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Sshifu – Give SSH access in 1 command. Teleport/Smallstep alternative

Sshifu – Give SSH access in 1 command. Teleport/Smallstep alternative

Apr 5, 2026 Security & Privacy
access_management key_management ssh

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Sshifu – Give SSH access in 1 command. Teleport/Smallstep alternative

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Hey HN! Over the past few years, I’ve spent way too much time copy-pasting SSH public keys just to give people access to servers. It always felt like a chore, and the security risks (offboarding, revocation, etc.) aren’t great either.I looked into solutions like Teleport and Smallstep, but they felt a bit too heavy and complex for what I needed.So over the past few weeks I vibe-coded a small solution to scratch my own itch: sshifu.The idea is simple — you set up a “sshifu server” as an auth server, configure your SSH servers to trust it, and then giving access is just telling someone to run:"npx sshifu sshifu-server.com ssh-server.com"That’s it. No more copying keys or touching "authorized_keys".It’s still early and a bit rough around the edges, but it’s been working well for me so far.Would love feedback — what’s missing for real-world usage, and what would stop you from using this?

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