Fix "Permission denied (publickey)" error when pushing with Git

publickey-git-error.markdown

"Help, I keep getting a 'Permission Denied (publickey)' error when I push!"

This means, on your local machine, you haven't made any SSH keys. Not to worry. Here's how to fix:

1. Open git bash (Use the Windows search. To find it, type "git bash") or the Mac Terminal. Pro Tip: You can use any *nix based command prompt (but not the default Windows Command Prompt!)
2. Type cd ~/.ssh. This will take you to the root directory for Git (Likely C:\Users\[YOUR-USER-NAME]\.ssh\ on Windows)
3. Within the .ssh folder, there should be these two files: id_rsa and id_rsa.pub. These are the files that tell your computer how to communicate with GitHub, BitBucket, or any other Git based service. Type ls to see a directory listing. If those two files don't show up, proceed to the next step. NOTE: Your SSH keys must be named id_rsa and id_rsa.pub in order for Git, GitHub, and BitBucket to recognize them by default.
4. To create the SSH keys, type ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "your_email@example.com". This will create both id_rsa and id_rsa.pub files.
5. Now, go and open id_rsa.pub in your favorite text editor (you can do this via Windows Explorer or the OSX Finder if you like, typing open . will open the folder).
6. Copy the contents--exactly as it appears, with no extra spaces or lines--of id_rsa.pub and paste it into GitHub and/or BitBucket under the Account Settings > SSH Keys. NOTE: I like to give the SSH key a descriptive name, usually with the name of the workstation I'm on along with the date.
7. Now that you've added your public key to Github and/or BitBucket, try to git push again and see if it works. It should!

More help available from GitHub on creating SSH Keys and BitBucket Help.

Checklist TL;DR for Windows Powershell

1. Create new ssh key ssh-keygen -t -rsa -b 4096 -C "your@email.com"
2. Verify service-ssh is running get-service ssh-agent if result is "Stopped", run start-service ssh-agent
3. Add private key ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Thx a lot!

Thanks, worked for me!

Cheers, worked like a charm.

The solution in the original post works great. but if it didn't work for you, make sure you restart your Android Studio if it was open during the SSH KEY Generation process, afterwards it will work normally.

Thank you.

none of the above worked for me. but then I tried the following:
$ eval ssh-agent -s
$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa
and it worked!

This worked for me.

SOLUTION FOR DIGITAL OCEAN USERS WHO MIGHT ENCOUNTER THIS PROBLEM

I had the same problem even AFTER I had followed the instructions on the gitub page over 10 times and I finally figured out what was wrong.

Background: I have a digitalocean droplet running that I am SSH'd into. I have two users (root and admin)

My Problem

* I ssh as [admin@domain.com](mailto:admin@domain.com)

* I create ssh keys for `/home/admin/.ssh/id_rsa.pub`

* I add this key to my github account

* I verify my key by SSHing into `ssh -T git@github.com` and everything goes down just great

* I `cd` into `/` and run `$ sudo mkdir node_sites` since I cannot create a top level directory without sudo priveleges

* I `cd` into `node_sites` and run `$ git clone git@github.com:ChannelJuanNews/myrepo.git` and I get

permission denied (need sudo privileges)

* I then run `$ sudo git clone git@github.com:ChannelJuanNews/myrepo.git`

Cloning into 'myrepo'...
Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

* I repeat steps 1-7 for about 3 hours

* I then realize my simple mistake

My Solution

* I realized that when you create a directory with the `sudo` command it requires that you have `sudo` privileges when you do operations on that directory. (i.e. you cannot run `rm -rf test_directory` if you created it with `sudo` privleges. You would need to run  `sudo rm -rf test_directory` ). This means that you must be sudoed if you want to clone a git repo. This lead to my second discovery

* when you run the `sudo` command and use the ssh program it invokes the ssh keys **from your root user**.

My workaround was to just copy my ssh keys from /home/admin/.ssh/ into /root/.ssh. Whenever I run sudo, I now use my admin ssh keys instead of my root ssh keys. I am sure there is a better work around but if you needed to get your code up onto your server this one solution.

How to avoid this

Another solution would be to NOT create a directory with sudo priveleges (i.e. DO NOT create a direcotry with sudo mkdir test_dir). So when you run git clone git@github.com:ChannelJuanNews/myrepo.git it will look for YOUR ssh keys and not the root ssh keys.

Thanks. His comment gave me an idea of what my mistake might be. I was creating the project folders outside of my user's folder and couldn't connect to GitHub when using sudo outside of the root directory.

Thanks saved me a day.

Run git with the same user you used to create the SSH key. So if you did:
sudo ssh-keygen....
Use:
sudo git......

worked for me, thanks

Worked for me. Thanks

Godsend! Thanks SO much!

