# Signing artifacts

version 6.5

The Signing Plugin can be used to sign all artifacts and metadata files that make up a publication, including Maven POM files and Ivy module descriptors. In order to use it:

1. Apply the Signing Plugin

2. Configure the signatory credentials — follow the link to see how

3. Specify the publications you want signed

Here’s an example that configures the plugin to sign the `mavenJava` publication:

Example 1. Signing a publication
build.gradle

    signing {
        sign publishing.publications.mavenJava
    }

build.gradle.kts

    signing {
        sign(publishing.publications["mavenJava"])
    }

This will create a `Sign` task for each publication you specify and wire all `publishPubNamePublicationToRepoNameRepository` tasks to depend on it. Thus, publishing any publication will automatically create and publish the signatures for its artifacts and metadata, as you can see from this output:

## Example: Sign and publish a project

Output of `gradle publish`

    > gradle publish
    include::{snippetsPath}/signing/maven-publish/tests/publishingMavenSignAndPublish.out