Skill: happydog-intj/github-passwordless-setup (version 1.0.0)

--- name: github-passwordless-setup description: Complete GitHub passwordless authentication setup using SSH keys and Personal Access Tokens. Never type passwords or re-authenticate for Git operations and GitHub API calls. --- # GitHub Passwordless Setup Complete guide to setting up passwordless authentication for GitHub using SSH keys and Personal Access Tokens (PAT). Once configured, you'll never need to enter passwords for Git operations or GitHub CLI commands. **Verified Working:** - ✅ macOS 10.15+ (tested on 14.4) - ✅ Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch) - ✅ Windows (WSL2, Git Bash) ## 🎯 What This Solves **Before:** - ❌ Type password every time you push/pull - ❌ GitHub CLI requires re-authentication - ❌ Tokens expire and break workflows - ❌ HTTPS URLs need credentials repeatedly **After:** - ✅ Zero-password Git operations (push/pull/clone) - ✅ Zero-password repository creation - ✅ Zero-password issue/PR management - ✅ Persistent authentication (no expiration) ## 🚀 Quick Setup One-line automated setup: ```bash curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/happydog-intj/github-passwordless-setup/master/setup.sh | bash ``` Or follow the manual steps below. ## 📋 Manual Setup ### Part 1: SSH Key Configuration SSH keys enable password-free Git operations (push/pull/clone). #### Step 1: Check for Existing SSH Keys ```bash ls -la ~/.ssh/*.pub ``` If you see `id_ed25519.pub` or `id_rsa.pub`, you already have a key. Skip to Step 3. #### Step 2: Generate New SSH Key **Recommended: ED25519 (most secure)** ```bash ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "[REDACTED_SECRET]" ``` **Or RSA (if ED25519 not supported):** ```bash ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "[REDACTED_SECRET]" ``` **During generation:** - Press Enter for default location (`~/.ssh/id_ed25519`) - Enter passphrase (optional but recommended) - macOS will save passphrase to Keychain #### Step 3: Copy Public Key ```bash # macOS cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub | pbcopy # Linux (xclip) cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub | xclip -selection clipboard # Linux (xsel) cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub | xsel --clipboard # Or just display and copy manually cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub ``` #### Step 4: Add Key to GitHub 1. Visit: https://github.com/settings/ssh/new 2. **Title**: `Your Computer Name (macOS/Linux)` 3. **Key type**: `Authentication Key` 4. **Key**: Paste your public key 5. Click **Add SSH key** #### Step 5: Test SSH Connection ```bash ssh -T [REDACTED_SECRET] ``` Expected output: ``` Hi username! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access. ``` ### Part 2: GitHub Personal Access Token PAT enables password-free GitHub CLI operations (create repos, manage issues/PRs). #### Step 1: Generate Token Visit: https://github.com/settings/tokens/new **Configuration:** - **Note**: `OpenClaw CLI Token` (or any description) - **Expiration**: `No expiration` (or 90 days) - **Select scopes**: - ✅ **repo** (all sub-scopes) - ✅ **workflow** (if using GitHub Actions) - ✅ **delete_repo** (if you need to delete repositories) - ✅ **admin:org** (if managing organizations) Click **Generate token** and **copy it immediately** (shown only once!). Format: `[REDACTED_SECRET]` #### Step 2: Install GitHub CLI **macOS:** ```bash brew install gh ``` **Linux (Debian/Ubuntu):** ```bash type -p curl >/dev/null || (sudo apt update && sudo apt install curl -y) curl -fsSL https://cli.github.com/packages/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg | sudo dd of=/usr/share/keyrings/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg sudo chmod go+r /usr/share/keyrings/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg] https://cli.github.com/packages stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/github-cli.list > /dev/null sudo apt update sudo apt install gh -y ``` **Other Linux:** See: https://github.com/cli/cli/blob/trunk/docs/install_linux.md #### Step 3: Configure Token ```bash # Method 1: Interactive (paste when prompted) gh auth login --with-token # Then paste your token and press Enter # Method 2: One-line (replace YOUR_TOKEN) echo "ghp_YOUR_TOKEN_HERE" | gh auth login --with-token ``` #### Step 4: Set Git Protocol to SSH ```bash gh config set git_protocol ssh ``` This ensures `gh` commands use SSH (not HTTPS) for Git operations. ### Part 3: Verification #### Verify SSH Configuration ```bash # Test SSH connection ssh -T [REDACTED_SECRET] # Expected: Hi username! You've successfully authenticated... ``` #### Verify GitHub CLI ```bash # Check authentication status gh auth status # Expected: ✓ Logged in to github.com account username # Test API access gh api user --jq '.login' # Expected: your-username ``` #### Verify Complete Workflow ```bash # Test creating a repository (will create and delete) gh repo create test-auth-$(date +%s) --public --description "Test" \ && echo "✅ Create: SUCCESS" \ && gh repo delete $(gh repo list --limit 1 --json name --jq '.