Recipient.
The 'to' of encryption. A recipient is whoever can open the file — expressed as a public key. Encrypt to multiple recipients and any one of them can decrypt independently.
In age, a recipient is the public identifier a file is encrypted to: a native age1… key, an ssh-ed25519/ssh-rsa public key, or (in passphrase mode) a password.
What it is
age wraps the file's payload key once per recipient. A file encrypted to three recipients carries three wrapped copies of that key in its header; each recipient unwraps only their own. Recipients never learn about one another from the file.
Why it matters
Multi-recipient encryption is how you share a secret with a team without per-person re-encryption. Add everyone's public key as a recipient and ship one file. The matching concept on the decrypt side is the identity.
Related terms
Common questions.
Can I encrypt to many people at once?
Yes. Add each public key as a recipient; any one of them can decrypt the resulting file.
Do recipients see each other?
No. The header does not reveal recipient identities.
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