Generating a new SSH key

Paste the text below, substituting in your GitHub email address.

$ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "[email protected]"

This creates a new SSH key, using the provided email as a label.

> Generating public/private ALGORITHM key pair.

When you're prompted to "Enter a file in which to save the key", you can press Enter to accept the default file location. Please note that if you created SSH keys previously, ssh-keygen may ask you to rewrite another key, in which case we recommend creating a custom-named SSH key. To do so, type the default file location and replace id_ssh_keyname with your custom key name.

> Enter a file in which to save the key (/home/YOU/.ssh/ALGORITHM):[Press enter]

At the prompt, type a secure passphrase.

> Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): [Type a passphrase]
> Enter same passphrase again: [Type passphrase again]

Adding your SSH key to the ssh-agent

Before adding a new SSH key to the ssh-agent to manage your keys, you should have checked for existing SSH keys and generated a new SSH key.

$ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
> Agent pid 59566

Depending on your environment, you may need to use a different command. For example, you may need to use root access by running sudo -s -H before starting the ssh-agent, or you may need to use exec ssh-agent bash or exec ssh-agent zsh to run the ssh-agent.

Add your SSH private key to the ssh-agent. If you created your key with a different name, or if you are adding an existing key that has a different name, replace id_ed25519 in the command with the name of your private key file.

$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Add the SSH key to your account on GitHub.