Gitea Account & SSH Setup

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Gitea Account & SSH Setup
Account Security & Repository Authentication
This guide may be updated as GGU policies, procedures, platforms, and organizational needs change.

This guide covers basic Gitea account preparation for GGU repositories.

 

Account Setup

1. Sign in to the GGU Gitea instance.
2. Confirm your username and email are correct.
3. Enable two-factor authentication if available for your account.
4. Add an SSH key if you will clone/push over SSH.
5. Ask the responsible Manager or repository owner for the minimum repository/team access required.

 

SSH Key Guidance

• Create a modern SSH key on your own device.
• Protect private keys and never paste them into tickets, Discord, or repositories.
• Add only the public key to Gitea.
• Remove keys from devices you no longer control.

 

Change Control

• Know what you are changing and why.
• Back up or ensure a rollback path for high-impact changes.
• Avoid combining unrelated changes.
• Record material production changes.
• Test before production when practical.

 

Validation

• Confirm the service starts successfully.
• Review logs for new errors.
• Test the exact behavior changed.
• Confirm permissions and integrations still work.
• Monitor briefly after deployment for delayed failures.

 

Escalation

If a change affects systems outside your responsibility, creates a security concern, or cannot be safely reversed, stop and escalate rather than continuing to experiment in production.

 

SSH Key Lifecycle

• Use one key per device where practical.
• Remove lost/retired device keys.
• Use a passphrase on private keys when practical.
• Never upload private keys to Gitea.

 

Prerequisites

• Confirm you are authorized to make the change.
• Confirm the target system/server/repository.
• Read current project or service documentation.
• Identify the expected result.
• Identify a rollback or recovery path for high-impact work.

 

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Copying commands or values from a different server without checking context.
• Making several unrelated changes before testing.
• Ignoring warnings because the service still appears to start.
• Editing production directly when a safer test or review path exists.
• Deleting old files or backups before the replacement is verified.
• Treating permissions errors as a reason to grant broad administrator access.
• Failing to record what changed.

 

Operational Record

For material changes, record enough information for another administrator to understand the target, change, reason, result, and rollback point. This may be a ticket, issue, pull request, deployment note, incident record, or appropriate Leadership message.

 

If Something Goes Wrong

1. Stop making unrelated changes.
2. Preserve the current logs and error output.
3. Determine whether immediate rollback is safer than continued troubleshooting.
4. Restore the last known-good state where practical.
5. Escalate with the exact error, target service, recent changes, and reproduction steps.
6. After recovery, document the cause and any preventative follow-up.

 

Secure the account before accessing private code.