When Cloning a Project, what is the Credentials Encryption Key

General
1

RasPi 3B+ running Bookworm, NR 4.0.8, Node 20.18.2 and Npm 10.8.2
Still building a clone of my RasPi with a virgin install of Bookworm, Node-red etc

Come to cloning the existing project using git. I copied the projects/.ssh directory (~/.ssh has no keys) and using new project to clone from Git (the other Raspi is up to date in GIT).
The SSH Key comes from the list, passphrase I know but what is the 'Credential Encryption key' the dialogue box asks for. I have tried Passphrase, the public key, Github password, a Ghp token, my credentialSecret, NR development login but nothing works.
Even created a new ssh Key but nowhere did I see mentioned a 'Credential Encryption key'
Getting very frustrated, and any web search just produces irrelevant garbage. Can find no guides,
Help

Credentials Encryption key
Credentials Encryption key602Ă—722 15 KB

2

When a project is created, the user can pick a phrase to encrypt any credentials with.

When cloning a project, the phrase needs to be provided so NR can decrypt the credentials.

So the answer to your question will be: whatever value you set, if any, when creating the original project. A blank value is a valid option if you chose not to encrypt your credentials

3

Thanks Nick, but isn't that the pass phrase, entered in the box to right of the SSH key name. I was after the "Credentials Encryption Key" at the bottom of the cloning dialogue box.

1 Like
4

No. Everything I described is related to the credentials encryption key field.

5

Out of curiousity, what then is the passphrase?

6

When generating ssh keys, you can provide a passphrase to unlock the key before it can be used.

1 Like
7

Oh, got it thanks!

8

Never got to clone the project onto the new machine, not sure why that passphrase didnt work (it works when I push changes).
So cloned by coping the whole .node-red directory to new machine, then ran the install script (there was anew version) hoping it will sort out anything. also copied the .ssh folder for keys. It all ran but still could push changes, it wanted the pasphrase and the passphrase from the other machine did not work! So created a new ssh key with new passphrase (and recorded it), added the public key part to Github, and after a few failed attends I am now pushing changes back into the original remote (was thinking I would need a new remote).
Now just need to sort out zigbee2MQTT, lots of issues with new version but that is another problem independent of NR .
Still confused by the Cloning page, key name and Passphrase I know from when creating projects and keys, but never saw a "Credentials Encryption Key"
Thanks all

9

Yep, I did get this to work as your stated in the end, the one time when I tried it the right way and it failed... I must have misstyped one of the Passphrase or the key.
For those struggling with the clone dialogue box meanings
"SSH Key" : This is the name of the SSH Key you created in node_red (menu/Settings/Git Config then click "addkey" in SSH Keys section. Copy the Public Key and Register it in your GitHub account Click your Icon {top right corner}/settings/SSH and GPG keys/New SSH key
"Passphrase" : this is the passphrased used when you created the ssh key that you then registered in your Github account.
"Credential Encryption Key": this is the "credentialSecret" : you have in the Node-red settings file (usually in " ./home/pi/.node-red/settings.js" on a Raspi using default setup).

The 'key' I was missing was that "Credential Encryption Key" and "CredentialSecret" are the same thing.