git-account

A cross-platform CLI tool that lets you use different GitHub accounts for different folders on your machine. No more juggling SSH keys or git configs manually.

The Problem

You have multiple GitHub accounts (e.g. personal + work) and need different folders to authenticate with different accounts. Normally this requires manually editing ~/.ssh/config, generating keys, and setting per-repo git configs — tedious and error-prone.

The Solution

Run one command from any folder:

git-account

The CLI will:

1. Show your previously configured GitHub accounts (or let you add a new one)
2. Generate a dedicated SSH key for the account
3. Display the public key for you to add to GitHub
4. Test the SSH connection and confirm authentication
5. Configure the folder's git identity and SSH settings automatically
6. Detect HTTPS remotes and convert them to SSH (so the correct account is always used)

Or use subcommands for quick actions:

git-account list               # See all configured accounts
git-account current            # Check which account this folder uses
git-account switch <username>  # Instantly switch account for this folder

Requirements

• Node.js 16 or later
• Git installed
• ssh-keygen available (comes with macOS/Linux; on Windows use Git Bash or WSL)

Installation

Option 1: Install from npm (recommended)

npm install -g git-account-cli

That's it. git-account is now available from any folder.

Or run it without installing:

npx git-account-cli

Option 2: Install from source

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/martinanatale93/git-account-cli.git
cd git-account-cli

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build
npm run build

# Install globally (makes 'git-account' available from any folder)
npm link

After this, git-account works from any directory on your machine — no need to be in this project folder.

Updating

# If installed via npm:
npm update -g git-account-cli

# If installed from source:
cd git-account-cli && git pull && npm install && npm run build

The CLI will automatically notify you when a newer version is available.

Windows users: All install methods work in Git Bash, PowerShell, or CMD. npm install -g and npm link both create a global .cmd shim so the command works everywhere.

Usage

Quick Reference

git-account                      # Interactive setup (add account + configure folder)
git-account list                 # List all configured accounts
git-account current              # Show active account for current folder
git-account switch <username>    # Switch account for current folder
git-account --help               # Show help
git-account --version            # Show version

Interactive Setup

1. Navigate to the folder you want to configure

cd ~/projects/my-work-repo

2. Run the command

git-account

3. Follow the interactive prompts

If you have existing accounts configured:

🔧 Git Account Manager
   Current folder: /Users/you/projects/my-work-repo

? Which GitHub account do you want to use for this folder?
  ❯ [email protected] (john-work)
    [email protected] (john-personal)
    ── Add new account ──

Pick one, and the folder is immediately configured.

If you're adding a new account:

? GitHub email address: [email protected]
? GitHub username: john-work

ℹ Generating SSH key...
✔ SSH key generated: ~/.ssh/github_john-work
✔ SSH config updated

📋 Add this SSH key to your GitHub account:
   Go to: https://github.com/settings/ssh/new

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAI... [email protected]
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

? Have you added the SSH key to your GitHub account? Yes

ℹ Testing SSH connection...
✔ Auth successful! Hi john-work! You've successfully authenticated...

✔ Git config set for /Users/you/projects/my-work-repo
  user.email = [email protected]
  user.name  = john-work
✔ Remote origin updated to use SSH host alias

✔ All done! This folder is now configured.

Listing Accounts

git-account list

Configured Git Accounts

1. john-work ◀ current
   email: [email protected]
   ssh:   /Users/you/.ssh/github_john-work
   added: 3/6/2026

2. john-personal
   email: [email protected]
   ssh:   /Users/you/.ssh/github_john-personal
   added: 3/1/2026

Current account (this folder): john-work

Checking Current Account

git-account current

Current Git Identity
   Folder: /Users/you/projects/my-work-repo

   Name:   john-work
   Email:  [email protected]
   SSH key: /Users/you/.ssh/github_john-work
   Host:    github-john-work

Switching Accounts

git-account switch john-personal

✔ Switched to account: john-personal
   Email:   [email protected]
   SSH key: /Users/you/.ssh/github_john-personal
   Folder:  /Users/you/projects/my-work-repo

This updates the folder's git identity, SSH key, and remote URLs in one step.

