setup-cli.md

Git CLI Setup

Get git configured on a fresh machine so you can commit, sign, and use nicer tooling.

1. Set up basic configuration

Without these, you can't commit changes. Use --global so it applies to every repo — a bare git config user.name only writes the current repo's config and errors out when you're not inside a repo.

git config --global user.name <name>
git config --global user.email <email>
git config --global init.defaultBranch <default-branch-name>

2. Set up signed commits (personal preference)

I like the Verified badge on my commits on GitHub, so I sign them. There are two ways — SSH signing (simplest, reuses your existing SSH key) or GPG signing.

2.1. SSH signing (recommended)

Reuses the SSH key you already authenticate with, so there's no separate key to manage.

git config --global gpg.format ssh
git config --global user.signingkey ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
git config --global commit.gpgsign true

To verify your own signatures locally, add an allowed-signers file:

echo "<your-email> namespaces=\"git\" $(cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub)" >> ~/.ssh/allowed_signers
git config --global gpg.ssh.allowedSignersFile ~/.ssh/allowed_signers

You also have to upload the key to GitHub as a signing key (separate from the auth key):

gh ssh-key add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub --type signing

See SSH commit signing for the full walkthrough, including the admin:ssh_signing_key scope gotcha.

2.2. GPG signing

git config --global commit.gpgsign true
git config --global user.signingkey <GPG-key-id>

If you don't have a GPG key yet, create one first with gpg --full-generate-key.

3. Use GitHub Desktop & lazygit

paru -S lazygit github-desktop-bin

These are graphical, but simpler to use and have a lower skill floor.