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
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 thancredential.visualstudio.com.namespace
, which is more specific thancredential.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.
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
.
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) |
git config --global credential.interactive false
Defaults to enabled.
Also see: GCM_INTERACTIVE
Enables trace logging of all activities.
Configuring Git and GCM to trace to the same location is often desirable, and
GCM is compatible and cooperative with GIT_TRACE
.
git config --global credential.trace /tmp/git.log
If the value of credential.trace
is a full path to a file in an existing
directory, logs are appended to the file.
If the value of credential.trace
is true
or 1
, logs are written to
standard error.
Defaults to disabled.
Also see: GCM_TRACE
Enables tracing of secret and sensitive information, which is by default masked
in trace output. Requires that credential.trace
is also enabled.
git config --global credential.traceSecrets true
If the value of credential.traceSecrets
is true
or 1
, trace logs will include
secret information.
Defaults to disabled.
Also see: GCM_TRACE_SECRETS
Enables inclusion of Microsoft Authentication library (MSAL) logs in GCM trace
output. Requires that credential.trace
is also enabled.
git config --global credential.traceMsAuth true
If the value of credential.traceMsAuth
is true
or 1
, trace logs will
include verbose MSAL logs.
Defaults to disabled.
Also see: GCM_TRACE_MSAUTH
Pauses execution of GCM at launch to wait for a debugger to be attached.
git config --global credential.debug true
Defaults to disabled.
Also see: GCM_DEBUG
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.
git config --global credential.ghe.contoso.com.provider github
Also see: GCM_PROVIDER
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) |
git config --global credential.ghe.contoso.com.authority github
Also see: GCM_AUTHORITY
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.
git config --global credential.guiPrompt false
Defaults to enabled.
Also see: GCM_GUI_PROMPT
Force the use of software rendering for GUI prompts.
This is currently only applicable on Windows.
git config --global credential.guiSoftwareRendering true
Defaults to false (use hardware acceleration where available).
Note
Windows on ARM devices defaults to using software rendering to work around a known Avalonia issue: AvaloniaUI/Avalonia#10405
Also see: GCM_GUI_SOFTWARE_RENDERING
Allow transmitting credentials to unsafe remote URLs such as unencrypted HTTP URLs. This setting is not recommended for general use and should only be used when necessary.
Defaults false (disallow unsafe remote URLs).
git config --global credential.allowUnsafeRemotes true
Also see: GCM_ALLOW_UNSAFE_REMOTES
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).
git config --global credential.autoDetectTimeout -1
Also see: GCM_AUTODETECT_TIMEOUT
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 |
git config --global credential.tfsonprem123.allowWindowsAuth false
Also see: GCM_ALLOW_WINDOWSAUTH
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.
git config --global credential.httpsProxy http://john.doe:password@proxy.contoso.com
Also see: GCM_HTTP_PROXY
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 |
git config --global credential.bitbucketAuthModes "oauth,basic"
Also see: GCM_BITBUCKET_AUTHMODES
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 |
git config --global credential.bitbucketAlwaysRefreshCredentials true
Defaults to false/disabled.
Also see: GCM_BITBUCKET_ALWAYS_REFRESH_CREDENTIALS
Forces GCM to validate any stored credentials before returning them to Git. It does this by calling a REST API resource that requires authentication.
Disabling this option reduces the HTTP traffic within GCM when it is retrieving credentials. This may improve user performance, but will increase the number of times Git remote calls fail to authenticate with the host and therefore require the user to re-try the Git remote call.
Enabling this option helps ensure Git is always provided with valid credentials.
Value | Validate credentials |
---|---|
true , 1 , yes , on (default) |
Always |
false , 0 , no , off |
Never |
git config --global credential.bitbucketValidateStoredCredentials true
Defaults to true/enabled.
Also see: GCM_BITBUCKET_VALIDATE_STORED_CREDENTIALS
To use OAuth with Bitbucket DC it is necessary to create an external, incoming AppLink.
