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When I do git pull via the command line, it always asks for my github username and password. I'd like to tell it to use the ssh key in github, and never have to worry about it again. How do you do this?

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    You want Git to use your client SSL certificate? That would require letting the remote service, e.g. GitHub, knowing about your SSL certificate. You can get the "never have to worry about it again" experience by using SSH keys instead of HTTP, though. Note that you will have to change the remote so it uses git@github... instead of https://.... Commented May 8, 2014 at 16:04
  • 1
    Ah yeah, wrong terminology. I swear im not that big of a noob. Updated with proper info Commented May 8, 2014 at 16:09
  • And i do have a key in github, and integrated in my gui/ide Commented May 8, 2014 at 16:10
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    Then you can try just changing your remote and see if that works: assuming your remote is called origin and you've got a relatively recent Git, git remote set-url origin git@github... and git remote set-url --push origin git@github.... Get the git@github... part from GitHub by clicking on the SSH link for your clone URL. If that doesn't do it, you may have to (a) add a second key to GitHub, or (b) let your command-line git know about the key you're using in your IDE. Commented May 8, 2014 at 16:13

9 Answers 9

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93

To tell Git to use the key that you generated, add the following to your ssh config (on Linux, usually located at ~/.ssh/config):

Host github.com
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

For the IdentityFile you should use the key that was generated by ssh-keygen (not the one whose name ends in .pub). The User must always be git.

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4 Comments

This was my issue. I was trying ssh-agent and other things, but this config file fixed it.
This should be the top answer, since it answers the question that everyone really has. How to use the local key, no one with the capability to google has to ask for how to paste a key into github.
This one worked for me! I named my key something different than the default id_ed25519, and it was passphrase-protected, so one/both of those two things made my Github key not be automatically added to the agent. Now, if I do something like git pull, it'll prompt me for the passphrase and then add the key to the agent! Thanks!
Actually, the username must/should/can match your Github username (does not have to be git).
64

Having looked at these answers, it seems the one I found easiest is not included. In the working directory of the repo you are interested in specifying a specific key, do:

git config core.sshCommand 'ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa'  #specific private key

You can check to see that it worked (or see if there is an existing core.sshCommand for the repo) by doing:

git config --list
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4 Comments

Setting up a specific (non-default) key for a specific repo is exactly what I was looking for! Though maybe using a default key is not that bad idea, eventually
Amazing! This is exactly what I looked for. Specific key for specific repo. This is how I use keys and that is why I've got so many of them.
Excellent. Use --global flag to achieve permanent effect.
This also pairs well with commit signing with a ssh key (introduced in Git 2.34). Example config included in my answer lower down this page.
29

Assuming that you have used ssh-keygen to generate a key pair and uploaded the public key in the appropriate place in your github account, you should be able to set remote to use the url [email protected]:username/repo.git. 

git remote set-url origin [email protected]:username/repo.git

If you do not have local changes that you care about, you can just delete your local repository and clone again:

git clone [email protected]:username/repo.git

Here are github's instructions on this setup, which you can use as a reference as needed.

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everywhere on the internet there are tutorials on how to copy the generated key into github account. but, your answer still doesn't include the answer on how to use the private. "now I created the private key, how does git knows where to get it from?"
@BinarWeb You're welcome to propose an edit. I think I may have misunderstood the question.
12

Here's a consolidating answer if you want to use the same SSH key for signing commits as well as authenticating for clones/pulls/etc.

Given an SSH key-pair stored in .ssh/git_ed25519 and .ssh/git_ed25519.pub, this config will use that key for both signing commits and authenticating via SSH for remote repo access:

# Specify SSH key for remote authentication
[core]
      sshCommand = ssh -o IdentitiesOnly=yes -i ~/.ssh/git_ed25519

# Specify SSH key for commit signing
[user]
      signingKey = ~/.ssh/git_ed25519.pub
[gpg]
      format = ssh
[commit]
      gpgsign = true

Commands to add these options to the global config:

# SSH for remote authentication
git config --global core.sshCommand 'ssh -o IdentitiesOnly=yes -i ~/.ssh/git_ed25519'

# SSH for commit signing
git config --global user.signingKey '~/.ssh/git_ed25519.pub'
git config --global gpg.format ssh
git config --global commit.gpgsign true

Note that signing commits with SSH keys is only supported in Git v2.34 and up.

EDIT: Added the -o IdentitiesOnly=yes option to the ssh command so that it only sends the specified key instead of trying to authenticate with every key stored in ssh-agent.

Citations:

  1. Rich Signell's answer for the core.sshCommand option
  2. Github docs for SSH commit signing options
  3. Git release notes for versions supporting ssh key commit signing
  4. SSH man page and this StackOverflow answer for using -o IdentitiesOnly=yes to prevent checking extra keys
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8

Git does not provide a dedicated way to configure which key to use for ssh connections (just uses whatever is set as default), but fortunately we can override the interal ssh command and specify it (add -i key_file)

1. To clone a repo with specific key you can use:

git clone -c "core.sshCommand=ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa_repo" [email protected]:org/repo.git

Config will persist.

2. Then to change that to local config:

git config core.sshCommand "ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa_repo"
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1

Another possibility is that after creating the ssh you may have moved the keys to a different folder. In that case, ssh-add ~/yourkeyfolder/yourkey

This will ensure that your key is known to the os.

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If you use a Gnome-based Linux desktop, such as Ubuntu or Fedora, you can also use the built-in "Passwords and encryption" application to create and manage SSH keys. To create an SSH key, just open the application, click +, then SSH Key, fill out the form, enter the password for the key twice and finally insert the generated public key information into GitHub. After that, the git command will use this SSH key for SSH connections. You have to enter the password for the SSH key only once per session. In this case there is no need to configure ssh-agent or modify ~/.ssh/config, it just works.

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1

Did you set up your SSH key and add it in GitHub? Then you need to modify your ~/.ssh/config file:

# Global settings - applies to all hosts unless overridden
Host \*
AddKeysToAgent yes
UseKeychain yes

# You can optionally list specific keys to load on startup if needed:

# IdentityFile \~/.ssh/id_ed25519

# IdentityFile \~/.ssh/id_ed25519_personal

# IdentityFile \~/.ssh/id_ed25519_enterprise

Also, run ssh-add with the Keychain flag: • On macOS Monterey 12.0 or newer:


ssh-add --apple-use-keychain ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

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1

Since I wanted to switch my authentication method, the remote URL itself in my repository had to change.

I found the solution at git with ssh instead of https.

This is the solution that worked for me, in addition to all the advice given here.

Change the remote:

git remote set-url origin [email protected]:USERNAME/OTHERREPOSITORY.git

The command git remote -v should show:

origin  [email protected]:USERNAME/OTHERREPOSITORY.git (fetch)
origin  [email protected]:USERNAME/OTHERREPOSITORY.git (push)
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