---
name: "agent-transfer"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "agent-transfer"
version: "0.43-3.1"
release: "Debian 11 (Bullseye)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/agent-transfer"
---

# agent-transfer(1)

copy a secret key from gpg-agent to ssh-agent

## NAME

agent-transfer - copy a secret key from gpg-agent to ssh-agent

## SYNOPSIS

**agent-transfer \[*options*\] *KEYGRIP* \[*COMMENT*\]**

## DESCRIPTION

**agent-transfer** extracts a secret key from a modern version of GnuPG agent and sends it to the running SSH agent.  This is useful for people whose keys are managed in the long-term by GnuPG's gpg-agent, but who prefer the semantics of OpenSSH's ssh-agent for regular use.

**agent-transfer** was written as part of the monkeysphere project.

The **KEYGRIP** should be specified as a sequence of 20 hexadecimal characters.  If you aren't sure of the keygrip, you can inspect the output of:

        gpg --with-keygrip --list-secret-keys

The **COMMENT** is optional, and will be stored alongside the key in ssh-agent.  It must not start with a -, to avoid being mistaken for an option.

## OPTIONS

**agent-transfer** also accepts options that would normally be passed to [**ssh-add**(1)](/ssh-add/1.md) to constrain the use of the transferred key:

- \-c

  Indicates that added identities should be subject to confirmation before being used for authentication.

- \-t SECONDS

  Indicates that the key should have a lifetime of SECONDS in the running ssh-agent.

## FILES

- \~/.gnupg/S.gpg-agent

  The socket where gpg-agent is listening.  This is the "standard socket" for modern GnuPG.

## ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

- GNUPGHOME

  The GnuPG home directory, where the standard socket for gpg-agent lives.  If this is not set, it is assumed to be ~/.gnupg.

- SSH\_AUTH\_SOCK

  Specifies the location where the running ssh-agent is present.

Several other environment variables are also passed in some form to the gpg-agent to help it figure out how to run a sensible pinentry, including GPG\_TTY, TERM, DISPLAY, XAUTHORITY, GTK\_IM\_MODULE, DBUS\_SESSION\_BUS\_ADDRESS, and LANG.

## BUGS

**agent-transfer** can only work with RSA and Ed25519 keys.  Support for other key types not yet implemented.  Patches welcome!

## AUTHOR

Written by: Daniel Kahn Gillmor \<dkg@fifthhorseman.net\>

## SEE ALSO

[**monkeysphere**(7)](/monkeysphere/7.md), [**ssh**(1)](/ssh/1.md), [**ssh-add**(1)](/ssh-add/1.md), [**ssh-agent**(1)](/ssh-agent/1.md), [**gpg**(1)](/gpg/1.md) [**gpg-agent**(1)](/gpg-agent/1.md),