{"slug": "ssh-keygen", "name": "ssh-keygen", "category": "terminal", "category_name": "Terminal and shell", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 3, "warners": 0, "score": 2.605, "rising": 0.35, "first": "2025-11-14", "latest": "2026-09-25", "why": "You can use ssh-keygen for signing and verifying signatures.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "You can use ssh-keygen for signing and verifying signatures.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "openbsd.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.openssh.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["ssh-keygen"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 797567856, "item_id": 49847991, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49847991", "by": "Magicrafter13", "date": "2026-09-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "ssh-keygen -t ed25519-sk", "excerpt": "hi - this is incorrect I use a Yubikey for some of my keys, and I've never used an \"agent\", don't know how, and don't want to start, unless someone can give me a good reason to ssh-keygen -t ed25519-sk that's all you need to use a Yubikey with SSH", "context": "", "use_case": "SSH keys on a Yubikey", "switched_from": "", "story": "Git-bug: Distributed, offline-first bug tracker embedded in Git"}, {"id": 743752544, "item_id": 46484534, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46484534", "by": "coppsilgold", "date": "2026-01-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "You can use ssh-keygen for signing and verifying signatures.", "excerpt": "You can use ssh-keygen for signing and verifying signatures. You can also use age[1] to encrypt payloads targeting ssh public keys. And decrypt using ssh private keys. [1] <https://github.com/FiloSottile/age>", "context": "", "use_case": "Signing and verifying signatures", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ed25519-CLI \u2013 command-line interface for the Ed25519 signature system"}, {"id": 734908227, "item_id": 45931764, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45931764", "by": "kaoD", "date": "2025-11-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "plain ssh-keygen[2]", "excerpt": "> there is nothing today as secure as GPG Depending on what part of the huge hulk that GPG is, there are many tools that are as secure (or more) than it. For encryption age[0] comes to mind. For signing minisign[1] or, more recently, plain ssh-keygen[2]. For encryption at rest, restic[3]. PGP having all this built-in with forward-compatibility is a liability. [0] https://github.com/FiloSottile/age [1] https://github.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "GPG and Me (2015)"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["ssh keys on a yubikey", "signing and verifying signatures"], "compared": [{"slug": "age", "name": "age", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49843174", "title": "Git-bug: Distributed, offline-first bug tracker embedded in Git", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46412070", "title": "Ed25519-CLI \u2013 command-line interface for the Ed25519 signature system", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45885070", "title": "GPG and Me (2015)", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 797567856, "item_id": 49847991, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49847991", "by": "Magicrafter13", "date": "2026-09-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "ssh-keygen -t ed25519-sk", "excerpt": "hi - this is incorrect I use a Yubikey for some of my keys, and I've never used an \"agent\", don't know how, and don't want to start, unless someone can give me a good reason to ssh-keygen -t ed25519-sk that's all you need to use a Yubikey with SSH", "context": "", "use_case": "SSH keys on a Yubikey", "switched_from": "", "story": "Git-bug: Distributed, offline-first bug tracker embedded in Git"}, {"id": 743752544, "item_id": 46484534, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46484534", "by": "coppsilgold", "date": "2026-01-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "You can use ssh-keygen for signing and verifying signatures.", "excerpt": "You can use ssh-keygen for signing and verifying signatures. You can also use age[1] to encrypt payloads targeting ssh public keys. And decrypt using ssh private keys. [1] <https://github.com/FiloSottile/age>", "context": "", "use_case": "Signing and verifying signatures", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ed25519-CLI \u2013 command-line interface for the Ed25519 signature system"}, {"id": 734908227, "item_id": 45931764, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45931764", "by": "kaoD", "date": "2025-11-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "plain ssh-keygen[2]", "excerpt": "> there is nothing today as secure as GPG Depending on what part of the huge hulk that GPG is, there are many tools that are as secure (or more) than it. For encryption age[0] comes to mind. For signing minisign[1] or, more recently, plain ssh-keygen[2]. For encryption at rest, restic[3]. PGP having all this built-in with forward-compatibility is a liability. [0] https://github.com/FiloSottile/age [1] https://github.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "GPG and Me (2015)"}]}