Git push requires username and password

A common cause is cloning using the default (HTTPS) instead of SSH. You can correct this by going to your repository, clicking "Clone or download", then clicking the "Use SSH" button above the URL field and updating the URL of your origin remote like this:

git remote set-url origin git@github.com:username/repo.git

You can check if you have added the remote as HTTPS or SSH using:

git remote -v

This is documented at GitHub: Switching remote URLs from HTTPS to SSH.

Permanently authenticating with Git repositories

Run the following command to enable credential caching:

$ git config credential.helper store$ git push https://github.com/owner/repo.gitUsername for 'https://github.com': <USERNAME>Password for 'https://USERNAME@github.com': <PASSWORD>

You should also specify caching expire,

git config --global credential.helper 'cache --timeout 7200'

After enabling credential caching, it will be cached for 7200 seconds (2 hour).

I just came across the same problem, and the simplest solution I found was to use SSH URL instead of HTTPS one:

ssh://git@github.com/username/repo.git

And not this:

https://github.com/username/repo.git

You can now validate with just the SSH key instead of the username and password.