diff --git a/cli/package.json b/cli/package.json
index e868103c..7363eff0 100644
--- a/cli/package.json
+++ b/cli/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "@openrouter/spawn",
-  "version": "0.7.3",
+  "version": "0.7.4",
   "type": "module",
   "bin": {
     "spawn": "cli.js"
diff --git a/cli/src/digitalocean/digitalocean.ts b/cli/src/digitalocean/digitalocean.ts
index 494a112d..85271338 100644
--- a/cli/src/digitalocean/digitalocean.ts
+++ b/cli/src/digitalocean/digitalocean.ts
@@ -841,7 +841,8 @@ async function waitForDropletActive(dropletId: string, maxAttempts = 60): Promis
 
 // ─── SSH Execution ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
-const SSH_OPTS = SSH_BASE_OPTS;
+const SSH_KEY_PATH = `${process.env.HOME}/.ssh/id_ed25519`;
+const SSH_OPTS = [...SSH_BASE_OPTS, "-i", SSH_KEY_PATH];
 
 export async function waitForCloudInit(ip?: string, _maxAttempts = 60): Promise<void> {
   const serverIp = ip || doServerIp;
@@ -849,6 +850,7 @@ export async function waitForCloudInit(ip?: string, _maxAttempts = 60): Promise<
     host: serverIp,
     user: "root",
     maxAttempts: 36,
+    sshKeyPath: SSH_KEY_PATH,
   });
 
   // Stream cloud-init output so the user sees progress in real time