Ask HN: Best practice to prevent credentials/secrets commit to Git repo

#1

Post by xinbenlv » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 1:19 AM UTC

Hi HN friends, it's july 2026 and I am assuming many of you use fully agentic building now. Securing secrets and credentials from being committed to GitHub repo has been even more critical. What's your best practice nowaday?

Thx

Re: Ask HN: Best practice to prevent credentials/secrets commit to Git repo

#2

Post by toomuchtodo » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 1:21 AM UTC

Push protection

https://docs.github.com/en/code-security/concepts/secret-sec...

https://github.blog/news-insights/product-news/push-protecti...

Re: Ask HN: Best practice to prevent credentials/secrets commit to Git repo

#3

Post by xinbenlv » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 1:36 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #2

Push protection https://docs.github.com/en/code-security/concepts/secret-sec... https://github.blog/news-insights/product-news/push-protecti...

Thanks, that's helpful. Do you use gitleaks or other library to do pre-commit protection? @toomuchtodo

Re: Ask HN: Best practice to prevent credentials/secrets commit to Git repo

#4

Post by toomuchtodo » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 2:04 PM UTC

xinbenlv wrote: post #3

toomuchtodo wrote: post #2

Push protection https://docs.github.com/en/code-security/concepts/secret-sec... https://github.blog/news-insights/product-news/push-protecti...

Thanks, that's helpful. Do you use gitleaks or other library to do pre-commit protection? @toomuchtodo

Gitleaks is a fine tool to use, I would recommend its use.