lima-git-setup

lima-git-setup

A Claude Code skill that sets up Git and SSH authentication inside a Lima VM on macOS, using 1Password as the SSH agent on the host.

What it does

Getting Git + SSH working correctly inside Lima with 1Password involves several non-obvious steps that all have to be right simultaneously. This skill knows the full picture:

• SSH_AUTH_SOCK vs IdentityAgent — ForwardAgent forwards SSH_AUTH_SOCK, not IdentityAgent. The skill checks whether SSH_AUTH_SOCK points to the 1Password socket and fixes it if not.
• SSH ControlMaster — a stale master connection will silently reuse an old, empty agent socket even after you fix SSH_AUTH_SOCK. The skill kills it.
• limactl shell vs ssh — limactl shell does not forward the SSH agent. The skill always uses ssh <vm-name>.
• op-ssh-sign on Linux — 1Password's signing binary is macOS-only. The skill uses the default ssh-keygen with the forwarded agent instead, no gpg.ssh.program needed.

Prerequisites

• macOS with Lima installed
• 1Password with the SSH agent enabled (Settings → Developer → SSH Agent)
• Claude Code CLI

Installation

claude skill install https://github.com/benstroud/lima-git-setup-skill/raw/main/lima-git-setup.skill

Or download and install locally:

curl -LO https://github.com/benstroud/lima-git-setup-skill/raw/main/lima-git-setup.skill
claude skill install ./lima-git-setup.skill

Usage

Once installed, Claude Code will use this skill automatically when you ask about:

• Setting up git in a Lima VM
• Getting SSH or GitHub/Bitbucket working inside Lima
• Replicating your Mac git config (identity, commit signing) in a VM
• Troubleshooting ssh-add -l showing "no identities" inside Lima

Example prompts that trigger it:

"I just created a Lima VM and want to set up git with my 1Password SSH keys"

"ssh-add -l shows no identities inside my Lima VM, ssh -T [email protected] fails"

"How do I replicate my Mac git config inside Lima devbox?"

What it covers

1. Check and fix SSH_AUTH_SOCK on the host Mac
2. Kill any stale SSH ControlMaster
3. Connect via ssh <vm-name> (not limactl shell)
4. Verify keys forwarded with ssh-add -l
5. Configure git identity and SSH commit signing inside the VM
6. Test GitHub/Bitbucket authentication and commit signing
7. (Optional) Set up allowed_signers for signature verification

License

MIT