--- title: "gitleaks" type: "tool" slug: "gitleaks-gitleaks" canonical_url: "https://www.graphcanon.com/tools/gitleaks-gitleaks" github_url: "https://github.com/gitleaks/gitleaks" homepage_url: "https://gitleaks.io" stars: 28041 forks: 2141 primary_language: "Go" license: "MIT" categories: ["developer-tools"] tags: ["ci-cd", "dlp", "git", "ai-powered", "data-loss-prevention", "cicd", "cli", "devsecops"] updated_at: "2026-07-07T18:22:33.768408+00:00" --- # gitleaks > Find secrets with Gitleaks A tool for detecting secret values like passwords, API keys, and tokens in Git repositories. ## Facts - Repository: https://github.com/gitleaks/gitleaks - Homepage: https://gitleaks.io - Stars: 28,041 · Forks: 2,141 · Open issues: 426 · Watchers: 171 - Primary language: Go - License: MIT - Last pushed: 2026-07-01T23:33:05+00:00 ## Categories - [Developer Tools](/categories/developer-tools.md) ## Tags ci-cd, dlp, git, ai-powered, data-loss-prevention, cicd, cli, devsecops ## Related tools - [ECC](/tools/affaan-m-ecc.md) - The agent harness performance optimization system (★ 226,962) - [AutoGPT](/tools/significant-gravitas-autogpt.md) - AutoGPT: Build, Deploy, and Run AI Agents (★ 185,417) - [prompts.chat](/tools/f-prompts-chat.md) - The world's largest open-source prompt library for AI (★ 165,019) - [JavaGuide](/tools/snailclimb-javaguide.md) - Snailclimb/JavaGuide: 面试 & 后端通用面试指南，覆盖计算机基础、数据库、分布式、高并发、系统设计与 AI 应用开发 (★ 156,863) - [browser-use](/tools/browser-use-browser-use.md) - 🌐 Make websites accessible for AI agents. 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I'm shifting my focus to [Betterleaks](https://github.com/betterleaks/betterleaks) [license]: ./LICENSE [badge-license]: https://img.shields.io/github/license/gitleaks/gitleaks.svg [go-docs-badge]: https://pkg.go.dev/badge/github.com/gitleaks/gitleaks/v8?status [go-docs]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/zricethezav/gitleaks/v8 [badge-build]: https://github.com/gitleaks/gitleaks/actions/workflows/test.yml/badge.svg [build]: https://github.com/gitleaks/gitleaks/actions/workflows/test.yml [go-report-card-badge]: https://goreportcard.com/badge/github.com/gitleaks/gitleaks/v8 [go-report-card]: https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/gitleaks/gitleaks/v8 [dockerhub]: https://hub.docker.com/r/zricethezav/gitleaks [dockerhub-badge]: https://img.shields.io/docker/pulls/zricethezav/gitleaks.svg [gitleaks-action]: https://github.com/gitleaks/gitleaks-action [gitleaks-badge]: https://img.shields.io/badge/protected%20by-gitleaks-blue [![GitHub Action Test][badge-build]][build] [![Docker Hub][dockerhub-badge]][dockerhub] [![Gitleaks Action][gitleaks-badge]][gitleaks-action] [![GoDoc][go-docs-badge]][go-docs] [![GoReportCard][go-report-card-badge]][go-report-card] [![License][badge-license]][license] Gitleaks is a tool for **detecting** secrets like passwords, API keys, and tokens in git repos, files, and whatever else you wanna throw at it via `stdin`. If you wanna learn more about how the detection engine works check out this blog: [Regex is (almost) all you need](https://lookingatcomputer.substack.com/p/regex-is-almost-all-you-need). ``` ➜ ~/code(master) gitleaks git -v ○ │╲ │ ○ ○ ░ ░ gitleaks Finding: "export BUNDLE_ENTERPRISE__CONTRIBSYS__COM=cafebabe:deadbeef", Secret: cafebabe:deadbeef RuleID: sidekiq-secret Entropy: 2.609850 File: cmd/generate/config/rules/sidekiq.go Line: 23 Commit: cd5226711335c68be1e720b318b7bc3135a30eb2 Author: John Email: john@users.noreply.github.com Date: 2022-08-03T12:31:40Z Fingerprint: cd5226711335c68be1e720b318b7bc3135a30eb2:cmd/generate/config/rules/sidekiq.go:sidekiq-secret:23 ``` ## Getting Started Gitleaks can be installed using Homebrew, Docker, or Go. Gitleaks is also available in binary form for many popular platforms and OS types on the [releases page](https://github.com/gitleaks/gitleaks/releases). In addition, Gitleaks can be implemented as a pre-commit hook directly in your repo or as a GitHub action using [Gitleaks-Action](https://github.com/gitleaks/gitleaks-action). ### Installing ```bash # MacOS brew install gitleaks # Docker (DockerHub) docker pull zricethezav/gitleaks:latest docker run -v ${path_to_host_folder_to_scan}:/path zricethezav/gitleaks:latest [COMMAND] [OPTIONS] [SOURCE_PATH] # Docker (ghcr.io) docker pull ghcr.io/gitleaks/gitleaks:latest docker run -v ${path_to_host_folder_to_scan}:/path ghcr.io/gitleaks/gitleaks:latest [COMMAND] [OPTIONS] [SOURCE_PATH] # From Source (make sure `go` is installed) git clone https://github.com/gitleaks/gitleaks.git cd gitleaks make build ``` ### Pre-Commit 1. Install pre-commit from https://pre-commit.com/#install 2. Create a `.pre-commit-config.yaml` file at the root of your repository with the following content: ``` repos: - repo: https://github.com/gitleaks/gitleaks rev: v8.24.2 hooks: - id: gitleaks ``` for a [native execution of gitleaks](https://github.com/gitleaks/gitleaks/releases) or use the [`gitleaks-docker` pre-commit ID](https://github.com/gitleaks/gitleaks/blob/master/.pre-commit-hooks.yaml) for executing gitleaks using the [official Docker images](#docker) 3. Auto-update the config to the latest repos' versions by executing `pre-commit autoupdate` 4. Install with `pre-commit install` 5. Now you're all ``` --- **Machine-readable endpoints** - JSON: [`/api/graphcanon/tools/gitleaks-gitleaks`](/api/graphcanon/tools/gitleaks-gitleaks) - LLM index: [/llms.txt](/llms.txt) - Full corpus: [/llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt) _GraphCanon - The knowledge graph for AI development. https://www.graphcanon.com/_