How to add ssh keys permanently in macOS Sierra

13 Feb 2017

This post assumes you are familiar with basic MacOS ssh structure.

The process is very simple. Let’s assume that you have an ssh key called id_rsa. Go to your .ssh folder. Open the config file (or create it if you don’t have one). Add the following to the top:

Host *
  UseKeychain yes
  AddKeysToAgent yes
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
  IdentityFile <PATH_TO_MORE_KEYS>

Then, from the terminal run

ssh-add -K ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Now, when you reset your machine you won’t have to manually ssh-add every time.