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Set a separate ssh key for one or more repo

While adding your machine to github via ssh, we followed github's guide line

However, we can also set up one or more ssh keys for one or more repos.

This can be handy in different scenarios. For example, say for the default setup I have generated ssh key with a passkey. So, for every push/pull action I have to authenticate using that passkey. Now I have a specific repository where I don't want this behavior, rather don't use any passkey at all. To achieve this we can do this:

Run:

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ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/id_newID -N ""
  • This creates a new key (id_newID) with no passphrase.
  • The private key is stored in ~/.ssh/id_newID.
  • The public key is stored in ~/.ssh/id_newID.pub.

Now, to push / pull do:

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GIT_SSH_COMMAND="ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_newID" git pull

To parsist this behavior, in the repo, do: 

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git config core.sshCommand "ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_newID"