Git

Git comes set up in the workspace, with:

• Sane defaults.
• Common and useful aliases.
• User identity from environment variables.
• An automatically configured signing key for signed commits.
• Automatic cloning of a remote repository on startup.

Startup Configuration

When a new container starts, the workspace checks for the environment variables and files below to configure your user-level settings. For example, set your commit identity:

docker run \
  -e GIT_COMMITTER_NAME="Alice" \
  -e GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL="alice@example.com" \
  ghcr.io/kloudkit/workspace:v0.6.0

Environment Variables

• GIT_COMMITTER_NAME: sets [user.name] in ~/.gitconfig to the provided value.
• GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL: sets [user.email] in ~/.gitconfig to the provided value.
• WS_GIT_CREDENTIAL_CACHE_TIMEOUT: Lifetime (seconds) of cached Git credentials.
• WS_GIT_CLONE_REPO: Clones this repository into ${WS_SERVER_ROOT} at startup.

Files

• ~/.ssh/signingkey.pub: when this file is present, [commit.gpgsign] and [tag.gpgsign] are set to true, signing with SSH keys.
• ~/.ssh/signingkey: the private counterpart to ~/.ssh/signingkey.pub, used in the signing process.

Credential Cache

By default, Git caches your credentials in memory for one hour (3600 seconds) with the built-in credential helper:

[credential]
  helper = cache --timeout=3600

When a remote requires basic authentication (such as over HTTPS), Git reuses the cached username and password until the timeout expires.

For a different duration, set WS_GIT_CREDENTIAL_CACHE_TIMEOUT (seconds) before you start the container. Use -1 to keep credentials for one year.

Automated Workspace Cloning

To clone a remote repository when a new container starts, set WS_GIT_CLONE_REPO. The workspace clones it into WS_SERVER_ROOT (default: /workspace) if the directory is empty. This suits CI, short-lived instances used during integration testing, and cloud environments where persistent volumes are costly or impractical.

ℹ️ INFO

If the repository requires authentication, provide the credentials before the container starts: mount ~/.ssh, seed them, or import them from 1Password. Your own autoload scripts run after the clone, so they are too late.

Aliases

Run each alias as git <alias>. For example, git lg shows a customized commit graph.

• amend: Amends the last commit without changing its commit message.
• clean-gone: Removes local branches that no longer have a corresponding remote.
• lg: Shows the commit history as a graph.
• nah: Hard resets the changes and removes untracked files and directories.
• pull-theirs: Pulls with --force and resolves conflicts by favoring remote changes over local ones.
• uncommit: Soft resets the HEAD to the previous commit.
• wip: Stages every change under the current directory and commits it with the message 🚧 WIP.

To list these aliases, run:

git config --get-regexp '^alias\.'

The oh-my-zsh git plugin adds its own shell shortcuts (such as g for git); alias | grep git lists those.

Configuration Lookup

Git looks up its configuration in this order:

• Workspace level (/etc/gitconfig): the default configuration, aliases, and filters (leave this file as it is).
• User level (~/.gitconfig): your personal preferences, which override the configuration in the workspace level file.