PassForge

Your passwords.
Your device. Only.

PassForge is a minimalist, local-first password & secret manager for macOS, Windows and Linux. No servers, no accounts, no sync — the vault is encrypted with AES-256-GCM and never leaves your machine.

Download for desktop View on GitHub
Latest release Open source · MIT Zero runtime dependencies Unlock with passcode or Touch ID

Get PassForge for your desktop

One installer per platform, published on GitHub Releases. The browser-autofill extension ships alongside every release.

macOS

macOS 11+ · unlock with Touch ID

Apple Silicon (.dmg) Intel (.dmg)

Windows

Windows 10/11 · x64

Installer (.exe)

Linux

Any distro (AppImage) · Fedora/RHEL/openSUSE (.rpm) · x64

AppImage RPM (.rpm)

A note on installer warnings: builds are not yet code-signed, so macOS Gatekeeper and Windows SmartScreen will warn on first launch (right-click → Open on macOS, “More info → Run anyway” on Windows). Every installer is built from source in public GitHub Actions — you can audit exactly what you run, or build it yourself with npm run dist.

Everything a vault needs, nothing it doesn’t

Small, fast and deliberately offline. Eleven things PassForge does well:

Local-first vault

One encrypted file on your device. AES-256-GCM with a random 256-bit data key, wrapped by your passcode via scrypt.

Passcode & biometric unlock

A 6-digit passcode with lockout backoff, or Touch ID on macOS via the OS keychain.

In-page browser autofill

A bundled Chrome/Edge/Brave extension shows matching logins right in the page and fills them via native messaging — creds released only while unlocked, only for matching sites.

System-wide auto-type

Press ⌘/Ctrl+Shift+U in any app: PassForge matches the focused window and types username ⇥ password for you.

Autofill offers

Hotkey-free: when a window matches a saved login, a native notification offers to fill it — one click and you’re in.

Password health

On-device analysis flags weak, reused and stale passwords with an overall vault score. Nothing is ever sent anywhere.

Strong generator

Tunable length and character sets, generated with the OS cryptographic RNG.

Secrets & API keys

Not just logins: store API keys, tokens and notes as first-class secret entries.

2FA recovery codes

Paste a block of recovery codes, tick them off as you use them, and see how many remain at a glance.

Import in one click

Bring your data from Bitwarden JSON or any CSV export (Chrome, 1Password, LastPass and friends).

Auto-lock

Locks on idle, sleep, screen lock or minimize — configurable, with the key material wiped from memory.

How your vault is protected

The whole crypto path uses Node’s built-in primitives — no third-party crypto, no runtime dependencies at all.

passcode ──scrypt──▶ wrap key ─┐
                                ├─▶ DEK (random 256-bit)
Touch ID ──OS keychain──────────┘        │
                                         ▼
                            AES-256-GCM · fresh IV per save
                                         │
                                         ▼
                         vault.enc — one file, on disk,
                         on your device, nowhere else
  • No network. PassForge makes zero network requests. GitHub is used only to distribute installers.
  • Sandboxed UI. The renderer never sees key material; unlock, crypto and autofill live in the main process behind a typed IPC bridge.
  • Untrusted pages stay untrusted. The browser bridge matches by URL host only and answers only while the vault is unlocked.
  • Open source. MIT-licensed, ~zero dependencies to audit, reproducible builds in public CI.