Thanks so much it works with me

Thank you , this has solved the problem !! Guys just be sure that you have to GO to github.com/setting/keys or Account setting -> SSH and GPG options to execute setp -6

Thanks so much :)

Work for me, thanks!

Worked for me, thanks a lot!

worked for me thank you so much

Worked for me! Thank you, you are the bomb

You might have to create a config file (yeap, extension-less) under ~/.ssh/config with the following contents

Host bitbucket.org
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_your_bitbucket_private_key

That immediately solved my problem!

That was it! Thank you so much!!

Deleting the two id_rsa and then ssh-keygen'd in Git Bash to regenerate those two files seemed to do the trick. Really annoying.

WHERE IS THAT ANSWER, everybody saying thanks but I can't see the answer

In my case this is not a solution. If someone is interested please go to your local repository --> .git folder --> config file --> inside delete user credentials and that is all I have done.

And works ;)

This Works!! Thanks a lot!!

@ChannelJuanNews, thank you!

Thank you!

thanks

Thank you.

Thank you for that, my friend. Your solution was spot-on.

Thanks a lot...

worked! Thanks a ton <3

Why would git version 2.31.1.windows.1 work, but git version 2.33.1.windows.1 not (gives the aforementioned publickey permission denied error) ?

Can git tell which ssh tries to use?

🤔 https://community.chocolatey.org/packages/git#comment-5573586700

Edit: The breakage I was looking at had to do with SHA-1 deprecation.

Thanks worked for me too!

Thanks so much @adamjohnson 🍻

Thank You!!

Thank you. My keys were not named id_rsa*
I renamed them, it works now.

This worked for me, thank you!

Works for me, thanks

It worked - thank you! 🍻

I don't like writing coments, and I have been on this for a while and this works!. Thanks

Hi, I followed all options, but still getting the error
Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.
whiole running git pull, any kind of help will be highly appreciated.

can anybody please help me why I am getting the same error following all options? Please suggest something

Thank you very much. Great Help!

What a time saver, thanks!!!

Thanks a lot.

thanks, it really did it

Thank you very much! It worked out perfect!

This time I have to spend a minute to thank you for the good explanation.

Works for me, thank you very much!

@tgaraptor

https://gist.github.com/adamjohnson/5682757?permalink_comment_id=3846686#gistcomment-3846686

Thanks this worked for me. It solved the issue

Thanks a lot! This worked for me.

Thank you

Didn't work for me unfortunately. I'm still being asked to enter my ssh passphrase on WSL2.

No solution for me. Finally it works after deleting contents in config file in .ssh.

Adam, This solved a lot of github woes for me. Thanks.

It works, Thanks

my problem solve here, thanks

It worked! Thank you

thanks!!

You're a life savior, thank you

Thanks guy!

thank you, it worked for me!

Thanks you, it also worked to me!

VERY helpful for this noob. Thanks!

Thanks. This worked for me

Face palm. Thanks worked like a charm.

¡Funcionó, muchas gracias!

Thanks. This worked for me.

Thanks. great help.

Awesome! I appreciate you.

Thanks! worked for me.

FWIW, on macOS, also need to add the private key to the SSH Agent as per this stack overflow link

By doing this in terminal:
ssh-add --apple-use-keychain ~/.ssh/id_rsa

(Note the command above is different from that provided in the link. It jhas been updated to reflect current version of ssh-add.)

Thanks, it solve my issue

After trying many different solutions this one finally worked. Thanks a lot!

Works like a charm, many thanks for this solution suggestion.

Bro, youre a lifesaver. I wasted so much time on setting up the credential manager, but finally your post helped me figure this out. Thanks a lot and lots of love.

Thanks

Thank you for the great explanation!

it worked for me but now I have to input my phrase before i could push anything

Thanks, it worked.

It didn't work for me. I had to rename my .pub public file and the private file to id_rsa and it works fine now 🎉🎉 Have a great code!

what if I don't wanna have the default name like id_rsa. pub? what would be the setup or changes that I have to do if I change key names?

If you:

• are using PowerShell or CMD directly
• don't want to be forced to use id_rsa
• don't want to input a passphrase on each call to git
• don't want to use Git Bash because you want to use it from CMD/PowerShell directly
  you need some troubleshooting to use git installation executables and a prior setup:

First of all thanks for this gist, it helped me out when I was at a total loss!!!

1. Start or get currently running agent into env vars (PID and socket/pipe file).
start-ssh-agent.cmd
It should be in PATH, otherwise find it at C:\Program Files\Git\cmd
This command undocumented in the FAQ will spawn a child CMD with the dynamic env vars set. Use it, if you close it will leave the agent on but git calls won't work as wanted.