It is then necessary to configure the local GCM installation with both the OAuth ClientId and ClientSecret from the AppLink.
git config --global credential.bitbucketDataCenterOAuthClientId 1111111111111111111
Defaults to undefined.
Also see: GCM_BITBUCKET_DATACENTER_CLIENTID
To use OAuth with Bitbucket DC it is necessary to create an external, incoming AppLink.
It is then necessary to configure the local GCM installation with both the OAuth ClientId and ClientSecret from the AppLink.
git config --global credential.bitbucketDataCenterOAuthClientSecret 222222222222222222222
Defaults to undefined.
Also see: GCM_BITBUCKET_DATACENTER_CLIENTSECRET
Enable or disable automatic account filtering for GitHub based on server hints when there are multiple available accounts. This setting is only applicable to GitHub.com with Enterprise Managed Users.
Value | Description |
---|---|
true (default) |
Filter available accounts based on server hints. |
false |
Show all available accounts. |
git config --global credential.gitHubAccountFiltering "false"
Also see: GCM_GITHUB_ACCOUNTFILTERING
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 |
git config --global credential.gitHubAuthModes "oauth,basic"
Also see: GCM_GITHUB_AUTHMODES
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 |
git config --global credential.gitLabAuthModes "browser"
Also see: GCM_GITLAB_AUTHMODES
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
.
git config --global credential.namespace "my-namespace"
Also see: GCM_NAMESPACE
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. | macOS, Linux |
plaintext |
Store credentials in plaintext files (UNSECURE). Customize the plaintext store location with credential.plaintextStorePath . |
Windows, macOS, Linux |
none |
Do not store credentials via GCM. | Windows, macOS, Linux |
git config --global credential.credentialStore gpg
Also see: GCM_CREDENTIAL_STORE
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.
git config --global credential.cacheOptions "--timeout 300"
Also see: GCM_CREDENTIAL_CACHE_OPTIONS
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
.
git config --global credential.plaintextStorePath /mnt/external-drive/credentials
Also see: GCM_PLAINTEXT_STORE_PATH
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
.
git config --global credential.dpapiStorePath D:\credentials
Also see: GCM_DPAPI_STORE_PATH
Specify a custom directory to store GPG-encrypted pass-compatible credential files
in when credential.credentialStore
is set to gpg
.
Defaults to the value ~/.password-store
or %USERPROFILE%\.password-store
.
git config --global credential.gpgPassStorePath /mnt/external-drive/.password-store
Note: Location of the password store used by pass can be overridden by the
PASSWORD_STORE_DIR
environment variable, see the man page for details.
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. |
git config --global credential.msauthFlow devicecode
Also see: GCM_MSAUTH_FLOW
Use the operating system account manager where available.
Defaults to false
. In certain cloud hosted environments when using a work or
school account, such as Microsoft DevBox, the default is true
.
These defaults are 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. |
git config --global credential.msauthUseBroker true
Also see: GCM_MSAUTH_USEBROKER
Use the current operating system account by default when the broker is enabled.
Defaults to false
. In certain cloud hosted environments when using a work or
school account, such as Microsoft DevBox, the default is true
.
These defaults are subject to change in the future.
Value | Description |
---|---|
true |
Use the current operating system account by default. |
false (default) |
Do not assume any account to use by default. |
git config --global credential.msauthUseDefaultAccount true
Also see: GCM_MSAUTH_USEDEFAULTACCOUNT
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. |
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
Specify the type of credential the Azure Repos host provider should return.
Defaults to the value pat
. In certain cloud hosted environments when using a
work or school account, such as Microsoft DevBox, the default value is
oauth
.
Value | Description |
---|---|
pat |
Azure DevOps personal access tokens |
oauth |
Microsoft identity OAuth tokens (AAD or MSA tokens) |
Here is more information about Azure Access tokens.
git config --global credential.azreposCredentialType oauth
Also see: GCM_AZREPOS_CREDENTIALTYPE
Use a Managed Identity to authenticate with Azure Repos.
