AusweisApp

AusweisApp is the official authentication application for the German national identity card and electronic residence permit, published by Governikus GmbH & Co. KG under the EUPL-1.2 licence. It acts as the local component that online services talk to when they ask you to prove your identity with the card's electronic function: the app reads the card, handles the PIN entry and passes the result back to the requesting service.

In practice it sits between three parties. The card itself, held against a reader; the service you are logging into or filing a form with; and you, confirming which data fields are being requested before the exchange goes ahead. Because the card's electronic identity function is defined by German law, the app is tied to that specific document set rather than being a general-purpose credential manager.

This entry covers the Linux build. Using the app requires suitable card-reading hardware and a service that supports the eID scheme, so it is not useful on its own without both.