GitHub Account & SSH Authentication

Step 1: Create a GitHub account

If you don't have one yet, go to github.com and sign up. Tips for choosing a username:

• Lowercase with hyphens (e.g. your-name or yourname)
• Professional — it appears in every project URL you share
• Short — you'll type it often

Verify your email after signing up.

Step 2: Log in with the GitHub CLI

The gh CLI lets you create repos, manage pull requests, and do everything GitHub-related right from your terminal. Log in:

gh auth login

When prompted, choose:

• GitHub.com (not Enterprise)
• SSH (not HTTPS)
• Login with a web browser

It will open a browser window where you click "Authorize". After that, gh is authenticated.

Check it worked:

gh auth status

Step 3: Create an SSH key

An SSH key is a pair of files — a private key (stays on your Mac, never shared) and a public key (uploaded to GitHub). GitHub uses this pair to verify it's really you.

First, check if you already have one:

ls -al ~/.ssh

If you see id_ed25519 and id_ed25519.pub, you already have a key — skip to Step 4.

If not, create one:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "you@example.com"

Press Enter to accept the default file location. Use a passphrase when asked (it adds security in case your Mac is ever lost or stolen).

Step 4: Add the key to macOS Keychain

This makes your Mac remember the passphrase so you don't have to type it every time:

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
ssh-add --apple-use-keychain ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Create (or update) ~/.ssh/config to tell SSH to always use the keychain:

mkdir -p ~/.ssh

Open the file:

open -e ~/.ssh/config

Add these lines and save:

Host github.com
  AddKeysToAgent yes
  UseKeychain yes
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Step 5: Upload your public key to GitHub

gh ssh-key add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub --type authentication --title "My Mac"

Test the connection:

ssh -T git@github.com

You should see:

Hi your-username! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.

From now on, git push and git pull will work without any password prompts.

Step 6: Organize your projects folder

Before you start cloning repos, create a clean folder structure:

mkdir -p ~/Developer/GitHub
mkdir -p ~/Developer/Personal
mkdir -p ~/Developer/Experiments

Add shortcuts to your terminal config:

cat >> ~/.zshrc << 'EOF'

# Developer folders
alias dev='cd ~/Developer'
alias ghdev='cd ~/Developer/GitHub'
alias personal='cd ~/Developer/Personal'
alias exp='cd ~/Developer/Experiments'
EOF

source ~/.zshrc

Now you can type ghdev to jump straight to your GitHub projects folder. Clean and fast.