@@ -204,7 +204,7 @@
-
+
The rngit system includes rngcs, a Git commit signing and validation shim that enables commit signing and validation using Reticulum identities. By hooking into Git’s SSH-based signing format, commits can be signed and verified using Reticulum identity keys directly.
Unlike traditional GPG and SSH-based commit signing, which relies on centralized keyservers, cumbersome co-signing procedures or manual per-signer setup, Reticulum commit signing uses self-contained RSG signatures, that can be deterministically resolved to Reticulum identity hashes.
+This enables offline verification with no external infrastructure. The signature itself contains everything needed to cryptographically verify the signer’s Reticulum identity and that the commit was signed correctly by the claimed identity.
+Before you can sign commits, you need a Reticulum identity with a private key. If you don’t already have one, you can generate it using rnid:
$ rnid -g ~/.rngit/client_identity
+
+New identity <1a54d64db7e8beca6f2c6cd17b0cb479> written to /home/user/.rngit/client_identity
+The identity file must contain the private key to be usable for signing. The corresponding Reticulum identity hash will be used as the commit author identity.
+Git must be configured to use SSH-format signatures with the rngcs signing shim, which is included in RNS. You can configure this either globally or per-repository.
Global Configuration
+Enabling Reticulum commit signing for all repositories is as simple as:
+$ git config --global gpg.format ssh
+$ git config --global gpg.ssh.program rngcs
+$ git config --global gpg.ssh.allowedsignersfile
+$ git config --global user.signingKey ~/.rngit/client_identity
+With this configuration, all commits you sign with git commit -S will use your Reticulum identity.
Note
+The gpg.ssh.allowedsignersfile configuration key must be set for git to allow invoking the signing and verification shim. It is not actually used by rngcs, and can be set to an empty or arbitrary value. All validation operations happen exclusively based on the information in the embedded RSG data.
Per-Repository Configuration
+To enable signing only for a specific repository:
+$ cd /path/to/repository
+$ git config --local gpg.format ssh
+$ git config --local gpg.ssh.program rngcs
+$ git config --local gpg.ssh.allowedsignersfile
+$ git config --local user.signingKey ~/.rngit/client_identity
+This is useful when you want to use different identities for different projects, or when only specific repositories require signed commits.
+Once configured, sign commits using the standard Git -S flag:
$ git commit -S -m "Refactored module"
+
+[master 8f7e6d5] Refactored module
+This will create a self-contained RSG-formatted signature, encode the RSG payload using base64, and wrap it in an ASCII-armored SSH-formatted signature block. The signature is then stored in the commit object’s signature header and includes:
+The SHA256 hash of the commit content
The signer’s Reticulum identity hash
The signer’s public key
The actual signature of the complete envelope
Commits are automatically validated when using git log --show-signature or git show --show-signature. The rngcs shim handles all verification operations. If any step fails, verification fails and Git displays an error.
To view signature information for commits, use Git’s standard --show-signature option:
$ git log --show-signature
+
+commit 8f7e6d5c8f7e6d5c8f7e6d5c8f7e6d5c8f7e6d5
+Good "git" signature for commit, signed with Reticulum Identity key <1a54d64db7e8beca6f2c6cd17b0cb479>
+Author: Developer <1a54d64db7e8beca6f2c6cd17b0cb479>
+Date: Mon Jan 15 09:30:00 2026 +0100
+
+ Refactored module
+The output shows whether the commit signature is valid, and whether the author field matches the signing identity.
+