chezmoi init commands do not use ssh config file when cloning

[BaccanoMob]

Describe the bug

I try to run,

chezmoi docker exec dev-container ssh://git@selfhosted.git/me/dotfiles.git
# or
chezmoi init  ssh://git@selfhosted.git/me/dotfiles.git

I am prompted to enter password. And then it fails by connection closed by IPADDR port 22.

But by ssh config

Host selfhosted.git
  Port 222
  IdentityFile "/config/.ssh/id"

I assume it will be the same for ssh command as well

To reproduce

To replicate in any device,

1. Change your SSH port to something else in the device you want to init.
2. Attempt chezmoi ssh ... command from your machine (provided you change your ssh config to below, identity file is optional to reproduce this problem)

Host REMOTE_IP
  Port <CHANGED_PORT>

Expected behavior

Chezmoi initializes the dotfiles

Output of command with the --verbose flag

None

Output of chezmoi doctor

Details

RESULT    CHECK                       MESSAGE
ok        version                     v2.70.2, commit b1aacd726df533ffd1f2fec7ded8e2ecfdb26e0e, built at 2026-04-17T00:17:32Z, built by goreleaser
ok        latest-version              v2.70.2
ok        os-arch                     linux/amd64 (Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS (Noble Numbat))
ok        build-info                  -ldflags=-s -w -X main.version=2.70.2 -X main.commit=b1aacd726df533ffd1f2fec7ded8e2ecfdb26e0e -X main.date=2026-04-17T00:17:32Z -X main.builtBy=goreleaser, CGO_ENABLED=1, GOAMD64=v1
ok        uname                       Linux 3e01b1fb7897 6.8.0-110-generic #110-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu Mar 19 15:09:20 UTC 2026 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
ok        go-version                  go1.26.2 (gc)
ok        executable                  ~/.local/bin/chezmoi
ok        upgrade-method              replace-executable
info      config-file                 ~/.config/chezmoi/chezmoi.toml: not found
ok        source-dir                  ~/.local/share/chezmoi is a directory
ok        suspicious-entries          no suspicious entries
ok        working-tree                ~/.local/share/chezmoi is a directory
ok        dest-dir                    ~ is a directory
error     hardlink                    failed creating hardlink from ~/.local/share/chezmoi to /tmp: link ~/.local/share/chezmoi/.chezmoi-doctor-hardlink-test /tmp/chezmoi-doctor3725434305/.chezmoi-doctor-hardlink-test: invalid cross-device link
ok        symlink                     created symlink from .new-name to .old-name
ok        umask                       022
ok        cd-command                  found /bin/bash
ok        cd-args                     /bin/bash
info      diff-command                not set
warning   edit-command                vi not found in $PATH
ok        edit-args                   vi
ok        git-command                 found /usr/bin/git, version 2.43.0
warning   merge-command               vimdiff not found in $PATH
ok        shell-command               found /bin/bash
ok        shell-args                  /bin/bash
info      age-command                 age not found in $PATH
ok        gpg-command                 found /usr/bin/gpg, version 2.4.4
info      pinentry-command            not set
info      1password-command           op not found in $PATH
info      bitwarden-command           bw not found in $PATH
info      bitwarden-secrets-command   bws not found in $PATH
info      dashlane-command            dcli not found in $PATH
info      doppler-command             doppler not found in $PATH
info      gopass-command              gopass not found in $PATH
info      keepassxc-command           keepassxc-cli not found in $PATH
info      keepassxc-db                not set
info      keeper-command              keeper not found in $PATH
info      lastpass-command            lpass not found in $PATH
info      pass-command                pass not found in $PATH
info      passhole-command            ph not found in $PATH
info      protonpass-command          pass-cli not found in $PATH
info      rbw-command                 rbw not found in $PATH
info      vault-command               vault not found in $PATH
info      secret-command              not set

[twpayne]

chezmoi docker exec dev-container ssh://git@selfhosted.git/me/dotfiles.git

Did you already install your ssh config file in the docker container?

chezmoi init ssh://git@selfhosted.git/me/dotfiles.git

chezmoi init just calls git clone if you have git installed. Do you have git installed and does git clone ssh://git@selfhosted.git/me/dotfiles.git use your ssh config?

[BaccanoMob]

yes, there is a ssh config in the container (code-server) i actively use it. I have also have it setup in the host as well. All my git projects use ssh to clone/pull/push etc.

the init works via https (git with username and PAT which I currently ended up doing) but not via ssh. For some reason it uses port 22 and expects a password.

Also, there are no docs related to manually passing port and id flags. --ssh flag mentioned in the docs threw errors (also tried gn flag). It would be cool have such flags as a fallback so we can manually override them.

[twpayne]

I suspect that chezmoi is falling back to using its builtin git client, which (I suspect) does not read your ssh config.

What happens when you run chezmoi init --use-builtin-git=false ssh://git@selfhosted.git/me/dotfiles.git in the container?

What's the output of the commands when you pass the --debug flag to chezmoi init? Look for lines containing git and ssh.

[BaccanoMob]

Turns out the container does not check for the ssh config. So plain git/ssh prompts for password as well unless I manually specify the port and ssh key. Never noticed it since I always use the GUI.

I fixed it with

GIT_SSH_COMMAND='ssh -i ~/.ssh/ssh-key -p 222' chezmoi init ssh://git@selfhosted.git/me/dotfiles.git
# or
GIT_SSH_COMMAND='ssh -i ~/.ssh/ssh-key' chezmoi init ssh://git@selfhosted.git:222/me/dotfiles.git

Non-container/regular machine chezmoi init ssh://git@selfhosted.git/me/dotfiles.git works fine. Tested it just now.

Unfortunately, I could'nt use it via chezmoi docker since I can't pass GIT_SSH_COMMAND='ssh -i ~/.ssh/ssh-key -p 222' or specify them manually.

Would be cool to specify the path to ssh key as a flag for init, ssh, docker, etc since port can be in the URL itself but not the key.