The value system
will tell GCM to use the system-assigned Managed Identity.
To specify a user-assigned Managed Identity, use the format id://{clientId}
where {clientId}
is the client ID of the Managed Identity. Alternatively any
GUID-like value will also be interpreted as a user-assigned Managed Identity
client ID.
To specify a Managed Identity associated with an Azure resource, you can use the
format resource://{resourceId}
where {resourceId}
is the ID of the resource.
For more information about managed identities, see the Azure DevOps documentation.
Value | Description |
---|---|
system |
System-Assigned Managed Identity |
[guid] |
User-Assigned Managed Identity with the specified client ID |
id://[guid] |
User-Assigned Managed Identity with the specified client ID |
resource://[guid] |
User-Assigned Managed Identity for the associated resource |
git config --global credential.azreposManagedIdentity "id://11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111"
Also see: GCM_AZREPOS_MANAGEDIDENTITY
Specify the client and tenant IDs of a service principal to use when performing Microsoft authentication for Azure Repos.
The value of this setting should be in the format: {tenantId}/{clientId}
.
You must also set at least one authentication mechanism if you set this value:
- credential.azreposServicePrincipalSecret
- credential.azreposServicePrincipalCertificateThumbprint
- credential.azreposServicePrincipalCertificateSendX5C
For more information about service principals, see the Azure DevOps documentation.
git config --global credential.azreposServicePrincipal "11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111/22222222-2222-2222-2222-222222222222"
Also see: GCM_AZREPOS_SERVICE_PRINCIPAL
Specifies the client secret for the service principal when performing Microsoft authentication for Azure Repos with credential.azreposServicePrincipalSecret set.
git config --global credential.azreposServicePrincipalSecret "da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709"
Also see: GCM_AZREPOS_SP_SECRET
Specifies the thumbprint of a certificate to use when authenticating as a service principal for Azure Repos when GCM_AZREPOS_SERVICE_PRINCIPAL is set.
git config --global credential.azreposServicePrincipalCertificateThumbprint "9b6555292e4ea21cbc2ebd23e66e2f91ebbe92dc"
Also see: GCM_AZREPOS_SP_CERT_THUMBPRINT
When using a certificate for service principal authentication, this configuration specifies whether the X5C claim should be should be sent to the STS. Sending the x5c enables application developers to achieve easy certificate rollover in Azure AD: this method will send the public certificate to Azure AD along with the token request, so that Azure AD can use it to validate the subject name based on a trusted issuer policy. This saves the application admin from the need to explicitly manage the certificate rollover. For details see https://aka.ms/msal-net-sni.
git config --global credential.azreposServicePrincipalCertificateSendX5C true
Also see: GCM_AZREPOS_SP_CERT_SEND_X5C
Turns on Trace2 Normal Format tracing - see Git's Trace2 Normal Format documentation for more details.
git config --global trace2.normalTarget true
If the value of trace2.normalTarget
is a full path to a file in an existing
directory, logs are appended to the file.
If the value of trace2.normalTarget
is true
or 1
, logs are written to
standard error.
Defaults to disabled.
Also see: GIT_TRACE2
Turns on Trace2 Event Format tracing - see Git's Trace2 Event Format documentation for more details.
git config --global trace2.eventTarget true
If the value of trace2.eventTarget
is a full path to a file in an existing
directory, logs are appended to the file.
If the value of trace2.eventTarget
is true
or 1
, logs are written to
standard error.
Defaults to disabled.
Also see: GIT_TRACE2_EVENT
Turns on Trace2 Performance Format tracing - see Git's Trace2 Performance Format documentation for more details.
git config --global trace2.perfTarget true
If the value of trace2.perfTarget
is a full path to a file in an existing
directory, logs are appended to the file.
If the value of trace2.perfTarget
is true
or 1
, logs are written to
standard error.
Defaults to disabled.
Also see: GIT_TRACE2_PERF