Gitleaks

Health v2 · maintenance only

Adoption not part of the score

29941 stars · 2290 forks observed · 2026-10-15

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-10-05, confidence 0.97

Gitleaks is an open‑source command‑line tool that scans Git repositories, files, and directories for secrets such as passwords, API keys, and tokens. It can be run locally, via Docker, or integrated into CI pipelines using its official GitHub Action.

Use cases

• scan a git repository for accidentally committed API keys
• detect secrets in source code before pushing to a remote
• run a secret‑scan as part of a CI/CD pipeline
• integrate Gitleaks as a pre‑commit hook to prevent secret leaks
• audit a directory of configuration files for hard‑coded credentials
• use Docker to scan a mounted volume for secrets

When to choose

• you need a fast, regex‑based secret scanner that works out‑of‑the‑box
• your workflow relies on Git and you want a tool that can scan commits, branches, and diffs
• you prefer a single binary or Docker image without complex setup
• you want built‑in CI integration via the official GitHub Action

When to avoid

• you require advanced secret‑detection using machine‑learning models
• you need a scanner that supports non‑Git version control systems only
• you want a continuously evolving feature set; Gitleaks is now feature‑complete

Facets

cli-tool · maturity active

search-engine cli security windows cli secret-scanner git go ci-cd-integration pre-commit-hook github-action devops ci-cd linux macos docker

Member repositories

For agents

markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="gitleaks/gitleaks")