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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:[email protected]

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 true

Defaults to false/disabled.

Also see: GCM_BITBUCKET_ALWAYS_REFRESH_CREDENTIALS

credential.bitbucketValidateStoredCredentials

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

Example

git config --global credential.bitbucketValidateStoredCredentials true

Defaults to true/enabled.

Also see: GCM_BITBUCKET_VALIDATE_STORED_CREDENTIALS

credential.bitbucketDataCenterOAuthClientId

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.

Example

git config --global credential.bitbucketDataCenterOAuthClientId 1111111111111111111

Defaults to undefined.

Also see: GCM_BITBUCKET_DATACENTER_CLIENTID

credential.bitbucketDataCenterOAuthClientSecret

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.

Example

git config --global credential.bitbucketDataCenterOAuthClientSecret 222222222222222222222

Defaults to undefined.

Also see: GCM_BITBUCKET_DATACENTER_CLIENTSECRET

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://[email protected]/contoso/widgets

Credential: "git:https://[email protected]" (user = bob)

   https://[email protected]/foo/bar
   https://[email protected]/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://[email protected]/contoso/widgets

Credential: "git:https://[email protected]/foo/bar" (user = bob)

   https://[email protected]/foo/bar

Credential: "git:https://[email protected]/example/myrepo" (user = bob)

   https://[email protected]/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