Allow Renaming SSH Key Titles

[BobakTech]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Product Feedback

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Other

Body

What are you trying to do?

I want to rename the title of an existing SSH key after adding it to my GitHub account.

What did you expect to happen?

I expected to be able to edit the SSH key title at any time, since it is only used as a label for identification.

For example, a user might initially give a key a temporary name while practicing or testing, then later decide to use it as their primary key and want to rename it to something more descriptive.

Additionally, a short description and a few example naming conventions when adding an SSH key could help users choose clearer titles from the beginning.

What happened instead?

Currently, SSH key titles cannot be edited. The only way to change a title is to delete the key and add it again.

Any links/screenshots?

No.

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[hoangperry]

Agreed this should just be editable — but until it is, the workaround takes about 20 seconds and loses nothing: delete the key entry and re-add the same public key with the title you want (Settings → SSH and GPG keys → Delete, then New SSH key, paste the same .pub content).

Because the key material is unchanged, nothing else breaks: your local setup, ~/.ssh files and known_hosts are untouched, and pushes keep working the moment it's re-added. Two small caveats:

• The "added on / last used" metadata resets, since GitHub treats it as a new entry.
• If your org uses SSH certificate authorities or you have the key authorized for SAML SSO organizations, you'll need to re-authorize it for those orgs after re-adding (the Configure SSO dropdown next to the key).

Your feature ask is still valid — a label edit shouldn't require delete/re-add at all, and the suggestion to show naming-convention hints at creation time is a nice touch (most people end up with "My Key" and three "work laptop"s). But nobody should stay stuck with a bad title in the meantime.