Signing Git commits with GPG keys verifies commit authenticity and proves that commits actually came from you. As the creator of CoreUI with over 25 years of development experience, I’ve implemented commit signing for security-critical enterprise projects. The most effective solution is to generate a GPG key, configure Git to use it, and enable automatic commit signing. This approach provides cryptographic proof of commit authorship with verified badges on hosting platforms.

Annotated tags in Git store additional metadata including tagger information, date, and optional messages, making them ideal for formal releases and version tracking. As the creator of CoreUI with over 25 years of version control experience, I use annotated tags exclusively for all official releases and major milestones. The most effective approach is using the -a flag with descriptive messages that explain the release contents and changes. This provides a complete audit trail and professional version management for production releases.