2. Make sure you're using the ssh executables from the git installation
In PowerShell: Get-Command ssh (this is like which ssh in Linux)
You're probably not using that, so point there before anything else.
In CMD: set PATH=C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin;%PATH%
In PowerShell: $Env:PATH = "C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin;$Env:PATH"

3. Only after that load keys using git installation's ssh-add:
ssh-add <PATH_TO_KEY>
And enter the passphrase.

Then you can use git directly from CWD/PowerShell without (so much) troubles. Not only git push but also git clone, etc.
I needed this for some automation and didn't want to spawn a Git Bash per git call, neither wanted to run inside Git Bash.

https://gist.github.com/2bam/33347ff54be8088943450f20323fde53

Thanks, now it's working correctly!

Thank you brother, It's working. And for someone curious like me. If you don't like to name your ssh id_pub. You need to re-install git since most of the time the problem is related to the git you have installed or how you install it. For me the problem was, I install git on a different user account and try to use it in another one. 😎

I added public key to Github...But still i am having the error..Can you explain why brother?

it works! thank you.

this works!

one extra step is to add the rsa key in your path:

touch ~/.ssh/config
vi ~/.ssh/config

paste following in this file and change location of the rsa file:

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

ssh-add -K ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Thanks!

Thank you!

Thank You!

Hello, I think I’m not the correct audience for this mail chain. If yes , please exclude me from this call. Best Regards, Vani From: Ekta Arora ***@***.***> Date: Thursday, 29 September 2022 at 07:30 To: adamjohnson ***@***.***> Cc: Vani Swamy ***@***.***>, Comment ***@***.***> Subject: Re: adamjohnson/publickey-git-error.markdown @Ekta17 commented on this gist.

…

________________________________ this works! one extra step is to add the rsa key in your path: touch ~/.ssh/config vi ~/.ssh/config paste following in this file and change location of the rsa file: Host * AddKeysToAgent yes UseKeychain yes IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa ssh-add -K ~/.ssh/id_rsa — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgist.github.com%2F5682757%23gistcomment-4319125&data=05%7C01%7Cvani.swamy%40ingka.ikea.com%7Cd6fe2548628e4f8db1bc08daa1dbc5a9%7C720b637a655a40cf816af22f40755c2c%7C0%7C0%7C638000262552187699%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=rwkWT3KspXxH6erjIjL9gwD3kDudmWZU0iw4KVKwpGc%3D&reserved=0>, or unsubscribe<https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fnotifications%2Funsubscribe-auth%2FAYDSDCEK2WYHRR7PWI4B62TWAUSQVANCNFSM4HI4HAHA&data=05%7C01%7Cvani.swamy%40ingka.ikea.com%7Cd6fe2548628e4f8db1bc08daa1dbc5a9%7C720b637a655a40cf816af22f40755c2c%7C0%7C0%7C638000262552187699%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=SqRZnNCXjvPN0YuNvdd1WWp23nQELzxKeB5Hjdphjis%3D&reserved=0>. You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

Hello, I think I’m not the correct audience for this mail chain. If yes , please exclude me from this call. Best Regards, Vani From: Ekta Arora @.> Date: Thursday, 29 September 2022 at 07:30 To: adamjohnson @.> Cc: Vani Swamy @.>, Comment @.> Subject: Re: adamjohnson/publickey-git-error.markdown @Ekta17 commented on this gist.
…
________________________________ this works! one extra step is to add the rsa key in your path: touch ~/.ssh/config vi ~/.ssh/config paste following in this file and change location of the rsa file: Host * AddKeysToAgent yes UseKeychain yes IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa ssh-add -K ~/.ssh/id_rsa — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHubhttps://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgist.github.com%2F5682757%23gistcomment-4319125&data=05%7C01%7Cvani.swamy%40ingka.ikea.com%7Cd6fe2548628e4f8db1bc08daa1dbc5a9%7C720b637a655a40cf816af22f40755c2c%7C0%7C0%7C638000262552187699%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=rwkWT3KspXxH6erjIjL9gwD3kDudmWZU0iw4KVKwpGc%3D&reserved=0, or unsubscribehttps://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fnotifications%2Funsubscribe-auth%2FAYDSDCEK2WYHRR7PWI4B62TWAUSQVANCNFSM4HI4HAHA&data=05%7C01%7Cvani.swamy%40ingka.ikea.com%7Cd6fe2548628e4f8db1bc08daa1dbc5a9%7C720b637a655a40cf816af22f40755c2c%7C0%7C0%7C638000262552187699%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=SqRZnNCXjvPN0YuNvdd1WWp23nQELzxKeB5Hjdphjis%3D&reserved=0. You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: @.***>

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How did you fix it with another user?

I got the same error when following the key generation guid for Mac on Github docs: https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/connecting-to-github-with-ssh/generating-a-new-ssh-key-and-adding-it-to-the-ssh-agent#generating-a-new-ssh-key

The problem for me was the entry in .ssh/config which has to be for host *github.com and not *.github.com as the guide says since *.github.com does not match the ssh domain git@github.com:your-user.... So Git didn't even use the key when trying to push to Github.

