How to fix Github git keeps asking for password with ssh keys

This was a super annoying issue I have had for years. I never looked into it because I was lazy.

I setup my ssh keys like you probably did and I kept getting prompted for my password.

I kept entering it for years because the github docs are not that great and fail to mention how to fully setup the keys properly(maybe changed by now). I kept wondering why it was asking me to enter my password even with the ssh keys.

Well a few days ago August 13th 2021, github switched from allowing password ssh git push/pull to not allowing it and forcing you to use something like ssh keys. I went to push to my github repo and was told I had to use ssh keys blah blah…

I was like

I thought I had setup the ssh-keys. But, what had happened was I had used the HTTPS method to pull the repo. So my git config was set to the HTTPS endpoint not the SSH endpoint. It had been a long time ago. I thought I had setup the keys, and I did. What I failed to do was switch the git remote value in the git config.

Basically if you pulled a repo via https then you need to switch your git configuration to use the ssh url. I won’t make this article longer writing how to do that, here is a great, short article that explains it

You also need to know the ssh repo value which you can find in the repository under clone like this

I have not tried the newer GitHub CLI. I will eventually read about it and try it and update my repos to use it. I did write about using github ssh deploy keys here though.  And about using multiple deploy ssh keys here.