Overview

pass, the standard Unix password manager, is a tiny shell script that keeps your secrets in a straightforward, transparent way: each password is a GPG-encrypted file inside a plain directory tree. Because the store is just encrypted files, you can organise, browse and edit it with ordinary shell commands, back it up with any tool, and optionally version it with Git for sync and history. First written by Jason A. Donenfeld, it remains one of the most audited and dependable password tools in the open-source world.

Key Features

• Dead simple concept — secrets are individual GPG-encrypted files; nothing proprietary to learn.
• GPG encryption — each entry is encrypted with your public keys, and files can be encrypted to multiple recipients.
• Git integration — optional: keep the whole store in Git for synchronisation, history and rollback.
• Temporary clipboard — copy a password to the clipboard with a single command, auto-cleared after a short time.
• Standard shell tools — create, list, find, edit and generate entries using ordinary Unix commands.
• Large extension ecosystem — community plugins add browser autofill, OTP codes, QR codes and more.

Why Use It

pass is for people who trust simple, auditable tools over big applications. It is extremely lightweight, runs anywhere with a POSIX shell and GPG, and gives you complete ownership of your data with no cloud and no lock-in. Mobile and desktop clients such as Password Store on Android build on the same format.

Use Cases

• Managing credentials entirely from a terminal
• Keeping a vault in version control alongside your dotfiles
• Power users who want one encrypted store usable across Linux, macOS and BSD

Platforms

Any Unix-like system (Linux · macOS · BSD) — plus Android and other GUI clients of the same format

Licence

GPL-2.0+

Website

passwordstore.org