How to set up SSH with GitHub in 60 seconds

When I started programming, SSH keys scared me. Everyone seemed to know how they worked except me, and I was too embarrassed to ask.

It turns out there’s not much to it. You make a key, you give the public half to GitHub, and you’re done.

Make the key:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "you@example.com"

Load it:

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Print the public half and paste it into GitHub under Settings → SSH keys:

cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Check that it worked:

ssh -T git@github.com

If GitHub says hi, you’re in.

That’s it.