gistfile1.sh

$ salt '*' state.highstate 
----------
          ID: foo-public-ssh-keys
    Function: ssh_auth.present
      Result: False
     Comment: An exception occurred in this state: Traceback (most recent call last):
                File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/salt/state.py", line 1382, in call
                  **cdata['kwargs'])
                File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/salt/states/ssh_auth.py", line 179, in present
                  saltenv=__env__)
                File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/salt/modules/ssh.py", line 410, in set_auth_key_from_file
                  'Failed to pull key file from salt file server'
              CommandExecutionError: Failed to pull key file from salt file server

init.sls

# /srv/pillar/users/init.sls

users:
  foo:
    fullname: Foo
    shell: /bin/bash
    groups:
      - sudo
    ssh_key: salt://users/files/foo.pub
    # ^-- this lies in /srv/pillar/users/files/foo.pub
    

users.sls

{% for user, args in pillar['users'].iteritems() %}
{{ user }}:
  user.present:
    - fullname: {{ args['fullname'] }}
    - shell: {{ args['shell'] }}

  {% if 'groups' in args %}
    - groups: {{ args['groups'] }}
  {% endif %}

{{ user }}-public-ssh-keys:
  ssh_auth:
    - present
    - user: {{ user }}
    - source: {{ args['ssh_key'] }}
{% endfor %}