Getting Started

Getting started

This walkthrough takes you from a fresh install to pushing with the right account. It takes about 5 minutes per account.

1. Add your first account

Open Lanyard and click Add account (or press Ctrl/⌘+N).

Fill in:

Field	What to enter
Provider	Where the account lives, e.g. GitHub.
Account name	A short label you choose: work, personal, client-acme. Letters, digits, ., _ and -.
SSH key	Keep Generate a new key for a fresh key, or pick Use an existing key if this account already has one.
Key type	Ed25519 unless the provider needs something else.
Passphrase	Optional. A passphrase protects the key file; you then load it into the ssh-agent.
Git user.name	The name on your commits, e.g. Jane Doe.
Git user.email	An email verified on this account, or its no-reply address. It is also the key's comment.

Leave Set the global git identity when this account becomes active on if you want your commits signed with this account's name and email whenever it is active.

Click Generate key & add.

2. Register the public key with the provider

Lanyard shows the new public key.

1. Click Copy public key.
2. Click Open GitHub key settings (the button names your provider). On GitHub this is Settings → SSH and GPG keys.
3. Add a new SSH key, paste, and save.

3. Test it

Back in Lanyard, click Test connection in the same dialog (or Test on the account's card on the Overview page). You should see:

Authenticated as your-username

If you see Permission denied, the key is not registered yet or was pasted into a different account. See Troubleshooting.

4. Use git as usual

The active account now answers for plain URLs:

git clone git@github.com:acme/app.git
cd app
git commit -m "First commit as the right person"
git push

5. Add a second account and switch

Repeat steps 1 to 3 for your other account (say personal). Then switch whenever you need to:

• Overview page: pick the account in the provider's Signed in as list.
• Tray icon: right-click → GitHub → personal.
• Command palette: Ctrl/⌘+K, type personal, press Enter.
• Terminal: lanyard use github personal.

Need both accounts at the same time, one per repository? See Using two accounts side by side.

6. Add a server

Servers already in your ~/.ssh/config are listed on the Hosts page. To add one:

1. Open Hosts and click Add host.
2. Enter an Alias (prod-web), the HostName (203.0.113.10), the User, and pick the IdentityFile key.
3. Click Add host, then open the new row's ⋯ menu → Connect.

A terminal opens with ssh prod-web. From then on, connect from the tray, the command palette, or lanyard connect prod-web. More in Hosts.

Next

• Close the window: Lanyard keeps running in the tray.
• Learn the command palette and shortcuts.