SSH Keygen Wrapper

A simple, automated tool for generating SSH keys from structured YAML input. Designed for anyone who wants to avoid manual key management.

Features

• YAML-based configuration for multiple keys
• Automated key generation with proper permissions
• Option to backup or replace existing keys
• Field validation and error handling
• Summary output

Requirements

• Python 3.x
• PyYAML (pip install pyyaml)
• OpenSSH (ssh-keygen in your PATH)

Development

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install pyyaml pre-commit
pre-commit install

Usage

• Set passphrase with echo -n "passphrase" | base64 and add it to pass_b64 in keys.yml.

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install pyyaml
python ssh_keygen.py keys.yml

• Use --dry-run to preview actions.
• Use --replace to backup and overwrite existing keys.
• Use --key-dir ./ to change directory to store keys (default: ~/.ssh)
• If you run with both --dry-run and --replace it will act as backup, the script will still perform backups of existing keys before logging the dry-run action. So, even in dry-run mode, the backup step is executed, but no new keys are generated or overwritten - only the backup and logging happen.

TODO

• Integrate with Bitwarden somehow..