[git] git push: permission denied (public key)

I'm trying to push a file to a git repo of a friend but errors on public key.

git push origin testbranch
Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Where and how do we define public / private keys?

git remote -v returns:

origin  [email protected]:Sesamzaad/NET.git (fetch)
origin  [email protected]:Sesamzaad/NET.git (push)

Any help is appreciated.

This question is related to git permissions public-key

The answer is


You need to fork the project to your own user repository.

Then add origin:

git remote add upstream your-ssh-here
git fetch upstream
git branch --set-upstream-to=upstream/master master

If you have your private key(s) in ~/.ssh and have added them to https://github.com/settings/ssh, but still are unable to commit to a Github repo added via ssh, make sure they are added to your ssh-agent:

ssh-add -k ~/.ssh/[PRIVATE_KEY]

You can add multiple private keys for multiple servers (e.g. Bitbucket & GitHub) and it will use the correct one when dealing with git.


This worked for me.

first of all, remove current remote :

git remote rm origin

second, add remote through HTTPS but git@xxx :

git remote add origin https://github.com/Sesamzaad/NET.git

then push has worked for me :

git push origin master

If you already have your public key added to the GITHUB server there are other solutions that you can try.

In my case the GIT PUSH was failing from inside RUBYMINE but doing it from the Terminal window solved the problem.

For more solutions visit this page https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/issues/4730


If you are getting 403 error here is the solution:

 The requested URL returned error: 403

As you are having your account registered with another account so you need to remove the github credentials from windows

control panel > user accounts > credential manager > Windows credentials > Generic credentials

then remove the Github keys

I fixed it by re-adding the key to my ssh-agent.

with the following command:

ssh-add ~/.ssh/path_to_private_key_you_generated

For some reasons it was gone.


The documentation from Github is really explanatory.

https://help.github.com/en/articles/adding-a-new-ssh-key-to-your-github-account https://help.github.com/en/articles/generating-a-new-ssh-key-and-adding-it-to-the-ssh-agent

I think you must do the lasts steps from the guide to proper configure your keys

$ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Solution : you have to add you ssh key in your git-hub profile. Follow steps to solve this problem

  1. Right Click Folder you want to push in git
  2. Select git-bash here problem
  3. Write command ssh-keygen by this command your key is generated
  4. Copy the key from cmd or go to (C:/User/your_user/.ssh/)
  5. open id.rsa with notepad.
  6. Copy your key
  7. Now go to your git-hub profile
  8. Go to settings
  9. select SSH and Gpg keys
  10. select New ssh key option
  11. add window-key in the title
  12. Paste your key in the description part below title field
  13. Save

Now you are ready to push your folder

  1. Now go to folder you want to upload
  2. right click on the folder
  3. Select git bash here
  4. git init
  5. git add README.md
  6. git commit -m "first commit"
  7. git remote add origin https://github.com//
  8. git push -u origin master

Hope this will be Helpful for you


This error happened while using Ubuntu Bash on Windows.

I switched to standard windows cmd prompt, and it worked no error.

This is a workaround as it means you probably need to load the ssh private key in ubuntu environment if you want to use ubuntu.


I just had to deal with this issue. @user3445140's answer helped me, but was much more than I needed to do.

  1. Get your public SSH key with cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
  2. Copy the key, including the "ssh-rsa" but excluding your computer name at the end
  3. Go to https://github.com/settings/ssh
  4. Add your SSH key

I am running Ubuntu 16.04

Removing the remote origin using

git remote rm origin

setting the http url using

git remote add origin https://github.com/<<Entire Path of the new Repo>>

git push origin master

Above steps successfully added code to repo.


In order to deploy to your friend's repo you need to add your public key to the repository's deploy keys.

Go to the repository, go to deploy keys, and add the id_rsa.pub (or whatever yours is named) to "deploy keys".

I believe adding the key to your own account only lets you write to repositories that your account created. If it was created by an organization you need to add the key to the repo's deploy keys.

https://developer.github.com/v3/guides/managing-deploy-keys/


None of the above solutions worked for me. For context, I'm running ubuntu, and I had already gone through the ssh-key setup documentation. The fix for me was to run ssh-add in the terminal. This fixed the issue.

Source: http://baptiste-wicht.com/posts/2010/07/tip-how-to-solve-agent-admitted-failure-to-sign-using-the-key-error.html


This worked for me. Simplest solution by far.

If you are using GitHub for Windows and getting this error, the problem might be that you are trying to run the command in the wrong shell or mode. If you are trying to do git push origin master in the regular command prompt or PowerShell, this is the problem.

You need to do it in a git shell. Simply open Github for Windows, right click, and select "Open Shell Here". It looks like a regular PowerShell window, but it's not, which makes it really confusing for newbies to git, like myself.

I hope others find this useful.



I was facing same problem, here is what I did that worked for me.

Use ssh instead of http. Remove origin if its http.

git remote rm origin

Add ssh url

git remote add origin [email protected]:<username>/<repo>.git

Generate ssh key inside .ssh/ folder. It will ask for path and passphrase where you can just press enter and proceed.

cd ~/.ssh
ssh-keygen

Copy the key. You can view your key using. If you hadn't specified a different path then this is the default one.

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Add this key to your github account. Next do

ssh -T [email protected]

You will get a welcome message in your console.

cd into to your project folder. git push -u origin master now works!


I faced the same problem.Ask your friend to add you as a collaborator by going to his repo settings and adding a new collaborator.

You will recieve an invite email ,accept it.Then you are good to go. Just make sure that you have added right remote.


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