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To connect to your app using SSH keys, you need two keys:
  • A private key you must keep secret
  • A public key stored in your Upsun account
A given SSH key pair can only be linked to a single user account. A key pair is valid for as long as you have access to the private key on the system from which you are connecting. If you have a key pair available, you aren’t prompted to login. To keep connection secure, you need to regularly update the keys you use. A well-encrypted key is no substitute for regular key rotation. If you used GitHub to sign up for your Upsun account your public keys from GitHub are automatically synced to your Upsun account. So you can use them already with the CLI or to connect to your app.

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Add SSH keys

If you don’t have keys already added, you might be able to find existing keys or else you need to generate new keys.

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1A. Find your keys

If you haven’t used SSH keys before or it’s been a while since you created the key, skip right to generating new keys. If you have generated SSH keys before and want to find them on your system, follow these instructions. A public key file has a name ending in .pub. It contains seemingly random lines of characters, like this example of a public RSA key (note the email address at the end, which wouldn’t be present in a private key): 
ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQC2nDRLgPANWParTiaGIgySG+thTtnqFGI1tMWyqDdfvH+5hL91w2tK9PzaP+NJ5hA/cOyh30YRFb52Y64toU16Ko5K1mLqNFJajjWEI5Y4VukG6betrWfqdQ7XBr/s7nBuDOFQ5+eKbvug4rRSCSo8CsEI1eI0VNQkC9HJWYK28k7KurMdTN7X/Z/4vknM4/Rm2bnMk2idoORQgomeZS1p3GkG8dQs/c0j/b4H7azxnqdcCaR4ahbytX3d49BN0WwE84C+ItsnkCt1g5tVADPrab+Ywsm/FTnGY3cJKKdOAHt7Ls5lfpyyug2hNAFeiZF0MoCekjDZ2GH2xdFc7AX/ your_email_address@example.com
To find your public key file:
  1. Open a terminal.
  2. Run the following commands: 
    cd ~/.ssh
ls -a
If you find a file ending in .pub, copy the location and add it to your Upsun account. If you don’t find an existing key, generate new keys.

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1B. Generate new keys

If you’re logged in using the Upsun CLI, generate a key and have it added to your Upsun account automatically.
  1. In a terminal, run upsun ssh-key:add.
  2. If necessary, log in to a browser.
  3. Press Y and enter to create a new SSH key.
  4. Copy the location of the generated key.
  5. Run the following commands (replacing <VariableBlock name="PATH_TO_YOUR_KEY" /> with the location you copied): 
    eval $(ssh-agent)
ssh-add '<VariableBlock name="PATH_TO_YOUR_KEY" />'
To generate a key otherwise, GitHub has a good walk-through for creating SSH key pairs on various operating systems. Then you need to add it to your Upsun account.

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2. Add an SSH key to your account

Once you have the location of your public key, add it to your Upsun account. If you’re logged in using the Upsun CLI, in a terminal run the following command (replacing <VariableBlock name="PATH_TO_YOUR_KEY" /> with the location of your public key): 
upsun ssh-key:add '<VariableBlock name="PATH_TO_YOUR_KEY" />'
You can also add it in the Console, similar to this video. You can also add it in the Console. Now you are ready to use the key to connect to an environment.

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3. Connect to your server with SSH keys

To connect to a server using SSH keys, find the details in the Console:
  1. Open the Upsun Console.
  2. Select a project.
  3. In the Environment dropdown, select the environment you want to access.
  4. Click the SSH dropdown.
  5. Copy the ssh command for where you want access. (Example: ssh abcdefghi5k-main-7rqtwti--app@ssh.us-2.upsun.com)
  6. Enter the command into a terminal.
Note that if you have just added your SSH key, you need to redeploy your environment before you can access it using SSH keys.

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Forwarding keys by default

It may be helpful to set your SSH client to always forward keys to Upsun servers, which can simplify other SSH or rsync commands. To do so, include a block in your local ~/.ssh/config file like so: 
Host *.us.upsun.com
       ForwardAgent yes
Host *.eu.upsun.com
       ForwardAgent yes
Include one Host entry for each Upsun region you want to connect to, such as us-2 or eu-4. (You can include other configuration as desired.)
Last modified on March 10, 2026