Git-secrets is a security utility designed to prevent the accidental exposure of sensitive credentials by integrating automated scanning directly into the version control commit lifecycle. It functions as a commit scanner that evaluates staged files and commit messages against defined security policies before changes are finalized in a repository.
The tool utilizes regular expression pattern matching to identify potential secrets and supports the registration of custom patterns to address specific organizational security requirements. To manage operational friction, it includes mechanisms for false-positive filtering through allowlists and provides options to bypass validation for specific commits when necessary.
Beyond real-time interception, the software supports retrospective security analysis by performing linear history traversals to audit entire project timelines for previously committed sensitive data. It also offers extensibility by allowing the delegation of validation logic to external scripts or binaries, enabling integration with dynamic secret checking workflows.