[0].name') --yes \ && echo "✅ Delete: SUCCESS" ``` All operations should complete without prompting for passwords. ## 🔄 Convert Existing Repos to SSH If you have existing repositories using HTTPS URLs: ```bash # Check current remote git remote -v # If it shows https://github.com/... # Convert to SSH git remote set-url origin [REDACTED_SECRET]:username/repo.git # Verify git remote -v # Should show: [REDACTED_SECRET]:username/repo.git ``` **Batch convert all repos in a directory:** ```bash find . -name ".git" -type d | while read gitdir; do cd "$gitdir/.." if git remote get-url origin 2>/dev/null | grep -q "https://github.com"; then REPO=$(git remote get-url origin | sed 's|https://github.com/|[REDACTED_SECRET]:|') git remote set-url origin "$REPO" echo "✅ Converted: $(pwd)" fi cd - > /dev/null done ``` ## 🛠️ Automated Setup Script Save this as `setup.sh`: ```bash #!/bin/bash set -e echo "🔐 GitHub Passwordless Setup" echo "============================" echo "" # Check for existing SSH key if [ -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub ]; then echo "✅ SSH key already exists" SSH_KEY=$(cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub) elif [ -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub ]; then echo "✅ SSH key already exists (RSA)" SSH_KEY=$(cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) else echo "📝 Generating new ED25519 SSH key..." ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "$(whoami)@$(hostname)" -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 -N "" SSH_KEY=$(cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub) echo "✅ SSH key generated" fi echo "" echo "🔑 Your public SSH key:" echo "━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━" echo "$SSH_KEY" echo "━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━" echo "" echo "📋 Next steps:" echo "1. Copy the key above" echo "2. Visit: https://github.com/settings/ssh/new" echo "3. Paste the key and save" echo "4. Come back and press Enter to continue" read -p "Press Enter after adding the key to GitHub..." # Test SSH echo "" echo "🧪 Testing SSH connection..." if ssh -T [REDACTED_SECRET] 2>&1 | grep -q "successfully authenticated"; then echo "✅ SSH authentication successful!" else echo "❌ SSH authentication failed. Please check your key on GitHub." exit 1 fi # Check for GitHub CLI echo "" if ! command -v gh &> /dev/null; then echo "📦 GitHub CLI not found. Install it from:" echo " macOS: brew install gh" echo " Linux: https://github.com/cli/cli/blob/trunk/docs/install_linux.md" exit 1 fi # Configure GitHub CLI echo "🎫 Configuring GitHub CLI..." echo "Please enter your GitHub Personal Access Token:" echo "(Visit https://github.com/settings/tokens/new if you don't have one)" echo "" gh auth login --with-token # Set git protocol to SSH gh config set git_protocol ssh # Verify echo "" echo "🔍 Verifying configuration..." if gh auth status &> /dev/null; then echo "✅ GitHub CLI authenticated" USERNAME=$(gh api user --jq '.login') echo "✅ Username: $USERNAME" else echo "❌ GitHub CLI authentication failed" exit 1 fi echo "" echo "🎉 Setup complete!" echo "" echo "You can now:" echo " • Push/pull without passwords: git push" echo " • Create repos instantly: gh repo create my-project --public" echo " • Manage issues/PRs: gh issue create, gh pr list" echo "" ``` Make it executable and run: ```bash chmod +x setup.sh ./setup.sh ``` ## 🔍 Troubleshooting ### SSH Issues **Problem: "Permission denied (publickey)"** ```bash # Check SSH agent ssh-add -l # If empty or error, add your key ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 # macOS: Add to Keychain permanently ssh-add --apple-use-keychain ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 ``` **Problem: "Host key verification failed"** ```bash # Remove old host key ssh-keygen -R github.com # Reconnect (will prompt to add new key) ssh -T [REDACTED_SECRET] ``` ### GitHub CLI Issues **Problem: "Requires authentication"** ```bash # Check token validity gh auth status # Re-authenticate gh auth logout gh auth login --with-token ``` **Problem: "Token scopes insufficient"** Create a new token with broader scopes: - Visit: https://github.com/settings/tokens - Delete old token - Create new with `repo`, `workflow`, `delete_repo` ### General Issues **Check Configuration Files:** ```bash # SSH config cat ~/.ssh/config # GitHub CLI config cat ~/.config/gh/hosts.yml # Git config git config --global --list ``` ## 🔒 Security Best Practices ### SSH Keys 1. **Use ED25519** (more secure than RSA) 2. **Set a passphrase** (optional but recommended) 3. **Use ssh-agent** (macOS Keychain, gnome-keyring) 4. **Never share private keys** (`id_ed25519` - no .pub) 5. **Revoke compromised keys immediately** at https://github.com/settings/keys ### Personal Access Tokens 1. **Minimum scopes needed** (don't select all) 2. **Set expiration** (90 days for security, or no expiration for convenience) 3. **Revoke unused tokens** at https://github.com/settings/tokens 4. **Never commit tokens** to repositories 5. **Rotate regularly** (every 90 days recommended) ## 📚 Advanced Configuration ### SSH Config File Create `~/.ssh/config` for custom settings: ```ssh Host github.com HostName github.com User git IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 AddKeysToAgent yes UseKeychain yes ``` ### Multiple GitHub Accounts ```ssh # ~/.ssh/config Host github-personal HostName github.com User git IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_personal Host github-work HostName github.com User git IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_work ``` Clone with specific account: ```bash git clone git@github-personal:username/repo.git git clone git@github-work:company/repo.git ``` ### Git Aliases Add to `~/.gitconfig`: ```ini [alias] pushf = push --force-with-lease undo = reset --soft HEAD~1 amend = commit --amend --no-edit sync = !git fetch --all && git pull ``` ## 🌐 Environment Variables Optional environment variables for automation: ```bash # GitHub CLI export GH_TOKEN="ghp_xxxxx" # Auto-auth for gh commands # Git export GIT_SSH_COMMAND="ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519" # Force specific key ``` Add to your shell profile (`~/.bashrc`, `~/.zshrc`): ```bash # GitHub CLI auto-auth (optional) if [ -f ~/.config/gh/token ]; then export GH_TOKEN=$(cat ~/.config/gh/token) fi ``` ## 🔄 Maintenance ### Update SSH Key ```bash # Generate new key ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "[REDACTED_SECRET]" # Add to GitHub cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub | pbcopy # Visit: https://github.com/settings/ssh/new # Update old repos (if using specific key in config) git config core.sshCommand "ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519" ``` ### Rotate GitHub Token ```bash # Create new token at https://github.com/settings/tokens/new # Configure it echo "ghp_NEW_TOKEN" | gh auth login --with-token # Revoke old token at https://github.com/settings/tokens ``` ## 📊 Comparison: HTTPS vs SSH | Feature | HTTPS | SSH | |---------|-------|-----| | **Authentication** | Username + Token | SSH Key | | **Password needed** | Every operation | Never | | **Setup complexity** | Low | Medium | | **Security** | Good | Excellent | | **Corporate firewalls** | Usually allowed | Sometimes blocked | | **Recommendation** | Beginners | Daily use | ## 🎯 Common Workflows ### Create New Project ```bash # Create repo and push in one go gh repo create my-project --public --source=. --push # Or step by step gh repo create my-project --public git remote add origin [REDACTED_SECRET]:username/my-project.git git push -u origin main ``` ### Clone Private Repo ```bash # SSH (no password) git clone [REDACTED_SECRET]:username/private-repo.git # Check access gh repo view username/private-repo ``` ### Manage Issues ```bash # Create issue gh issue create --title "Bug found" --body "Description" # List issues gh issue list # Close issue gh issue close 123 ``` ## 🤝 Contributing Found an issue or improvement? Pull requests welcome! ## 📄 License MIT License ## 🔗 Related Links - [GitHub SSH Documentation](https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/connecting-to-github-with-ssh) - [GitHub CLI Manual](https://cli.github.com/manual/) - [OpenClaw](https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw) --- **Made with ❤️ for developers who value automation**


Security scan verdicts — ClawScan: suspicious | static analysis: clean | VirusTotal: suspicious | SkillSpector: suspicious (CRITICAL)