When you use SSH to clone a GitHub repository on your server, you’re authenticating the server to GitHub using an SSH key. Here's how it's linked:

🔁 What’s Actually Happening?

1. You generate an SSH key pair on your server.

• The private key stays on the server.
• The public key is copied to GitHub.

1. When you run a command like:

   git clone git@github.com:your-username/your-repo.git

GitHub checks:

• “Does this public key match one of the authorized SSH keys on this GitHub account?”
• If yes, access is granted, and cloning happens without asking for a username/password.

🔐 Step-by-Step: Link SSH to GitHub from Your Server

✅ 1. On your Contabo server, generate an SSH key:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your-email@example.com"

Press Enter for all prompts to accept defaults.

✅ 2. Copy the public key:

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Copy the output (it begins with ssh-rsa...).

✅ 3. Go to GitHub → Settings → SSH and GPG keys → New SSH key

• Title: Contabo server
• Paste the key

✅ 4. Back on the server, test the connection:

ssh -T git@github.com

If successful, it will say:

Hi your-username! You've successfully authenticated...

✅ 5. Now you can clone your repo using SSH:

git clone git@github.com:your-username/your-django-repo.git tunaresq_be

No username/password will be required — it just works 🎉.