git-crypt
Shares rank 10 of 20 secrets managers by recommenders
Recommended for transparent encryption of chosen files in a Git repo, decrypted automatically with a working key. Critics say it assumes a single identity and handles access control poorly.
Recommended for transparent encryption of chosen files in a Git repo, decrypted automatically with a working key. Critics say it assumes a single identity and handles access control poorly.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 89%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Easy setup, integrates well with Git
“which is transparent (you put the patterns you want to encrypt in .gitattributes)”
Comment from 8 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Lockenv – Simple encrypted secrets storage for Git” “It's very easy to set up and integrates nicely into git.”
Comment from 27 Mar 2026 in “If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your private repos” Encrypts files in repos, decrypts with key
“You can have encrypted in a repo that will be auto decrypted if you have a working key.”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Epic Games announces Lore version control system” “I use git-crypt to encrypt the inputs in my public repo”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Advent of Code 2025”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Assumes a single human identity
“The existing tools (pass, sops, git-crypt) are close but they assume a single human identity.”
Comment from 1 Mar 2026 in “How HN: Agent-Vault – A Zero-trust credential manager for AI agents” “it's less good at RBAC because there's no real "identity" component at read-time”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Epic Games announces Lore version control system” Weak at role-based access control
“it's less good at RBAC because there's no real "identity" component at read-time”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Epic Games announces Lore version control system” Only suits local-only access needs
“git-crypt only makes sense because I only need access to the private posts locally”
Comment from 16 Mar 2026 on Hacker News
Other secrets managers people recommend
The four most recommended other secrets managers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OneCLI | 39 | 8 | 83% | 6 | — | Approved |
| SOPS | 28 | 5 | 85% | 10 | — | Approved |
| HashiCorp Vault | 26 | 10 | 72% | 10 | — | Approved |
| fnox | 20 | 4 | 83% | 9 | — | Approved |
| git-cryptThis page | 8 | 1 | 89% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 9 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it's less good at RBAC because there's no real "identity" component at read-time”
“I use and love git crypt, but it doesn't get enough use.”
“You can have encrypted in a repo that will be auto decrypted if you have a working key.”
“It's very easy to set up and integrates nicely into git.”
“git-crypt only makes sense because I only need access to the private posts locally”
“The existing tools (pass, sops, git-crypt) are close but they assume a single human identity.”
“git-crypt solves all 3 (mostly)”
“which is transparent (you put the patterns you want to encrypt in .gitattributes)”
“I use git-crypt to encrypt the inputs in my public repo”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.