How to manage SSH keys (add, remove, rotate)

View your keys

Open the SSH Access tab for your server to see every key on it, under Your keys (with how many of the 5 allowed you use). For each key we show: label, key type, fingerprint, the date it was added, and when it was last used (or Never used). The last-used time is updated from accepted logins about every 15 minutes.

Each key has four buttons: Verify checks that the key is installed on the server, Reveal shows the public key, Copy copies it, and Remove deletes it.

The fingerprint is what your local SSH client also computes when you connect. You can match the value shown here against ssh-keygen -lf ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub on your own machine to be sure it is the right key.

Add an additional key

Use Create a key for me (recommended) or Already have an SSH key? Paste it here instead, as described in How to upload an SSH public key. You can have up to 5 keys per server. Each key is independent, so a colleague can have their own key without ever seeing yours. We email your account address each time a key is added.

Remove a key

Find the key in the list, click Remove and confirm. The key is taken off the server, so it can no longer be used to log in. We send a confirmation email to your account address every time a key is removed. To be sure nobody is still connected, use Disable SSH, which removes your SSH user and every key from the server.

Rotate a key safely

Rotating a key means replacing it with a new one without ever being locked out. The safe order is:

What if I lost my private key?

We cannot recover your private key. A key you made yourself only ever existed on your own computer, and we do not keep a copy of keys we create for you. The recovery path is:

• Get a new key: Create a key for me (recommended), or make one on a machine you still have access to.
• Add it in the SSH Access tab.
• Once you confirm the new key works, remove the lost one.