Open Terminal
​
On your Mac, open the Terminal application. You can do this by searching for “Terminal” in Spotlight (Command + Space) or finding it in Applications > Utilities > Terminal.

Create an .ssh Directory (If It Doesn’t Already Exist)
​
In the Terminal, run the following command:
​

This ensures you have a dedicated directory in your home folder to store SSH keys.
​

Navigate to the .ssh Folder
​
Move into the directory you just created (or already had):
​

Generate Your SSH Key Pair
​
Run the following command to generate a new ECDSA key pair with 521-bit encryption:
​

Replace <filename> with your desired key name (e.g., cv-ai-key). This will create two files:

• cv-ai-key (your private key)

• cv-ai-key.pub (your public key)

You’ll be asked to enter a passphrase — you can leave this empty by pressing Enter if you don’t want one.
​

Share Your Public Key with CollegeVine
​
To copy the contents of your public key so you can send it to CollegeVine, run:
​

Make sure to copy the entire output, starting with ecdsa-sha2-.... This is the only key you should share.
​

Locate and Access Your Private Key
​
To view your private key (for verification or advanced usage), run:
​

Your private key begins with -----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY----- and should be stored securely.
​

.On your Mac, open the Terminal application. You can do this by searching for “Terminal” in Spotlight (Command + Space) or finding it in Applications > Utilities > Terminal.

Navigate to the path you want to save the keys on your local machine on Terminal, ex. saving to Documents folder:
​

​

Paste in the command below, replacing <filename> with what you want the file to be named:

The keys are saved to your path as document files, which will open with TextEdit by default. The public key file is named <filename>.pub and the private key named is <filename>. You can access them by clicking on the individual files.
​