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Setting up magit-forge

Published: [2023-03-29 Wed 06:19] (Last Updated: [2026-07-16 Thu 14:19])

Introduction

Magit forge is an Emacs package that allows you to work directly with remote git repositories hosted on public platforms such as Github and Gitlab.

Setting the username in git

In the following examples, replace ziggy with your username.

Github

git config --global github.user ziggy

Gitlab

git config --global gitlab.user ziggy

Configuring Emacs

Add the following to your config.el file:

(setq auth-sources '("~/.authinfo"))

Setting up an authentication key

Github

To use magit-forge on Github, an API key needs creating against your account. To do this, do the following:

Go to https://github.com/settings/tokens
Click "Generate new token"
Then "Generate new token (classic)"
Give it a name
Set the expiry (I usually set no expiry)
Select the following scopes:
- repo (this selects the following sub scopes):
  - repo:status
  - repo_deployment
  - public_repo
  - repo:invite
  - security_events
Then click "Generate token"

Once this is complete copy the token

Gitlab

Go to https://gitlab.com/-/user_settings/personal_access_tokens
Click "Generate token"
Select "Legacy token"
Give it a name
Set the expiry
Set the following scopes:
- api
- read_api
- read_user
Then click "Generate token"

Then copy the token

Adding the key(s) to Emacs

Open/create your ~/.authinfo file and write the following:

machine api.github.com login ziggy^forge password 012345abcdef...
machine gitlab.com login ziggy^forge password 012345abcdef...

Replace ziggy with your username and 012345abcdef... with your key
Save and reload emacs

DISCLAIMER: The information provided on this website is generated from my own notes and is provided "as is" and without warranties. Robert Ian Hawdon can not be held responsible for damages caused by following a guide published on this site. This website contains links to other third-party websites. Such links are provided as convienice of the reader. I do not endorce the contents of these third party sites.