How It Works

Under the hood, git-account does the following:

SSH Keys

• Generates an Ed25519 SSH key per GitHub account, stored at ~/.ssh/github_<username>

• Adds a host alias to ~/.ssh/config so each account has its own SSH identity:

  Host github-john-work
    HostName github.com
    User git
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github_john-work
    IdentitiesOnly yes

Git Config (per folder)

• Sets local git config (not global) so only that folder is affected:

  git config --local user.email "[email protected]"
  git config --local user.name "john-work"
  git config --local core.sshCommand "ssh -i ~/.ssh/github_john-work -o IdentitiesOnly=yes"

• Updates the remote origin URL to use the host alias (e.g. git@github-john-work:owner/repo.git)

Account Registry

• All configured accounts are saved in ~/.git-accounts/accounts.json so you can reuse them across folders without re-entering details or regenerating keys.

Example: Setting Up Two Accounts

# Configure work account for work projects
cd ~/projects/work-repo
git-account
# → Add new account → [email protected] / john-work
# → Copy SSH key → Add to your work GitHub account

# Configure personal account for personal projects
cd ~/projects/personal-repo
git-account
# → Add new account → [email protected] / john-personal
# → Copy SSH key → Add to your personal GitHub account

# Later, reuse work account on another work project
cd ~/projects/another-work-repo
git-account
# → Select "[email protected] (john-work)" from the list
# → Done instantly, no new key needed

Once both accounts are set up, switching is instant:

cd ~/projects/some-repo
git-account switch john-work       # Use work account here

cd ~/projects/another-repo
git-account switch john-personal   # Use personal account here

# Verify anytime:
git-account current
git-account list

Compatibility

Git GUI Tools

Because git-account uses standard Git config (user.email, user.name, core.sshCommand) stored in each repo's .git/config, it works with any tool that calls Git under the hood:

| Tool | Commits (identity) | Push / Pull (SSH auth) | |---|---|---| | Git CLI | ✅ | ✅ | | VS Code | ✅ | ✅ | | GitKraken | ✅ | ✅ | | SourceTree | ✅ | ✅ | | Tower | ✅ | ✅ | | IntelliJ / WebStorm | ✅ | ✅ | | GitHub Desktop | ✅ | ❌ (uses its own HTTPS auth) |

GitHub Desktop ignores SSH config and manages authentication through its own UI. Commit identity (name/email) will still be correct, but push/pull uses GitHub Desktop's own login — not the SSH key from git-account.

Forking

Forking happens on GitHub's website using whichever account you're logged into in the browser — that's separate from local SSH config. After you clone a fork, just run git-account in the cloned folder and select the matching account. If the account is already in your registry, no new key is needed — it's instant.

New Clones

After cloning any repo, run git-account once in the new folder to set up the correct identity and SSH key.

HTTPS Remote Detection

If your repo uses an HTTPS remote (e.g. https://github.com/owner/repo.git), git-account will automatically detect it and ask if you want to convert it to SSH. This is important because HTTPS remotes use cached credentials (like macOS Keychain) which may belong to a different GitHub account.

⚠  HTTPS remote(s) detected — these will NOT use your SSH key:
   origin → https://github.com/owner/repo.git

? Convert this remote from HTTPS to SSH? (Y/n)

This is handled for all remotes — origin, upstream, and any others.

Pushing a New Repo

To push a local project to a new GitHub repo:

1. Create the repo on github.com/new (keep it empty — no README or .gitignore)
2. Run git-account in your project folder to configure the account
3. Add the remote using your SSH host alias:

   git remote add origin git@github-YOUR_USERNAME:YOUR_USERNAME/repo-name.git

   Replace YOUR_USERNAME with the username you entered in git-account.
4. Push:

   git add .
   git commit -m "Initial commit"
   git push -u origin main

Troubleshooting

"Auth failed" after adding SSH key

• Make sure you added the key to the correct GitHub account (the one matching the username you entered)
• Go to github.com/settings/keys and verify the key is listed
• The CLI will show you the specific error message from SSH

"This folder is not a git repository"

• The CLI will offer to run git init for you
• Alternatively, run git init yourself before running git-account

SSH key already exists

• If a key for that username already exists at ~/.ssh/github_<username>, it will be reused (not overwritten)
• To regenerate, delete the old key files first: rm ~/.ssh/github_<username> ~/.ssh/github_<username>.pub

Command not found after install

• Make sure npm's global bin directory is in your PATH
• Check with: npm prefix -g — the bin subfolder should be in your PATH
• On macOS with nvm/fnm, this is usually handled automatically

Uninstalling

# Remove the global command
npm unlink -g git-account

# Optionally remove saved accounts
rm -rf ~/.git-accounts

# Optionally remove generated SSH keys
rm ~/.ssh/github_*

Support

If this tool saved you time, consider supporting its development:

Your support helps me keep building and maintaining free, open-source developer tools. Thank you!

License

MIT