JPInertJPInert/claude-code-skills/skills/sshhost/SKILL.md

sshhost

Skill0 starsChanged 39 days agoMITView on GitHub

Make a new or rebuilt Linux box reachable as `ssh <name>` like your others - an ssh config entry that names the IP too, your key on the box, and a key-only test. Use when the user says /sshhost, "add the box to ssh", "so I can just ssh in", "make ssh X work", "why does ssh X ask for a password / say permission denied", and AUTOMATICALLY as the last step whenever a session creates, reimages or re-IPs a Linux box (cloud VM, Pi, laptop, container host).

Reads credentials

In this repository8 other files it gives its agents.
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The file

We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent

2 rules. About 0 are common, 0 are distinctive, and 2 are very specific to this project.

≈0
Common · estimate
Many files like this have a rule of this kind.
≈0
Distinctive · estimate
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
2
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.

Common
Distinctive
Very specific

Very specific:
If your ~/.ssh/config is a symlink into a dotfiles repo, edit the repo copy and commit it, or the next machine will not have the entry.
line 37
Very specific:
After a reimage, the host key changed: ssh-keygen -R <name> and ssh-keygen -R <ip>, then accept the new key once, deliberately.
line 39

≈ “Common” is an estimate: at least 1 in 5 of the 350,495 skill files we read have a rule of the same kind, not the same words. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.

Keep what fits and drop the rest. Your version, ready for your agents.

Files

SKILL.md

Add a box to your ssh list

A box is "on the list" when all of these hold. Do every one, then run the test.

#	What	Where
1	`Host <name> <ip>` entry (the IP too, so a bare `ssh user@<ip>` also finds the key): `HostName`, `User`, `IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519`	`~/.ssh/config`, *above `Host `**
2	Your public key in the box's `~/.ssh/authorized_keys`	cloud: pass the `.pub` at launch; existing box: `ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub user@ip`
3	The box's own aliases load in a login shell	Ubuntu/Debian `.profile` sources `.bashrc`, so put aliases in `~/.bashrc`

Why the IP belongs on the Host line. A strict tail like

Host *
    IdentitiesOnly yes
    IdentityFile none

stops ssh offering every key it knows to every server (which trips MaxAuthTries and leaks which keys you hold). The cost: a bare ssh user@ip offers NO key and gets Permission denied (publickey) unless that IP is on a Host line with an IdentityFile.

Rules

ssh-copy-id reads the password from /dev/tty, not stdin. From an agent's shell (no TTY) it hangs or fails; run it in a pty, or have the user type it once. If SSH_ASKPASS and DISPLAY are set, ssh may pop a GUI dialog nobody sees; unset them for a terminal prompt.
A cloud box's public IP can change after a stop/start: update HostName AND the IP on the Host line, and say so.
If your ~/.ssh/config is a symlink into a dotfiles repo, edit the repo copy and commit it, or the next machine will not have the entry.
After a reimage, the host key changed: ssh-keygen -R <name> and ssh-keygen -R <ip>, then accept the new key once, deliberately. Never turn off StrictHostKeyChecking globally to make the warning go away.

Test (every time)

ssh -o BatchMode=yes <name> hostname        # key auth by name, no prompt
ssh -o BatchMode=yes <user>@<ip> hostname   # key auth by bare IP, proves step 1's IP

Both must print the hostname. Then tell the user the exact command they type: ssh <name>.

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