---
title: "Signing archives, installers, packages, and checksums"
linkTitle: "Archives, installers, packages, and checksums"
weight: 20
---

Signing ensures that the artifacts have been generated by yourself, and your
users can verify that by comparing the generated signature with your public
signing key.

GoReleaser provides means to sign both executables and archives.

## Usage

Signing works in combination with checksum files, and it is generally enough
to sign the checksum files only.

The default is configured to create a detached signature for the checksum files
with [GnuPG](https://www.gnupg.org/), and your default key.

To enable signing just add this to your configuration:

```yaml {filename=".goreleaser.yaml"}
signs:
  - artifacts: checksum
```

To customize the signing pipeline you can use the following options:

```yaml {filename=".goreleaser.yaml"}
signs:
  - #
    # ID of the sign config, must be unique.
    #
    # Default: 'default'.
    id: foo

    # Name of the signature file.
    #
    # Default: '${artifact}.sig'.
    # Templates: allowed.
    signature: "${artifact}_sig"

    # Path to the signature command
    #
    # Default: 'gpg'.
    cmd: gpg2

    # Command line arguments for the command
    #
    # to sign with a specific key use
    # args: ["-u", "<key id, fingerprint, email, ...>", "--output", "${signature}", "--detach-sign", "${artifact}"]
    #
    # Default: ["--output", "${signature}", "--detach-sig", "${artifact}"].
    # Templates: allowed.
    args: ["--output", "${signature}", "${artifact}", "{{ .ProjectName }}"]

    # Which artifacts to sign
    #
    # Valid options are:
    # - none        no signing
    # - all:        all artifacts
    # - checksum:   checksum files
    # - source:     source archive
    # - package:    Linux packages (deb, rpm, apk, etc)
    # - installer:  Installers (MSI, NSIS, macOS Pkgs) {{< g_inline_pro >}}
    # - diskimage:  macOS DMG disk images {{< g_inline_pro >}}
    # - archive:    archives from archive pipe
    # - sbom:       any SBOMs generated for other artifacts
    # - binary:     binaries (only when `archives.format` is 'binary', use binary_signs otherwise)
    #
    # Default: 'none'.
    artifacts: all

    # IDs of the artifacts to sign.
    #
    # If `artifacts` is checksum or source, this fields has no effect.
    ids:
      - foo
      - bar

    # Allows to further filter the artifacts.
    #
    # Artifacts that do not match this expression will be ignored.
    #
    # {{< g_inline_pro >}}
    # {{< g_inline_version "v2.2" >}}
    # Templates: allowed.
    if: '{{ eq .Os "linux" }}'

    # Stdin data to be given to the signature command as stdin.
    #
    # Templates: allowed.
    stdin: "{{ .Env.GPG_PASSWORD }}"

    # StdinFile file to be given to the signature command as stdin.
    stdin_file: ./.password

    # Sets a certificate that your signing command should write to.
    #
    # You can later use `${certificate}` or `.Env.certificate` in the `args` section.
    #
    # This is particularly useful for keyless signing with cosign, and should
    # not usually be used otherwise.
    #
    # Note that this should be a name, not a path.
    #
    # Templates: allowed.
    certificate: '{{ trimsuffix .Env.artifact ".tar.gz" }}.pem'

    # List of environment variables that will be passed to the signing command
    # as well as the templates.
    env:
      - FOO=bar
      - HONK=honkhonk

    # By default, the stdout and stderr of the signing cmd are discarded unless
    # GoReleaser is running with `--verbose` set.
    # You can set this to true if you want them to be displayed regardless.
    #
    # Templates: allowed. {{< g_inline_version "v2.13" >}}
    output: true
```

### Available variable names

These environment variables might be available in the fields that accept
templates:

- `${artifact}`: the path to the artifact that will be signed
- `${artifactID}`: the ID of the artifact that will be signed
- `${certificate}`: the certificate filename, if provided
- `${signature}`: the signature filename

## Signing with cosign

You can sign your artifacts with [cosign][] as well.

Cosign uses the `--bundle` flag, which combines the certificate and
signature into a single `.sigstore.json` file:

```yaml {filename=".goreleaser.yaml"}
signs:
  - cmd: cosign
    signature: "${artifact}.sigstore.json"
    args:
      - "sign-blob"
      - "--bundle=${signature}"
      - "${artifact}"
      - "--yes"
    artifacts: checksum
```

Your users can then verify the signature with:

```sh
cosign verify-blob --bundle file.tar.gz.sigstore.json file.tar.gz
```

## Signing and notarizing macOS executables

For signing and notarizing macOS executables, please refer to
[Notarize macOS applications](/customization/sign/notarize/).

## Signing Docker images and manifests

Please refer to [Docker Images Signing](/customization/sign/docker_sign/).

## Limitations

You can sign with any command that either outputs a file or modify the file
being signed.

If you want to sign with something that writes to `STDOUT` instead of a file,
you can wrap the command inside a `sh -c` execution, for instance:

```yaml {filename=".goreleaser.yaml"}
signs:
  - cmd: sh
    args:
      - "-c"
      - 'echo "${artifact} is signed and I can prove it" | tee ${signature}'
    artifacts: all
```

And it will work just fine. Just make sure to always use the `${signature}`
template variable as the result file name and `${artifact}` as the origin file.

[cosign]: https://github.com/sigstore/cosign
