# Getting started help

**URL:** <https://discourse.pijul.org/t/getting-started-help/1415>\
**Category:** Question\
**Created:** [August 19, 2026, 5:39am UTC](https://discourse.pijul.org/t/getting-started-help/1415 "2026-08-19T05:39:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CarnivioN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e495f1/32.png) [@CarnivioN](https://discourse.pijul.org/u/CarnivioN)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2026, 5:39am UTC](https://discourse.pijul.org/t/getting-started-help/1415/1 "2026-08-19T05:39:36Z")

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Hi, all~

I’m confuzzled. I followed the manual and `cargo install pijul --version "~1.0.0-beta"` to install `pijul 1.0.0-beta.21`, then went to the _Getting Started_ page. Both `pijul init` and `pijul add` worked fine. The manual says,

> Before recording, new users will need to generate a key using `pijul key generate <name>`. Users can read more about keys in the manual section on identities.

But this command returns

```auto
error: unrecognized subcommand 'generate'

Usage: pijul identity [OPTIONS] <COMMAND>

For more information, try '--help'.

```

From `pijul key --help`, I realized that the command seems to have been updated to `pijul identity new`, but running the new command resulted in an error:

```auto
Error: SSH agent error: Environment variable `SSH_AUTH_SOCK` not found

```

Following the manual’s instructions, I went to the _Pijul identities_ page, but aside from confirming the command change, it didn’t offer any practical help. However, it mentioned global configuration, so I went to _Configuration_ page next. (Btw, the link in the manual is broken too; it originally pointed to `***.md`, I had to manually remove `.md` from the address bar.)

After configuring the `[author]` section in `~/.config/pijul/config.toml` (excluding the `key_path` field which is optional), the error persisted. I’m not sure if it’s due to the SSH key; the manual states:

> Unlike many other version control systems, Pijul does not permanently assign these details to changes. For more information, please reference the section on keys.

However, `/manual/keys.md` and `/manual/keys` do not exist, so I cannot refer to them.

I tried using `ssh-keygen` to generate a key pair and added the `key_path` field to the configuration, but it still didn’t work.

Is there a complete tutorial available?

Thanks!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![goodnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58f4c7/32.png) [@goodnight](https://discourse.pijul.org/u/goodnight)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2026, 9:32am UTC](https://discourse.pijul.org/t/getting-started-help/1415/2 "2026-08-26T09:32:06Z")

</div>

I think this is the material you want to set up ssh agent

> **[SSH agents - SSH keys - ArchWiki](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/SSH_keys#SSH_agents)**
>
> If your private key is encrypted with a passphrase, this passphrase must be entered every time you attempt to connect to an SSH server using public-key authentication. Each individual invocation of ssh or scp will need the passphrase in order to...

I am also trying pijul for just a week. I am not quite sure, but I think pijul is just recently add code to rely on ssh agent, starting from beta.1x or something. I think a lot of things may not be finalized yet so the doc have not mentioned it yet.