THANK YOU! Finally connected PyCharm because of this.

thanks, you are awesome!!!

This helped. Thank you so much 🙏

Thank you!

Bravo!! I was getting the Permission Denied (publickey) error when trying to execute npm run deploy to publish an app to gh-pages for the first time. Kept going in circles on different forums without much luck. One suggestion was to change the remote's URL from SSH to HTTPS - which I tried, and it worked ONCE (published to gh-pages successfully) - and then some time later I tried to publish new changes and it failed with the same error as before. Such a headache, but the solution described here worked like a charm after I switched my remote URL back to SSH and followed the steps. Thank you so much! :)

worked for me. had to rename files to id_rsa respectfully

Thank you so much! fixed a problem I was having for a few days...

Very helpful, thanks

Thank you SO much!

using WSL, this DID solve my problem for windows-based git. however, using WebStorm and a project based in the linux file system, it still wasn't enough and I couldn't get it to work for several months. the solution finally came by wrapping the git that WebStorm (or IntelliJ etc) uses for WSL projects in a bash script that starts the respective ssh-agent, see this thread:
https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-275823/Git-from-WSL-Support-SSH-agent-from-WSL

Thanks, it works with Ubuntu on WSL2

Thanks man, i named my keys id_"some_custom_name" but i renamed it to rsa and it started working fine.
Still i didnt get why it didnt work for custom name. I added the identity in the config file

This is very helpful. Easy steps saved lots of trouble.

WARNING!
Powershell terminal users!

You'll keep getting this error even after following the outlined instructions. It only works in the Bash/Cygwin terminal. In Cygwin, I ran:

ssh -T git@github.com

Result:

Hi steveninety! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.

Find the comment by @2bam where he explains how to get rid of the error in Powershell.

thanks. it's work master.

I am also running into same issue on my mac. I tried above solution but didn't work. Following is my ~/.ssh/config file:

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

Can anyone please help!

I have this issue and need help! My config file is set up correctly, I can connect to GitHub using the command ssh -T@github.com. I ran the command ssh -vT git@github.com and was able to see my public key connect successfully. However when I run the command ssh-add -l -E sha256 I receive this error message "The agent has no identities." I can not understand how this is possible and any help would be greatly appreciated as I have been working on this issue for 2 weeks. Using a Mac.

Thanks!

Thanks! It's really works! <3

It worked! Thanks!

Thank you! Finally it worked!

Not working at all

Thank you so much!!!!!

Thanks!

Thank You! Works like a charm.

you saved me

Thanks man, i named my keys id_"some_custom_name" but i renamed it to rsa and it started working fine.
Still i didnt get why it didnt work for custom name. I added the identity in the config file

hello sir, I also have the same issue how can I rename ? please help

I have an issue I have created a repo and I am trying to clone the repo using ssh, for that I have setup everything up, but when I am trying to clone the repo I am facing this.

`git@github.com: Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.`

I don't know where I am going wrong. someone please help me with this

I have an issue I have created a repo and I am trying to clone the repo using ssh, for that I have setup everything up, but when I am trying to clone the repo I am facing this.

`git@github.com: Permission denied (publickey). fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights and the repository exists.`

I don't know where I am going wrong. someone please help me with this

Make sure you have created public and private key pairs properly, by following the steps described in SSH key generation official docs, and also make sure you uploaded your public key in "SSH Keys" section of your GitHub account. I have attached two screenshots from my GitHub account for your reference.

Yeah, I have done all of that and I am also able to get this message "Hi gowthamkumar12! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access." while doing "ssh -T git@github.com"

Yeah, I have done all of that and I am also able to get this message "Hi gowthamkumar12! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access." while doing "ssh -T git@github.com"

For registering newly created SSH keys, you must register your keys (private keys) to SSH agent, instead of requesting shell access of GitHub.

This procedure solved my problem! thanks!!!

Worked like a charm. thank you!!

Thanks!!

What a lifesaver, thank you!!

Thanks it worked!

Thank you so much! I was stumped!

Thanks so much it worked

Thank you!

Thank youuu

l;,
l

Thank you, it worked!

I was having this error on ubuntu, do not forget to add 'sudo' while running ssh-keygen command

I had this problem but only with docker-compose build with a git context. Git clone and push still worked though

For some reason when I ran ssh-add, it magically worked. No clue why but hopefully it helps someone.

$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Thank you bro, needed this

Gracias, esta solución me funciono perfectamente

thank you mahn

extremely appreciated!

For those who still have the issue, I created a step-by-step tutorial on how to fix the "Permission Denied (publickey)" error. Post : https://hbolajraf.net/posts/Connecting-to-GitHub-and-Pushing-Changes-Using-SSH-on-Windows/

THIS WORKED!!!