🧭 From your computer to your Support Desk ticket

You create and read the key on your own computer. AuroraMidnite cannot retrieve it for you.

👋 What's an SSH key? (30-second version)

An SSH key is like a digital key card that lets your computer into your website folder. It comes in two parts:

• 🔑 Public key — safe to share with anyone. This is the part you send us.
• 🔒 Private key — stays on your computer, never leaves it, never gets sent to anyone (not even us).

You create the pair once on your computer, send us the public half, and then your SFTP program uses them together to unlock your folder. No passwords needed.

🪟 Windows (with PuTTYgen)

1. Download PuTTY from https://www.putty.org (the installer includes PuTTYgen).
2. Open PuTTYgen (search "PuTTYgen" in the Start menu).
3. Under Parameters, make sure Ed25519 is selected (bottom right), then click Generate.
4. Move your mouse around the blank area until the progress bar fills (it's randomizing your key).
5. Click Save private key and save it somewhere safe (e.g., Documents). Yes to "without a passphrase?" — a passphrase is fine too, just don't forget it.
6. The top box labeled "Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file" is what you need. Copy that entire text — it starts with ssh-ed25519.
7. Reply to your support ticket and paste that text in your reply. That's it!

🍎 Mac

1. Open Terminal (Spotlight → type "Terminal" → Enter).
2. Paste this command and press Enter:
   ssh-keygen -t ed25519Copy
3. When it asks where to save the file, just press Enter (default is fine).
4. When it asks for a passphrase, you can press Enter twice to skip it (or type one you'll remember — your choice).
5. Now type this and press Enter to see your public key:
   cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pubCopy
6. You'll see a line starting with ssh-ed25519. Select and copy the whole line (Cmd+C).
7. Reply to your support ticket and paste it in your reply. That's it!

🐧 Linux

1. Open Terminal.
2. Run:
   ssh-keygen -t ed25519Copy
3. Press Enter to accept the default save location, and press Enter twice to skip the passphrase (or set one you'll remember).
4. Show your public key:
   cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pubCopy
5. Copy the full line starting with ssh-ed25519 (Ctrl+Shift+C).
6. Reply to your support ticket and paste it in your reply. That's it!

✅ What happens next

Once we receive your key, we install it on our side (takes about 30 seconds) and reply to confirm.

Then you can connect to your website folder anytime with any SFTP program.

Recommended (free) SFTP programs: FileZilla (Windows/Mac/Linux) or Cyberduck (Mac/Windows).

⚠️ Three golden rules

• ✅ The public key starts with ssh-ed25519 (or ssh-rsa) — if it doesn't, you've copied the wrong thing.
• 🚫 Never send your private key — the file without .pub, or anything containing "PRIVATE KEY". We'll never ask for it.
• 🙋 If you get stuck at any step, just reply to the ticket — we'll walk you through it live. There's no wrong way to ask.