Manage Multiple Git Accounts on a Computer

Work often means GitHub Enterprise (or a company GitHub org) on one account, and personal repos on another. One machine, two identities. The reliable pattern is: separate SSH keys, SSH Host aliases, and git config that sets the right name/email per directory.

Commands below assume macOS (or Linux with the same OpenSSH layout). Windows is the same idea via a different path to .ssh.

1. Generate separate SSH keys#

cd ~/.ssh
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "work@example.com" -f id_ed25519_work
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "you@personal.example" -f id_ed25519_personal

Skip generation for any account that already has a key. Prefer Ed25519 unless a host still requires RSA.

Add each public key (.pub) to the matching GitHub / Enterprise account: Adding a new SSH key.

2. SSH config with Host aliases#

Create or edit ~/.ssh/config:

# Work (GitHub Enterprise example)
Host github-work
  HostName github.mycompany.com
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_work
  IdentitiesOnly yes

# Personal (github.com)
Host github-personal
  HostName github.com
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_personal
  IdentitiesOnly yes

Important details:

• Host is an alias you invent. It is not the real hostname.
• HostName is what SSH actually connects to.
• IdentitiesOnly yes stops ssh-agent from offering the wrong key first.

Clone and remote URLs must use the alias#

Personal:

git clone git@github-personal:USERNAME/REPO.git

Work:

git clone git@github-work:ORG/REPO.git

A remote of git@github.com:... will not use the github-personal block. Rewrite existing remotes:

git remote set-url origin git@github-personal:USERNAME/REPO.git

3. Commit identity: name and email#

SSH picks the account for push/pull. Commit author is separate — it comes from user.name / user.email. Wrong email on a work commit is a common footgun.

Per-repo (fine for a few clones)#

git config user.name "Your Name"
git config user.email "you@company.com"

Conditional includes (better for many repos)#

Keep work and personal trees in different parent directories, then in ~/.gitconfig:

[user]
  name = Your Name
  email = you@personal.example

[includeIf "gitdir:~/work/"]
  path = ~/.gitconfig-work

[includeIf "gitdir:~/personal/"]
  path = ~/.gitconfig-personal

~/.gitconfig-work:

[user]
  email = you@company.com

~/.gitconfig-personal:

[user]
  email = you@personal.example

Any repo under ~/work/ picks up the work email automatically.

Sanity checks#

ssh -T git@github-personal
ssh -T git@github-work
git config --show-origin --get user.email

You should see the expected “Hi username!” greeting for each host, and the email that matches the directory you are in.