AUTHMODES

credential.gitLabAuthModes

Override the available authentication modes presented during GitLab authentication. If this option is not set, then the available authentication modes will be automatically detected.

Note: This setting supports multiple values separated by commas.

Value	Authentication Mode
(unset)	Automatically detect modes
`browser`	OAuth authentication via a web browser (requires a GUI)
`basic`	Basic authentication using username and password
`pat`	Personal Access Token (pat)-based authentication

Example

git config --global credential.gitLabAuthModes "browser"

Also see: GCM_GITLAB_AUTHMODES

credential.namespace

Use a custom namespace prefix for credentials read and written in the OS credential store. Credentials will be stored in the format {namespace}:{service}.

Defaults to the value git.

Example

git config --global credential.namespace "my-namespace"

Also see: GCM_NAMESPACE

credential.credentialStore

Select the type of credential store to use on supported platforms.

Default value on Windows is wincredman, on macOS is keychain, and is unset on Linux.

Note: See more information about configuring secret stores in cred-stores.

Value	Credential Store	Platforms
(unset)	Windows: `wincredman`, macOS: `keychain`, Linux: (none)	-
`wincredman`	Windows Credential Manager (not available over SSH).	Windows
`dpapi`	DPAPI protected files. Customize the DPAPI store location with credential.dpapiStorePath	Windows
`keychain`	macOS Keychain.	macOS
`secretservice`	freedesktop.org Secret Service API via libsecret (requires a graphical interface to unlock secret collections).	Linux
`gpg`	Use GPG to store encrypted files that are compatible with the pass (requires GPG and `pass` to initialize the store).	macOS, Linux
`cache`	Git's built-in credential cache.	Windows, macOS, Linux
`plaintext`	Store credentials in plaintext files (UNSECURE). Customize the plaintext store location with `credential.plaintextStorePath`.	Windows, macOS, Linux

Example

git config --global credential.credentialStore gpg

Also see: GCM_CREDENTIAL_STORE

credential.cacheOptions

Pass options to the Git credential cache when credential.credentialStore is set to cache. This allows you to select a different amount of time to cache credentials (the default is 900 seconds) by passing "--timeout <seconds>". Use of other options like --socket is untested and unsupported, but there's no reason it shouldn't work.

Defaults to empty.

Example

git config --global credential.cacheOptions "--timeout 300"

Also see: GCM_CREDENTIAL_CACHE_OPTIONS

credential.plaintextStorePath

Specify a custom directory to store plaintext credential files in when credential.credentialStore is set to plaintext.

Defaults to the value ~/.gcm/store or %USERPROFILE%\.gcm\store.

Example

git config --global credential.plaintextStorePath /mnt/external-drive/credentials

Also see: GCM_PLAINTEXT_STORE_PATH

credential.dpapiStorePath

Specify a custom directory to store DPAPI protected credential files in when credential.credentialStore is set to dpapi.

Defaults to the value %USERPROFILE%\.gcm\dpapi_store.

Example

git config --global credential.dpapiStorePath D:\credentials

Also see: GCM_DPAPI_STORE_PATH

credential.msauthFlow

Specify which authentication flow should be used when performing Microsoft authentication and an interactive flow is required.

Defaults to auto.

Note: If credential.msauthUseBroker is set to true and the operating system authentication broker is available, all flows will be delegated to the broker. If both of those things are true, then the value of credential.msauthFlow has no effect.

Value	Authentication Flow
`auto` (default)	Select the best option depending on the current environment and platform.
`embedded`	Show a window with embedded web view control.
`system`	Open the user's default web browser.
`devicecode`	Show a device code.

Example

git config --global credential.msauthFlow devicecode

Also see: GCM_MSAUTH_FLOW

credential.msauthUseBroker (experimental)

Use the operating system account manager where available.

Defaults to false. This default is subject to change in the future.

Note: before you enable this option on Windows, please review the Windows Broker details for what this means to your local Windows user account.

Value	Description
`true`	Use the operating system account manager as an authentication broker.
`false` (default)	Do not use the broker.

Example

git config --global credential.msauthUseBroker true

Also see: GCM_MSAUTH_USEBROKER

credential.useHttpPath

Tells Git to pass the entire repository URL, rather than just the hostname, when calling out to a credential provider. (This setting comes from Git itself, not GCM.)

Defaults to false.

Note: GCM sets this value to true for dev.azure.com (Azure Repos) hosts after installation by default.

This is because dev.azure.com alone is not enough information to determine the correct Azure authentication authority - we require a part of the path. The fallout of this is that for dev.azure.com remote URLs we do not support storing credentials against the full-path. We always store against the dev.azure.com/org-name stub.

In order to use Azure Repos and store credentials against a full-path URL, you must use the org-name.visualstudio.com remote URL format instead.

Value	Git Behavior
`false` (default)	Git will use only `user` and `hostname` to look up credentials.
`true`	Git will use the full repository URL to look up credentials.

Example

On Windows using GitHub, for a user whose login is alice, and with credential.useHttpPath set to false (or not set), the following remote URLs will use the same credentials:

Credential: "git:https://github.com" (user = alice)

   https://github.com/foo/bar
   https://github.com/contoso/widgets
   https://alice@github.com/contoso/widgets

Credential: "git:https://bob@github.com" (user = bob)

   https://bob@github.com/foo/bar
   https://bob@github.com/example/myrepo

Under the same user but with credential.useHttpPath set to true, these credentials would be used:

Credential: "git:https://github.com/foo/bar" (user = alice)

   https://github.com/foo/bar

Credential: "git:https://github.com/contoso/widgets" (user = alice)

   https://github.com/contoso/widgets
   https://alice@github.com/contoso/widgets

Credential: "git:https://bob@github.com/foo/bar" (user = bob)

   https://bob@github.com/foo/bar

Credential: "git:https://bob@github.com/example/myrepo" (user = bob)

   https://bob@github.com/example/myrepo

credential.azreposCredentialType

Specify the type of credential the Azure Repos host provider should return.

Defaults to the value pat.

Value	Description
`pat` (default)	Azure DevOps personal access tokens
`oauth`	Microsoft identity OAuth tokens (AAD or MSA tokens)

Here is more information about Azure Access tokens.

Example

git config --global credential.azreposCredentialType oauth

Also see: GCM_AZREPOS_CREDENTIALTYPE

Files

configuration.md

Latest commit

History

configuration.md

File metadata and controls

Configuration options

Available settings

credential.interactive

Compatibility

Example

credential.provider

Example

credential.authority (deprecated)

Example

credential.guiPrompt

Example

credential.autoDetectTimeout

Example

credential.allowWindowsAuth

Example

credential.httpProxy (deprecated)

Example

credential.bitbucketAuthModes

Example

credential.bitbucketAlwaysRefreshCredentials

Example

credential.gitHubAuthModes

Example

credential.gitLabAuthModes

Example

credential.namespace

Example

credential.credentialStore

Example

credential.cacheOptions

Example

credential.plaintextStorePath

Example

credential.dpapiStorePath

Example

credential.msauthFlow

Example

credential.msauthUseBroker (experimental)

Example

credential.useHttpPath

Example

credential.azreposCredentialType

Example