Keys & Identities

SSH keys

Sign in to servers with SSH keys instead of passwords.

Create a key

  1. Open Keys & Identities in the sidebar, click + New at the top and choose Generate Key.
  2. Enter a label and pick a type. Ed25519 is a good default; ECDSA and RSA are there for servers that need them.
  3. Optionally add a passphrase, and save it in the vault if you don’t want to type it on every connection.
  4. Click Save to generate and store the key, or Save & Export to Host to add it to a server right away.

Import a key you already have

In Keys & Identities, click + New and choose Import from File or Paste Private Key. Termbit supports OpenSSH, PEM and PKCS#8 keys and asks for the passphrase if the key has one. You can also import all keys from ~/.ssh at once.

Add the key to a server

You need an existing way to sign in to the server, such as a password or another key.

  1. In Keys & Identities, right-click a key and choose Export to Host.
  2. Select a saved host, click Export and complete any sign-in prompts.

Termbit adds the public key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys for the account you sign in as, preserving existing entries. Choose the key for the host separately, as described below.

If the key is already there, Termbit won’t add it twice. The ~/.ssh directory and authorized_keys file are created if needed.

To add it manually, right-click the key, choose Copy Public Key and add the line to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on the server.

Use the key for a host

When editing a host, choose Public Key as the sign-in method and select the key. To use one key on many hosts, put it in an identity.

Replace or delete a key

Replacing a key keeps it linked to all its hosts, so they use the new key on their next connection. Before you delete a key, Termbit shows which hosts use it. Deleting a key in Termbit doesn’t remove it from servers.