Note: the entire codebase in this repository was generated by an AI coding assistant based on my requirements. Bug reports and PRs are still very welcome — see Contributing.

sshkit is a single CLI that handles SSH key generation, ~/.ssh/config edits, ssh-agent loading, connection tests, and per-repo user.name / user.email setup.

It's a small hobby tool. I describe the requirements; an AI writes the code. Clone it, build it, poke at it — and feel free to send a PR if you make it nicer.

Requirements

You need these on your PATH before sshkit is useful:

• OpenSSH client — ssh, ssh-keygen, ssh-add, ssh-agent. Dropbear / libssh are not supported.
• git — used to set per-repo identity.

Supported platforms: macOS and Linux. Windows is not supported on purpose.

Install

No package manager, no Homebrew tap, no release binary. Just clone and build:

git clone https://github.com/gitdust/sshkit.git
cd sshkit

# you need Go installed (1.22+ recommended)
go version

make build          # produces ./bin/sshkit
./bin/sshkit --help

If you want the binary on your PATH:

make install        # drops it into ~/.local/bin/sshkit

Or just go install:

go install ./cmd/sshkit

That's it. The binary is self-contained — no config files, no daemons, no background services.

Quick start

Three common scenarios:

1. Multiple GitHub accounts on the same machine

One key per account, different Host aliases in ~/.ssh/config:

sshkit gen account1      # hostname: github.com, user: git, alias: github-account1
sshkit gen account2      # hostname: github.com, user: git, alias: github-account2

Clone through the alias to pick which account to use:

git clone git@github-account1:owner/repo.git
git clone git@github-account2:owner/repo.git

Each target remembers the name and email you gave during sshkit gen. Inside any cloned repo, just run sshkit config (no arguments) — it reads the origin remote URL, finds the matching target by alias (e.g. github-account1), and writes that target's name / email into the repo's local git config. No more committing as the wrong account by accident.

cd owner/repo
sshkit config            # picks up github-account1 → sets user.name + user.email

Run it once per repo, right after cloning. If the remote URL uses the real hostname (e.g. git@github.com:owner/repo.git) instead of the alias, sshkit config will still find the target by hostname but print a warning suggesting you switch the URL to the alias — that way pushes go through the right key.

2. Other Git hosts (GitLab / Gitee / self-hosted)

One key per host:

sshkit gen gitee         # hostname: gitee.com
sshkit gen gitlab        # hostname: gitlab.company.com

3. Logging into a VPS / remote server

Use your server login name (root / ubuntu / ...) as the user; sshkit will skip the commit-identity questions:

sshkit gen vps
# hostname: 203.0.113.10
# user: root
# port: 22

sshkit gen only creates the keypair locally — the VPS still has no idea who you are. Push the public key to the server's authorized_keys (one line if the VPS still accepts password login):

ssh-copy-id vps

If the VPS is already key-only, or you'd rather do it by hand, the wizard will print the exact public-key path and a ready-to-paste command on failure. After that, ssh vps just works.

Commands

sshkit doctor                       # environment check (--fix to auto-repair; includes agent reachability)
sshkit gen [name]                   # interactive wizard: generate key + write target
sshkit list                         # list all keys and targets
sshkit test [alias]                 # test connection (auto-detects host when run inside a git repo)
sshkit config [alias]               # set user.name / user.email in the current repo
sshkit remove --host <alias> [--purge]  # remove a target by SSH alias (deletes the whole entry when it's the last one)

Global flags: --yes (skip confirmations, used by config / remove), --dry-run (print the plan only), --version.

If something goes wrong mid-gen — or you hit Ctrl+C — sshkit rolls back the partial changes, so it's safe to re-run.

Scripting

sshkit test --json                     # single JSON object on stdout, for scripts
sshkit config --yes                    # skip confirmation, write current repo
sshkit remove --host <alias> --yes     # skip confirmation, delete
sshkit remove --host <alias> --purge   # also unload from agent + delete key file

gen is an interactive wizard and intentionally has no non-interactive mode.

ssh-agent

sshkit does not ship its own agent start / agent status subcommands — ssh-agent is already a one-liner, and wrapping it adds no value. Agent reachability is folded into sshkit doctor (look for the ssh-agent reachable line). To start an agent manually:

eval $(ssh-agent)   # any subcommand that needs the agent will remind you

Contributing

PRs are very welcome. This is a small project, so:

• Open an issue first if your change is non-trivial (new flag, new subcommand, behavior change). It saves everyone a round-trip.
• Keep the scope tight. One PR = one thing.
• Add a test if you change behavior in internal/... or cmd/sshkit/cmd/.... make test runs the full suite with -race.
• Don't worry about being perfect. I review fast and I'd rather merge a 90% PR than block on polish.

Local dev loop:

make build && ./bin/sshkit doctor      # quick smoke test
make test                              # go test -race ./...
make vet                               # go vet ./...
make snapshot                          # build a local goreleaser snapshot

Bug reports and ideas are also welcome — just open an issue.

License

MIT — do whatever you want, just keep the copyright notice.