Gitas – A tool for Git account switching

(github.com)

25 points | by letmutex 4 days ago

8 comments

  • Kwpolska 4 hours ago
    Solving the problem of having a personal and a work GitHub account is really trivial without any extra tools. All you need is a dedicated SSH key for that GitHub account. (And why would you have a password for a ssh key on your personal machine?)

    ~/.ssh/config

        Host github.com-work
         HostName github.com
         User git
         IdentityFile ~/.ssh/work_id_rsa
         IdentitiesOnly yes
    
    ~/.git/config

        [user]
        email = work@example.com
    
        [remote "origin"]
        url = github.com-work:Work/Widget.git
    • embedding-shape 4 hours ago
      Which works for a while, until you have a bunch of projects under various identities.

      In my main ~/.gitconfig I have:

        [includeIf "gitdir:/home/user/projects/embedding-shapes/"]
        path = /home/user/.gitconfig-embedding-shapes
      
      Where basically `projects/` follow GitHub naming with $user/$repo, so I set the git identity based on all projects within that user, rather than repo-by-repo which would get cumbersome fast.

      Then you just make sure you're in the right directory :)

      • beaker52 1 hour ago
        This. I’ve seen so many tools solving problems that already have solutions lately because LLMs allow people to run off and “fix” the problem their way before they can a chance to discover existing, more appropriate solutions.

        The next step of this problem space is: “when I’m working on project X, I often forget to change my GitHub user with Gitas” so now they need direnv or something to switch it for them. The original solution foresaw this - so is far more complete that Gitas already _and_ built into git itself.

        But, LLMs, so here we are, slowly drowning in a growing ocean of software built by the unaware.

      • accoil 2 hours ago
        I use that approach. I also make sure to not set the [user] section in my main config (and only in the included files). That way if I'm operating outside of one of my user directories git commit fails due to having no user details.
    • OrderlyTiamat 27 minutes ago
      > (And why would you have a password for a ssh key on your personal machine?)

      You're presumably joking? If not, could you elaborate?

      • PunchyHamster 22 minutes ago
        well if you have encrypted storage and already need password to get to it, secondary password is of little value

        Tho I prefer to just use hardware key for ssh

    • xn 2 hours ago
      Are there any good reasons to use multiple GitHub user accounts? GitHub organization membership and permissions are well designed in my experience, negating the need for multiple user accounts.
      • StarlaAtNight 49 minutes ago
        Consultants or professional services folks will be working in their company’s GitHub account and several clients. Requires managing lots of git/GitHub accounts
      • embedding-shape 2 hours ago
        > Are there any good reasons to use multiple GitHub user accounts?

        Is there any good reasons not to separate what you work on into multiple GitHub accounts? Not to mention some people don't want all their projects attached to one profile, some people also develop in their free-time, and don't want to mix freetime/work projects under the same user account, for multiple reasons.

      • jimmydoe 1 hour ago
        A why not

        B if you ever be in a company using the half baked GitHub hosted enterprise….

      • Hamuko 25 minutes ago
        I use a pseudonym during my free time, so yes. Also my employer is requiring us to use company-specific GitHub accounts, so the decision is out of my hands anyway.
    • arccy 2 hours ago
      If you don't want to bother with directories or want to use https instead of ssh, you can do remote url based dispatch in your gitconfig:

          [credential "https://github.com/org1"]
            useHttpPath = true
            helper =
            helper = /path/to/auth.sh user1
          [includeIf "hasconfig:remote.*.url:https//github.com/org1/**"]
            path = user1.gitconfig
            ; set name / email in user1.gitconfig
      
      where auth.sh is something that can produce the right token for the given user, e.g.

          #!/bin/bash
          echo "username=$1"
          echo "password=$(gh auth token --user $1)"
    • adithyassekhar 1 hour ago
      Is this that dropbox moment again? Anyway on Windows I keep a separate work and personal profile and GitHub auth doesn't go between them.
    • jimmydoe 1 hour ago
      For Claude Code users:

      - using alternative host is not supported when roaming between local and cloud, fix is to add another origin you don’t use but use GitHub.com url

      - CC uses gh command, which still needs account switch, this can be solved by add the switch to CC hook.

  • sevensor 2 hours ago
    Github account switching. A git account is not an idea that makes sense.
    • embedding-shape 1 hour ago
      It's actually about git account switching as far as I can tell, which does make sense, you can have multiple "git" users indeed. Maybe it's the wording that is wrong? Read "account" as "user" and it might make more sense :)

        # in ~/.gitconfig
        [includeIf "gitdir:/home/user/projects/embedding-shapes/"]
          path = /home/user/.gitconfig-embedding-shapes
      
        # in ~/.gitconfig-embedding-shapes
        [user]
        name = embedding-shapes
        email = embedding-shapes@proton.me
      
        [core]
        sshCommand = ssh -i /home/user/.ssh/id_embedding-shapes
      
      That's one of my git "accounts", currently I have four in total, one being my "real identity", other are pseudo-anonymous users.
      • sevensor 50 minutes ago
        Fair point. This makes much more sense when you make it about your git identity + ssh configuration.
    • christoph-heiss 20 minutes ago
      Yeah. Unfortunately, just goes to show how many people think Git = Github.
  • PunchyHamster 22 minutes ago
    you can have per repo and per directory git config via git conditional includes

        [includeIf "hasconfig:remote.*.url:https://*.github.com/**"]
        path = /home/xani/src/gh/.gitconfig
  • eqvinox 2 hours ago
    You can put [user] blocks in repos, i.e.

      /some/where $ head .git/config
      [user]
       email = me@example.org
       name = My 'nick' Name
    
    Doesn't tie into your SSH key though, if you need that.
    • turbocon 1 hour ago
      You can manage multiple ssh keys via your ssh config too. But this does seem to make things easier, I always end up fighting with this when I need to do it once every 3 years
  • rgoulter 4 hours ago
    For the use case of "use different accounts / configs for different directories", git's config has includeIf.
  • dvratil 3 hours ago
    I used to have a git post-checkout hook that set the repo identity based on the repo origin url [0] on checkout - maybe there's some post-clone hook these days, but 10 years ago when I wrote it there was only post-checkout hook.

    [0] https://www.dvratil.cz/2015/12/git-trick-%23628-automaticall...

  • 7777777phil 4 hours ago
    Lovley, was looking for exactly that for some time. Will definitely try it, thanks for sharing!
  • aditya24raj 1 hour ago
    [dead]