VSCode Git SSH setup

Paul Sweeney · 9th January 2021

quicktips   vscode   git   ssh

To enable vscode git extension to use pageant-served ssh certificates…

  • download and install PuTTY
  • find the installed path of plink.exe - usually C:\Program Files\PuTTY\plink.exe
  • set GIT_SSH and GIT_SSH_COMMAND environment variables to this path:
GIT_SSH="C:\Program Files\PuTTY\plink.exe"
GIT_SSH_COMMAND="C:\Program Files\PuTTY\plink.exe"

:information_source: Most programs use GIT_SSH and VSCode picks this up but gives an error that it can’t spawn plink.exe due to permission denied.

To get VSCode working, also set GIT_SSH_COMMAND

:exclamation: If the error plink: unknown option "-o" occurs, see Fix git plink unknown option error.