# FiloSottile/age

A simple, modern and secure encryption tool (and Go library) with small explicit keys, no config options, and UNIX-style composability.

Repository: https://github.com/FiloSottile/age
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/age
Homepage: https://age-encryption.org
Language: Go
License: BSD-3-Clause
License Family: permissive
Topics: built-at-rc, age-encryption
Last push: 2026-03-20T21:12:32+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 64/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 73, release rhythm 31, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2664, "days_push": 166, "days_rel": 248, "gap_med": 187.0, "n_releases_24m": 3}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 23335, forks 665 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:34.696554+00:00)

## What it is
age is a simple, modern, and secure file encryption tool, format, and Go library with small explicit keys, no config options, and UNIX-style composability. It supports post-quantum encryption, SSH keys, and hardware tokens like YubiKeys via plugins.

## Use cases
- encrypt files with a modern simple tool
- encrypt a tarball before uploading to cloud storage
- encrypt files to a public key from the command line
- decrypt files with a key file
- encrypt secrets in scripts piped through other unix tools
- generate encryption key pairs
- encrypt files to SSH keys or YubiKeys

## When to choose
- you want simple file encryption without managing GPG keyrings and config
- you need scriptable, composable encryption in shell pipelines
- you want a well-specified, audited encryption format with post-quantum support
- you need a Go library for file encryption

## When to avoid
- you need full PGP features like signing, web of trust, or key servers
- you must interoperate with existing GPG-encrypted data
- you need encrypted email or disk encryption

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: cryptography, security, cli, file-system
- domain: security, privacy, developer-tools
- platform: windows, cross-platform, go, cli
- tags: file-encryption, encryption, age-format, post-quantum, keygen, unix-composability, go-library, command-line, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- FiloSottile/age (main) score 64

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:34.696554+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T16:56:44.870145+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/FiloSottile/age (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:34.696554+00:00, sha 9084aa86d4d5)
  - homepage: https://age-encryption.org (fetched 2026-08-29T07:54:27.947125+00:00, sha 260df66998d5)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.