the username/philkime thing was just a typo, should both be "username". I can't
remember what the problem was any more, just that using "eval gpg-agent ...
didn't work properly and the agent couldn't be contacted when using
--use-standard-socket. I worked round it by just ignoring the STDOUT output of
gpg-agent when started and assuming that the socket is at ~/.gnupg/S.gpg-agent.
I think this issue can be closed.

Hmm - which part couldn't you replicate? I think you're right about the ssh
functionality - I think that's perhaps what I hit. But isn't it confusing to
have gpg-agent report a socket number it doesn't use when started with
--use-standard-socket? Or maybe that's what you couldn't replicate? Here is a
typescript of what I see: