GitHub Passkeys Are Generally Available

GitHub announced today that its phishing-resistant passkeys passwordless login system is now generally available to all users.

“Since the launch of passkeys in beta in July, tens of thousands of developers have adopted passkeys,” GitHub’s Hirsch Singhal writes in the announcement post. “Now, all users on GitHub.com can use passkeys to protect their account. This continues our commitment to securing all contributors with 2FA by the end of 2023 and strengthening security across the platform—without compromising user experience.”

I switched my GitHub login to passkeys when this first entered beta, and it’s still one of the better passkeys experiences I’ve used so far. GitHub says that it’s learned a lot during this process, and it made some changes midstream to make the experience even more seamless. For example, it enabled cross-device passkeys registration, which lets you do things like configure a passkey on a phone and use it on a PC. (This feature is supported by Windows now too.)

To get started, log in to GitHub and visit account security settings, where you’ll find an “Add a passkey” option (or “Upgrade” if you’re already using a physical security key).