GPG Commit Signing¶

git-profile manages all GPG signing settings — user.signingkey and commit.gpgsign — so you never have to edit them manually.

1. Find your GPG key ID¶

gpg --list-secret-keys --keyid-format=long

sec   ed25519/ABC123DEF456 2024-01-01 [SC]
      ABCDEF1234567890ABCDEF1234567890ABC123DE
uid   [ultimate] Jane Dev <jane@company.com>

The key ID is the part after / on the sec line — ABC123DEF456 in this example.

2. Create a profile with GPG signing¶

git-profile add \
  --id work \
  --name "Jane Dev" \
  --email jane@company.com \
  --gpg-key "ABC123DEF456" \
  --sign-commits

3. Apply the profile¶

git-profile use work

This writes four git config keys at once:

[user]
  name       = Jane Dev
  email      = jane@company.com
  signingkey = ABC123DEF456
[commit]
  gpgsign    = true

4. Verify signing works¶

git commit --allow-empty -m "test gpg signing"
git log --show-signature -1

Using different keys per identity¶

git-profile add --id work \
  --name "Jane Dev" --email jane@company.com \
  --gpg-key "WORK_KEY_ID" --sign-commits

git-profile add --id personal \
  --name "Jane Doe" --email jane@example.com \
  --gpg-key "PERSONAL_KEY_ID" --sign-commits

git-profile add --id oss \
  --name "Jane Doe" --email jane@oss.dev
  # no GPG — leave unsigned for OSS contributions

cd ~/work-project  && git-profile use work
cd ~/personal-blog && git-profile use personal
cd ~/oss-project   && git-profile use oss

Disabling GPG signing for a repo¶

Applying a profile that has no gpg_key_id does not unset signing keys — it leaves any existing user.signingkey and commit.gpgsign values in place. To explicitly disable signing:

git config --unset user.signingkey
git config --unset commit.gpgsign

Troubleshooting¶

`gpg: skipped "KEY_ID": No secret key`¶

The signing key stored in the profile doesn't match any key in your GPG keyring. Either:

Import the key: gpg --import private-key.asc
Or update the profile with the correct key ID: git-profile edit work

`error: gpg failed to sign the data`¶

Try running `gpg --status-fd=2 -bsau KEY_ID