CommitGate

An AI-powered security gate for Git. On every git commit or every git push.

CommitGate scans your changes and blocks them before secrets or risky code ever reach your history.

How it works · Providers · Setup · How to use · Configuration · Data Privacy

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Demo

CommitGate blocking a vulnerable commit before it reaches Git history.

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How it works

CommitGate runs two scanners over your changes and merges their findings:

Scanner	Catches
	Known secret shapes: API keys, tokens, passwords
AI Reviewer	What regex missed: code understanding, private knowledge

• You run git commit (or git push). The installed Git hook hands your changes to CommitGate.

• CommitGate decides an outcome allow, warn, or block.

• You get a report in your terminal. On block, the commit or push is stopped; otherwise it proceeds.

See docs/architecture.md for the module-by-module design.

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Providers

These are the available providers that we support for the AI reviewer. You can choose between use an OpenAI-compatible API key (faster, recommended) or use your own AI agents.

Type	Providers
OpenAI-compatible API (needs an API key)
AI Agents (no API key, uses your local login)

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Setup

1. Install the prerequisites

Requirement	How to install
Python ≥ 3.10	python.org
Git	git-scm.com
Gitleaks (separate binary, not installed by pip)	See installation instructions below.

Installing Gitleaks

• Windows

  winget install gitleaks

• macOS

  brew install gitleaks

• Linux

  • Download the latest release from the Gitleaks Releases
  • Place the binary somewhere on your PATH

• For additional installation methods (Snap, Docker, package managers, etc.), see the official Gitleaks installation guide.

Confirm Gitleaks is ready:

gitleaks version

2. Install CommitGate

pip install git+https://github.com/ductrl/CommitGate.git

3. Protect your repo

Run this inside the repo you want to guard:

commitgate init

This creates a commitgate.yaml config file and installs a Git hook. It asks whether you want a pre-commit or pre-push hook (see How to use).

4. Set up the AI Reviewer

Open commitgate.yaml and set provider to match one of the paths below.

Option A: API key (OpenAI · Gemini · DeepSeek · Kimi · Groq)

ai:
  provider: groq        # or openai / gemini / deepseek / kimi

Create a .env file in your project root and add your key

AI_KEY=your-api-key-here

Keep .env out of Git, it holds your key.

Option B: AI Agent (Claude Code, Codex, or Antigravity; no API key)

First confirm the agent is installed and logged in:

claude --version    # Claude Code
codex --version     # Codex
agy --version       # Antigravity

Then set the provider:

ai:
  provider: claude-cli   # or codex-cli / agy-cli

Option C: No AI (Gitleaks only)

ai:
  enabled: false

It is recommended to commit commitgate.yaml so your whole team shares the same gate policy. The file doesn't and shouldn't include any secrets.

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How to use

After commitgate init, just git commit / git push as usual and CommitGate will automatically scan your changes.

pre-commit vs pre-push

You pick one when you run commitgate init (or commitgate install-hook):

Hook	Runs on	Scans
pre-commit	every git commit	your staged changes → fast, per-commit feedback
pre-push	every git push	every commit in the push range → a final gate before code leaves your machine

To switch, or add the other one later, run commitgate install-hook and choose. Install both for defense in depth.

What each outcome means

Outcome	When
allow	no findings
warn	findings below the block severity
block	findings at or above the block severity (default: high)

Change the bar with policy.block_severity in commitgate.yaml (low / medium / high / critical). See Configuration for that and other options.

Scan manually

Check your staged changes any time, without committing:

git add app.py
commitgate scan

If app.py hardcodes a secret, you'll see:

CommitGate detected 1 security finding(s):
[CRITICAL] Finding #1
	- Source: gitleaks
	- Category: Secret leak
	- Severity: critical
	- File: app.py
	- Location: Line 12 to 12
	- Description: AWS Access Key detected
Commit blocked by CommitGate.

Skip once

Need to bypass the gate for a single commit:

SKIP=commitgate git commit -m "your message"

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Configuration

commitgate init writes a commitgate.yaml in your repo root. Every option has a safe default — edit only what you need. To restore the file to defaults at any time:

commitgate reset-config

The full file, annotated:

# Enable or disable CommitGate for this repository.
enabled: true

ai:
  # Enable AI-powered security review.
  enabled: true

  # AI provider to use.
  # Option 1: (AI_KEY in .env): openai, gemini, deepseek, kimi, groq (Tip: groq offers a free API key - at https://console.groq.com)
  # Option 2: local agent login (no API key): claude-cli, codex-cli, agy-cli
  provider: deepseek

  # Maximum time (seconds) allowed for AI review.
  timeout: 20

policy:
  # Findings at or above this severity block the commit/push.
  # Options: low, medium, high, critical
  block_severity: high

reporting:
  # Minimum severity shown in CommitGate output.
  # Must be <= block_severity, so a blocking finding is never hidden
  # Options: low, medium, high, critical
  # Example: medium shows medium, high, and critical findings, but hides low findings.
  # Raising this to high speeds up the AI review significantly, but may hide some lower-severity findings.
  min_severity: medium

  # Control which optional fields are displayed for each finding.
  # Turning off description and suggestions also speeds up the AI review.
  fields:
    source: true
    category: true
    description: true
    suggestions: true

Tuning for speed

• CommitGate scan time is mostly determined by how much output it needs to generate. In general, the less information it needs to print, the faster it runs.
• reporting.min_severity: Raising to medium or high returns fewer findings and reduces scan time.
• reporting.fields.description / suggestions: AI will skip generating those fields entirely and significantly improve scan speed.

Both stay bounded by policy.block_severity (min_severity can't be raised above it), so a blocking finding is never hidden or skipped.

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Data Privacy

When the AI Reviewer is enabled, CommitGate sends the selected change diff to the AI provider you configure in commitgate.yaml (staged diff for pre-commit, push-range diff for pre-push). This applies to AI Agents too (Claude Code → Anthropic, Codex → OpenAI, Antigravity → Google), as your diff is still sent to their provider, so they are not air-gapped options.

Do not use the AI Reviewer on confidential or proprietary code without your organization's authorization. Set ai.enabled: false to run Gitleaks only.

Fully local LLM support is on the roadmap.

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License

MIT © 2026 Mike Ly

CommitGate is free to use, modify, and distribute under the terms of the MIT License.