Gitleaks is an open-source secret-detection tool for finding passwords, API keys, tokens, and other sensitive values in Git repositories, directories, files, and standard input. It is commonly used to prevent credentials from being accidentally committed or distributed with source code.

The tool supports Git-history scanning, directory scanning, and stdin-based workflows and can be installed through package managers, Docker, Go, or prebuilt binaries. It can also run automatically as a pre-commit hook or GitHub Action, allowing secret checks to become part of a normal development and CI pipeline.

Gitleaks is useful for developers, security teams, and DevOps workflows that need fast automated checks for exposed credentials. The README states that the project is now feature complete and future releases are expected to focus on security patches, making it a mature, focused utility rather than a rapidly expanding security platform.