SSH Key Setup

You can register an SSH key with CollabOps to securely use Git.

Step 1. Check for Existing Keys

Run the following command in your terminal.

ls ~/.ssh

If the file id_ed25519.pub already exists, proceed to Step 4.

Step 2. Generate an SSH Key

Run the following command.

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

Replace the email after -C with your own email address.

When prompted with the following questions, press Enter to use the default values.

Enter file in which to save the key:
Enter passphrase:

Step 3. Verify Key Creation

Check the generated keys using the following command.

ls ~/.ssh

If you see the following two files, the key was generated successfully.

id_ed25519       ← Private key (DO NOT SHARE)
id_ed25519.pub   ← Public key (to be registered)

Step 4. Copy the Public Key

Mac

pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Windows (PowerShell / Git Bash)

cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub | clip

Linux

cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Copy the output value.

Step 5. Register the Key in CollabOps

Go to the SSH key registration page. https://collabops.ai/collabops-one/settings/ssh/new

Paste the copied public key.

Save the key.

Step 6. Test the Connection

Run the following command to test the SSH connection.

ssh -T git@collabops.ai

If the following message appears, the setup is successful.

Hi USERNAME! You've successfully authenticated.

Troubleshooting

Permission denied (publickey)

Add the key to the ssh-agent.

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

Windows PowerShell

Run the following commands in Administrator mode first.

Get-Service ssh-agent | Set-Service -StartupType Automatic
Start-Service ssh-agent
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

AI Agent Cannot Use Git When Passphrase Is Set

If your SSH key has a passphrase, every Git command will prompt for the passphrase. This is fine when you are using the terminal directly, but AI Agents (e.g., Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Code) cannot respond to passphrase prompts, causing SSH-based Git operations like git clone, git push, and git pull to fail.

Enter passphrase for /Users/you/.ssh/id_ed25519:   ← Agent cannot respond

To resolve this, register the key with the ssh-agent using ssh-add. Once registered, SSH authentication works without a passphrase for the duration of the session.

Mac

# Start ssh-agent (skip if already running)
eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

# Register the key — enter the passphrase once
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

To persist the passphrase across reboots, save it to the macOS Keychain.

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

Add the following to ~/.ssh/config so the Keychain is used automatically without the --apple-use-keychain flag.

Host *
  AddKeysToAgent yes
  UseKeychain yes
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Windows PowerShell

Run in Administrator mode.

Get-Service ssh-agent | Set-Service -StartupType Automatic
Start-Service ssh-agent
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Linux

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

Supported Algorithms