github-switcher

Manage multiple GitHub accounts on the same machine via SSH and git config. Provides both an interactive CLI and explicit commands to add, list, delete, and switch accounts.

Installation

• Run via npx (recommended):

npx github-switcher

• Or install globally:

npm install -g github-switcher
github-switcher

Usage

• Interactive mode (no subcommand):

npx github-switcher

This opens an Inquirer-based menu to:

• List accounts
• Add account
• Switch account
• Delete account

When adding an account interactively, you can choose to log in with GitHub in your browser. The CLI will:

• Start a GitHub device authorization flow.

• Ask you to open a GitHub URL and enter a short code.

• Automatically fetch your GitHub username and primary email and pre-fill them for the new account.

• Add an account:

npx github-switcher add \
  --id work \
  --username your-github-username \
  --email [email protected] \
  --label "Work" \
  --ssh-key-path ~/.ssh/id_github-work

• List accounts:

npx github-switcher list

• Delete an account:

npx github-switcher delete work --remove-key

• Switch account (updates git identity):

npx github-switcher switch work

When switching:

• git config --global user.name and git config --global user.email are updated.
• If you run the command inside a git repository, the local repo config (git config user.name / user.email) is also updated.

SSH configuration

For each account, github-switcher:

• Ensures ~/.ssh exists.
• Generates an SSH keypair (by default ~/.ssh/id_github-<id>).
• Manages a dedicated block in ~/.ssh/config between:
  • # github-switcher account: <id>
  • # github-switcher end

Each account gets a host alias like:

Host github-work
  HostName github.com
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_github-work

Use this alias in your git remotes, for example:

git remote add origin git@github-work:your-github-username/your-repo.git

Account storage

Accounts are stored globally in:

~/.github-switcher/accounts.json

This file tracks:

• All configured accounts
• The current active account id
• Timestamps for creation and updates

Notes

• The CLI expects git and ssh-keygen to be available on your PATH.
• Node.js 18 or newer is recommended.
• The GitHub browser login flow works out of the box - no configuration needed.