diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index c118c5d..6bc29ba 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 
 # except:
 !.zshrc
+!.zprofile
 !.vimrc
 !.ideavimrc
 !.config
diff --git a/.zprofile b/.zprofile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..58036e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.zprofile
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+export SSH_AUTH_SOCK=~/.ssh/ssh-agent.$USER.sock
+function ssh-agent-start ()
+{
+    # if that socket does not exist, start the ssh-agent on it
+    if [[ -z $SSH_AGENT_PID ]]
+    then
+        rm $SSH_AUTH_SOCK
+        eval $(ssh-agent -a "$SSH_AUTH_SOCK") > /dev/null
+        # using ssh-add might ask for a password, we don't want that here.
+        # If only using ssh keys without passphrases, you can do this here
+        # ssh-add
+    fi
+}
+ssh-agent-start
diff --git a/.zshrc b/.zshrc
index 5aac579..d7394bf 100644
--- a/.zshrc
+++ b/.zshrc
@@ -43,8 +43,8 @@ function largefiles () { exec 2>/dev/null; du -ah "$@" | grep -P "^\d+(G|T|P|E)\
 function midfiles () { exec 2>/dev/null; du -ah "$@" | grep -P "^\d+(M|G|T|P|E)\s" }
 function smallfiles () { exec 2>/dev/null; du -ah "$@" | grep -P "^\d+(B|K)\s" }
 function cachekeys () { exec 2>/dev/null;
-    eval $(ssh-agent)
-    ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa
+    ssh-agent-start # see ~/.zprofile
+    ssh-add
 }
 function newpass() {
     LC_ALL=C tr -dc '[:alnum:]' < /dev/urandom | head -c${1:-40}