[jamespwilliams]

Something like https://matrixzj.github.io/documentations/idm_decrypt_ssh_pr... (then ssh -i decrypted_key) should work and avoid ssh-agent

[generalizations]

Thanks for the link. It's ironic that in the name of security, that solution is probably one of the best available. SSH is so protected against footguns that legitimate use cases are forced to use demonstrably worse security practices, just because some people might shoot themselves in the foot. I'm stuck with either that option, expect, or a total misuse of ssh-agent.

[jamespwilliams]

Depending on your use case it might be better to just store the key unencrypted. There’s not really much point encrypting it if you’re storing the passphrase on disk alongside the key anyway.

[gnufx]

If you want to remove a passphrase, just use ssh -p.