SSH connection to GitHub

Watch this in video form

This CodeRefinery video about ssh keys (7 min) shows how to set up SSH connection to GitHub. We recommend you watch this first to understand what is going on.

Using the SSH protocol, you can connect and authenticate to remote servers and services. With Git, it allows you to connect to remote servers to push and pull code. With SSH keys, you can connect to GitHub without supplying your username or password at each visit.

This step was optional in the past but is required now. The GitHub username and password is not enough anymore to publish (git push) changes to GitHub.

Instructions

For the instructions, please follow this guide from GitHub to connect to GitHub with SSH keys. These same instructions work with services other than GitHub as well (except the adding the key to GitHub part).

How to verify that it worked

Try this in your terminal shell:

$ ssh -T git@github.com

If you set up ssh keys correctly, you will see:

Hi yourusername! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.

If it says “You’ve successfully authenticated” then it works and your SSH keys are properly set up with GitHub.

You possibly see this warning (the IP and the fingerprint may look differently):

$ ssh -T git@github.com

The authenticity of host 'github.com (140.82.121.4)' can't be established.
ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:+DiY3wvvV6TuJJhbpZisF/zLDA0zPMSvHdkr4UvCOqU.
This key is not known by any other names
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])?

Before typing “yes”, verify that the fingerprint is one of these.

What this means: SSH is a secure protocol to send data between two computers but the very first time you ever connect to the remote host, SSH asks if this is really the host/server we meant to talk to and to verify that nobody is trying to impersonate the other host. Once we validate the connection, SSH will remember that we trust that host and not ask this question again.