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GPG Key Configuration

Signing Git with GPG using Keybase

This tutorial was originally writen by Stephen Rees-Carter

We suggest using this method of GPG key setup to reduce the amount of keys you need to maintain when working on your devices, however it's not perfect for everyone. This tutorial assumes that you are working from a private machine.

Prerequisities​

Update the GPG Key​

  1. First, export your public and private keys from Keybase using the keybase pgp command:

    keybase pgp export --outfile keybase-public.key
    keybase pgp export --secret --outfile keybase-private.key

    During the export process, Keybase will ask for your account password and prompt to set a new password for the private key file.

  2. Next, you need to import the keys into GPG using the gpg command:

    gpg --allow-secret-key-import --import keybase-private.key
    gpg --import keybase-public.key

    The import process will ask for the password you just assigned to your private key, for obvious reasons.

  3. Now that you’ve imported the key into GPG, you need to modify the key to include your email address. This is done by invoking the gpg --edit-key command, with a unique identifier for your key. I found using the <username>@keybase.io address worked nicely.

    gpg --edit-key < username > @keybase.io

    This command will get you into the gpg> prompt, and from there you need to run the adduid command. It will prompt for your Real name and Email address (feel free to leave Comment empty). Once you’ve provided your name and email, confirm using the O and then save to close the gpg> prompt.

  4. Using gpg --edit-key <key> and selecting the trust option. I suggest using trust level 5 = I trust ultimately, since it is your own key. After applying the change, use save to close the prompt.

  5. Once that’s done, you can push your updated key back into Keybase.

    keybase pgp update

  6. Add key to Github (follow this tutorial)

  7. Setup git signing on commits Use the git config user.signingkey option to specify the Key ID for git to use. You can get this from the GitHub GPG keys page if you’re unsure what it is. You can also require Git to sign all commits with the commit.gpgsign option.

    git config --global user.signingkey <Key ID>
    git config --global commit.gpgsign true