Managing Work and Personal Git Profiles on The Same Machine

I have 2 Git accounts. One time I was making a side project. When I pushed to GitHub and looked at the commit, oh no! The commit used the wrong account, not the one for that repo. Turns out I still had the global Git setting. I didn’t know about this because I always use just one account before 😂

So I make this article to learn how to use 2 Git accounts on 1 device and keep it as a note for myself.

The solution is simple. You need to set up a local config. It’s even easier if you make a .gitconfig file to avoid mistakes with names and emails. Here are the steps to use 2 Git accounts on 1 device.

1. Make 2 SSH Keys for Each Account

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "[email protected]" -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_work
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "[email protected]" -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_personal

Add each public key to your GitHub / GitLab account with the right email. If you still use PAT (Personal Access Token), it’s better to change to SSH.

2. Add SSH Keys to the Agent

So you don’t have to type the passphrase over and over:

ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_work
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_personal

Check:

ssh-add -l

3. Set Up ~/.ssh/config

This is where we start to set up the Git config on your device.

nano ~/.ssh/config

Add this:

 1# Work Account
 2Host github-work
 3    HostName github.com
 4    User git
 5    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_work
 6
 7# Personal Account
 8Host github-personal
 9    HostName github.com
10    User git
11    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_personal

Clone a repo using the host name:

git clone git@github-work:company/repo-kerja.git
git clone git@github-personal:namamu/repo-pribadi.git

4. Set Up ~/.gitconfig by Folder

So you don’t have to run commands to set the name and email for each account, make a config file.

Make or open the file:

nano ~/.gitconfig

Add this:

[user]
    name = Your Real Name
    email = [email protected]

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

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

Then make these files:

~/.gitconfig-work

[user]
    name = Your Real Name Work
    email = [email protected]

~/.gitconfig-personal

[user]
    name = Your Real Name Personal
    email = [email protected]

Folder structure:

~/work/      → all work repos
~/personal/  → all personal repos

5. Check Your Info Before Commit

Go to your repo folder and run:

git config --list --local

Or just check the name and email:

git config user.name
git config user.email

If they are not right, don’t commit yet.

That’s how you use 2 Git accounts on 1 device so you don’t mix up the accounts when you commit.