diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 63d86fd..f49da36 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -83,6 +83,7 @@ The following inputs can be used to control the action's behavior:
 * `ssh-private-key`: Required. Use this to provide the key(s) to load as GitHub Actions secrets.
 * `ssh-auth-sock`: Can be used to control where the SSH agent socket will be placed. Ultimately affects the `$SSH_AUTH_SOCK` environment variable.
 * `log-public-key`: Set this to `false` if you want to suppress logging of _public_ key information. To simplify debugging and since it contains public key information only, this is turned on by default.
+* `skip-known-hosts`: Set this to `true` if you want to skip adding the GitHub keys to the known_hosts. By default this is set to `false` for backwards compatibility (i.e. add GitHub keys to known_hosts).
 
 ## Exported variables
 
diff --git a/index.js b/index.js
index add5f7c..ba5666f 100644
--- a/index.js
+++ b/index.js
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ const { homePath, sshAgentCmd, sshAddCmd, gitCmd } = require('./paths.js');
 try {
     const privateKey = core.getInput('ssh-private-key');
     const logPublicKey = core.getBooleanInput('log-public-key', {default: true});
+    const skipKnownHosts = core.getBooleanInput('skip-known-hosts', {default: false});
 
     if (!privateKey) {
         core.setFailed("The ssh-private-key argument is empty. Maybe the secret has not been configured, or you are using a wrong secret name in your workflow file.");
@@ -16,12 +17,14 @@ try {
 
     const homeSsh = homePath + '/.ssh';
 
-    console.log(`Adding GitHub.com keys to ${homeSsh}/known_hosts`);
+    if (!skipKnownHosts) {
+        console.log(`Adding GitHub.com keys to ${homeSsh}/known_hosts`);
 
-    fs.mkdirSync(homeSsh, { recursive: true });
-    fs.appendFileSync(`${homeSsh}/known_hosts`, '\ngithub.com ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 AAAAE2VjZHNhLXNoYTItbmlzdHAyNTYAAAAIbmlzdHAyNTYAAABBBEmKSENjQEezOmxkZMy7opKgwFB9nkt5YRrYMjNuG5N87uRgg6CLrbo5wAdT/y6v0mKV0U2w0WZ2YB/++Tpockg=\n');
-    fs.appendFileSync(`${homeSsh}/known_hosts`, '\ngithub.com ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIOMqqnkVzrm0SdG6UOoqKLsabgH5C9okWi0dh2l9GKJl\n');
-    fs.appendFileSync(`${homeSsh}/known_hosts`, '\ngithub.com ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAABIwAAAQEAq2A7hRGmdnm9tUDbO9IDSwBK6TbQa+PXYPCPy6rbTrTtw7PHkccKrpp0yVhp5HdEIcKr6pLlVDBfOLX9QUsyCOV0wzfjIJNlGEYsdlLJizHhbn2mUjvSAHQqZETYP81eFzLQNnPHt4EVVUh7VfDESU84KezmD5QlWpXLmvU31/yMf+Se8xhHTvKSCZIFImWwoG6mbUoWf9nzpIoaSjB+weqqUUmpaaasXVal72J+UX2B+2RPW3RcT0eOzQgqlJL3RKrTJvdsjE3JEAvGq3lGHSZXy28G3skua2SmVi/w4yCE6gbODqnTWlg7+wC604ydGXA8VJiS5ap43JXiUFFAaQ==\n');
+        fs.mkdirSync(homeSsh, { recursive: true });
+        fs.appendFileSync(`${homeSsh}/known_hosts`, '\ngithub.com ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 AAAAE2VjZHNhLXNoYTItbmlzdHAyNTYAAAAIbmlzdHAyNTYAAABBBEmKSENjQEezOmxkZMy7opKgwFB9nkt5YRrYMjNuG5N87uRgg6CLrbo5wAdT/y6v0mKV0U2w0WZ2YB/++Tpockg=\n');
+        fs.appendFileSync(`${homeSsh}/known_hosts`, '\ngithub.com ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIOMqqnkVzrm0SdG6UOoqKLsabgH5C9okWi0dh2l9GKJl\n');
+        fs.appendFileSync(`${homeSsh}/known_hosts`, '\ngithub.com ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAABIwAAAQEAq2A7hRGmdnm9tUDbO9IDSwBK6TbQa+PXYPCPy6rbTrTtw7PHkccKrpp0yVhp5HdEIcKr6pLlVDBfOLX9QUsyCOV0wzfjIJNlGEYsdlLJizHhbn2mUjvSAHQqZETYP81eFzLQNnPHt4EVVUh7VfDESU84KezmD5QlWpXLmvU31/yMf+Se8xhHTvKSCZIFImWwoG6mbUoWf9nzpIoaSjB+weqqUUmpaaasXVal72J+UX2B+2RPW3RcT0eOzQgqlJL3RKrTJvdsjE3JEAvGq3lGHSZXy28G3skua2SmVi/w4yCE6gbODqnTWlg7+wC604ydGXA8VJiS5ap43JXiUFFAaQ==\n');
+    }
 
     console.log("Starting ssh-agent");