YKMAN(1)

📦
version 5.9.2 · 7 versions
, in nixpkgs unstable, ubuntu stonking

💖 YKMAN(1) — the YubiKey Manager, bestie edition 💖

okay so this is the manual for ykman, part of the User Commands crew, and it's literally the glow-up your YubiKey has been waiting for 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

ykman — YubiKey Manager (ykman) 👑

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

ykman [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

Configure your YubiKey straight from the command line. that's it, that's the whole vibe 💅

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • -d, --device SERIAL — pick which YubiKey you're talking to, by serial number 🎀
  • -r, --reader NAME — pick a YubiKey by its smart card reader name. ngl this one can't be used together with --device or list 🚫
  • -t, --scp-ca FILENAME — tell it which CA to use to verify the SCP11 card key (CA-KLCC) 🔐
  • -s, --scp CRED — hand over the private key and certificate chain for secure messaging. you can use this one multiple times to pass key + certs across multiple files (private key, certificates in leaf-last order), OR you can give SCP03 keys in hex separated by a colon: K-ENC:K-MAC[:K-DEK] 🗝️
  • -p, --scp-password PASSWORD — the password needed to unlock the --scp file, if it needs one 🔑
  • -l, --log-level [error|warning|info|debug|traffic] — turn on logging at whichever verbosity level you want 📝
  • --log-file FILE — write the log into FILE instead of spilling it onto stderr (heads up: this needs --log-level) 📂
  • --diagnose — show diagnostics info that's actually useful for troubleshooting 🩺
  • -v, --version — show version info about the app ⭐
  • --full-help — show the --help output, including the hidden commands 👀
  • -h, --help — show this message and exit, bye ✌️

✨ Commands ✨

  • info — show general information 🌸
  • list — list connected YubiKeys 🌈
  • script — run a python script 🐍
  • config — configure the YubiKey, enable or disable applications ⚙️
  • fido — manage the FIDO applications 🔑
  • hsmauth — manage the YubiHSM Auth application 💜
  • oath — manage the OATH application 🎟️
  • openpgp — manage the OpenPGP application ✉️
  • otp — manage the YubiOTP application 🔢
  • piv — manage the PIV application 🪪

✨ EXAMPLES ✨

List connected YubiKeys, only output serial number:

$ ykman list --serials

Show information about YubiKey with serial number 123456:

$ ykman --device 123456 info

✨ SHELL COMPLETION ✨

there's experimental shell completion for the command line tool and honestly? obsessed 🫶 to enable it, run this command once (for Bash):

$ source <(_YKMAN_COMPLETE=bash_source ykman | sudo tee /etc/bash_completion.d/ykman)

want more info on shell completion (including how to do it in other shells)? it's all at: https://click.palletsprojects.com/en/stable/shell-completion/

and that's the whole page bestie 💖 this was ykman 5.9.2, born June 2026, filed under YKMAN(1) — go forth and manage those keys, main character 👑✨

📦 where this page comes from