Cannot create signed Git commits from IDE: error: cannot run gpg: No such file or directory – Support | JetBrains

Problem

Creating a signed Git commit from an IntelliJ-based IDE UI (for example, Git | Commit or ⌘K / Ctrl+K) fails. The IDE log (Help | Show Log in Finder/Explorer) contains:

error: cannot run gpg: No such file or directory
error: gpg failed to sign the data:
(no gpg output)
fatal: failed to write commit object

The same git commit -S operation succeeds when run from an external terminal or from the IDE's built-in terminal. Disabling signing with git config commit.gpgSign false allows commits to complete from the IDE UI.

This applies to all IntelliJ-based IDEs (IntelliJ IDEA, PhpStorm, WebStorm, GoLand, PyCharm, RubyMine, and others) on macOS and Linux.

Cause

The IDE inherits environment variables — including PATH — from the process that launches it. When started from a graphical launcher (Dock, Spotlight, Start menu, desktop shortcut), the IDE does not run ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, or similar interactive shell initialization files. As a result, the PATH exported by those files is not visible to the IDE.

The IDE's built-in terminal and any external terminal start a new shell that does load these files, which is why the same git commit -S works there.

If gpg (commonly installed at /opt/homebrew/bin/gpg or /usr/local/bin/gpg) is added to PATH only by an interactive shell init file, Git invoked by the IDE cannot locate it and signing fails.

Shell customization frameworks such as Oh My Bash, Oh My Zsh, and Powerlevel10k frequently modify or override PATH inside these interactive-only files, which exposes this difference.

Resolution

Apply one of the options below. Option 1 is the simplest persistent fix.

Option 1: Set `gpg.program` to an absolute path

Configure Git to invoke gpg by its full path so the IDE does not need to resolve it through PATH.

Locate the gpg executable in a terminal:
```
which gpg
```
Configure Git globally with the path returned in step 1:
```
git config --global gpg.program /opt/homebrew/bin/gpg
```
Restart the IDE and retry the commit.

Option 2: Launch the IDE from a terminal

Start the IDE from a shell that has already loaded the correct PATH. The IDE inherits the parent shell's environment, including the location of gpg.

See Command-line interface for JetBrains IDEs for instructions on adding the launcher script to PATH. With the launcher in place, start the IDE from a terminal session, for example:

idea

Option 3: Expose `PATH` to graphical sessions

Move PATH modifications out of interactive-only init files into a location that graphical sessions also load:

zsh: add the export PATH=... line to ~/.zshenv (read by all zsh invocations, including non-interactive ones).
bash: add the export PATH=... line to ~/.bash_profile or ~/.profile.
macOS system-wide: add the directory containing gpg to /etc/paths or a file under /etc/paths.d/.

If a shell framework (such as Oh My Bash) injects its own initialization that overrides or replaces PATH for interactive sessions, ensure that the framework's source line appears after any user-added PATH exports, or move the PATH exports to one of the locations above.

After making the change, log out and log back in (or restart) so that graphical sessions pick up the new environment, then start the IDE from the desktop launcher.

Verification

After applying a fix:

Restart the IDE.
In Settings (⌘, or Ctrl+Alt+S) | Version Control | Git, click Configure GPG Keys and confirm the signing key is selected for the repository.
Make a test commit from Git | Commit.
Confirm the signature on the resulting commit:
```
git log --show-signature -1
```