Solution to Permission Denied (Public Key) for Git Clone

Following error occurs while you are trying to clone a git project. I tried cloning a Github demo project in relation with ReactJS and NodeJS using command such as git clone git@github.com:DavidWells/isomorphic-react-example.git. In this blog, we will look into the solution of this github permission denied (public key) issue related with cloning a project using git clone command.

Solution to Permission Denied (Public Key) Error

• Generated a new SSH Key

  ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "eajitesh@github.com"
  

  The details can be found on this page, Generating a new SSH key and additing it to the ssh-agent

• Add the public key to your Github account
  As shown in the screenshot below, you would be required to add the public key generated using steps mentioned in preceding section. If you go not have a Github.com account, go ahead and open one.Open the file using command such as vi ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub, copy the key started with ssh-rsa and paste the file in textbox on the page Settings > SSH and GPG keys > New SSH key.

• Check the resolution
  Execute following command to make sure permission denied (public key) is gone.

  ssh -vT git@github.com
  

  The permission denied error won’t appear anymore. Greater details can be found on this page, Error: Permission denied (publickey)

Solution to sign_and_send_pubkey: signing failed: agent refused operation

The permission denied (public key) also occurs due to the issue such as sign_and_send_pubkey: signing failed: agent refused operation. The following command can help to resolve this issue:

ssh-add