Manage SSH passphrases

eval is not available in nushell, so run:

^ssh-agent -c
    | lines
    | first 2
    | parse "setenv {name} {value};"
    | transpose -r
    | into record
    | load-env

WARNING

Adding this to your env.nu will however start a new ssh-agent process every time you start a new terminal. See the workarounds.

Alternatively, use the third-party Nu plugin bash-env as follows.

^ssh-agent | bash-env | load-env

WARNING

Please note that the bash-env plugin is not supported by the core Nushell team. All issues and requests for support should be directed to its own issue tracker.

Workarounds

You can work around this behavior by checking if a ssh-agent is already running on your user, and start one if none is:

do --env {
    let ssh_agent_file = (
        $nu.temp-path | path join $"ssh-agent-($env.USER? | default $env.USERNAME).nuon"
    )

    if ($ssh_agent_file | path exists) {
        let ssh_agent_env = open ($ssh_agent_file)
        if ($"/proc/($ssh_agent_env.SSH_AGENT_PID)" | path exists) {
            load-env $ssh_agent_env
            return
        } else {
            rm $ssh_agent_file
        }
    }

    let ssh_agent_env = ^ssh-agent -c
        | lines
        | first 2
        | parse "setenv {name} {value};"
        | transpose --header-row
        | into record
    load-env $ssh_agent_env
    $ssh_agent_env | save --force $ssh_agent_file
}

Keychain

keychain --eval --quiet <your ssh keys, eg. id_ed25519>
    | lines
    | where not ($it | is-empty)
    | parse "{k}={v}; export {k2};"
    | select k v
    | transpose --header-row
    | into record
    | load-env

Non-nushell workarounds

However, the commonly recommended approach involves running an ssh-agent so it establishes an user-wide socket for processes to connect to.

Here are two common ways to achieve this.

DE/WM config

You can incorporate it into your Desktop Environment (DE) or Compositor's configuration using the following command:

ssh-agent -D -a /run/user/1000/ssh-agent.socket
# You can also set this socket path as an environment variable using the same config file

This a good option for you if you're using a Windows Manager or a Compositor since you're likely to know its syntax.

As a service

Alternatively, you can enable it as an user service. OpenSSH typically includes a systemd service and the ArchLinux wiki systemd/User page covers how to enable services per user with systemd.

However, if you're using a different service manager, please refer its own documentation to create a user service that utilizes the aforementioned command.

To enable Nushell to access this socket, you need to add its path as $env.SSH_AUTH_SOCK like so:

$env.SSH_AUTH_SOCK = $"($env.XDG_RUNTIME_DIR)/ssh-agent.socket"