git-profile

Switch between multiple git identities with a single command.

Do you juggle work, personal, and open-source git accounts? git-profile lets you define named identity profiles and apply them per-repo or globally — so you never accidentally push a personal commit with your work email again.

Features

Named profiles — store user.name, user.email, SSH key, and GPG signing per identity
Per-repo or global — apply any profile locally or to ~/.gitconfig
Auto-apply via git hooks — prepare-commit-msg and pre-push hooks enforce the right identity before every commit and push
Interactive picker — numbered menu when you can't remember the ID
Import existing identity — bootstrap a profile from your current git config in one command
Edit, rename, remove — full profile lifecycle management
Shell completions — bash, zsh, and fish
Zero runtime dependencies — single static binary, no runtime required

Installation

Homebrew (macOS / Linux)

brew install hapiio/tap/git-profile

go install

go install github.com/hapiio/git-profile@latest

Pre-built binaries

Download the latest binary for your platform from the Releases page.

# macOS arm64
curl -L https://github.com/hapiio/git-profile/releases/latest/download/git-profile_darwin_arm64.tar.gz \
  | tar -xz && mv git-profile /usr/local/bin/

# Linux amd64
curl -L https://github.com/hapiio/git-profile/releases/latest/download/git-profile_linux_x86_64.tar.gz \
  | tar -xz && mv git-profile /usr/local/bin/

Linux packages (.deb / .rpm)

.deb and .rpm packages are available on the Releases page.

Quick Start

# 1. Add your profiles
git-profile add --id work     --name "Jane Dev" --email jane@company.com
git-profile add --id personal --name "Jane Doe" --email jane@example.com \
                               --ssh-key ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_personal

# 2. Apply a profile to the current repo
git-profile use work

# 3. Or apply globally
git-profile use personal --global

# 4. See what's active
git-profile current

# 5. Install hooks to auto-apply on every commit/push
git-profile install-hooks
git-profile set-default work

Usage

git-profile <command> [flags]

Command Reference

Command	Description
`add`	Add a new identity profile
`list`	List all configured profiles
`use <id>`	Apply a profile to this repo (or globally with `--global`)
`current`	Show the active git identity in this repo
`choose`	Interactively pick a profile from a numbered menu
`edit <id>`	Edit an existing profile interactively
`rename <old> <new>`	Rename a profile
`remove <id...>`	Remove one or more profiles
`import`	Create a profile from the current git identity
`set-default <id>`	Set a default profile for this repo or globally
`ensure`	Apply the correct profile (used by git hooks)
`install-hooks`	Install git hooks to auto-apply profiles on commit/push
`version`	Print version information
`completion`	Generate shell completion scripts

`add` — Add a profile

# Minimal
git-profile add --id work --name "Jane Dev" --email jane@company.com

# With SSH key
git-profile add --id oss \
  --name "Jane Dev" \
  --email jane@oss.dev \
  --ssh-key ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_oss

# With GPG signing
git-profile add --id secure \
  --name "Jane Dev" \
  --email jane@company.com \
  --gpg-key "ABC123DEF456" \
  --sign-commits

# Overwrite an existing profile
git-profile add --id work --name "Jane Dev" --email jane@company.com --force

# Interactive (prompts for each field)
git-profile add

Flags:

Flag	Description
`--id`	Profile identifier (required)
`--name`	`user.name` value
`--email`	`user.email` value
`--ssh-key`	Path to SSH private key (`~/` supported)
`--gpg-key`	GPG key ID for commit signing
`--sign-commits`	Enable `commit.gpgsign = true`
`--force`	Overwrite if profile ID already exists

`list` — View all profiles

git-profile list

  PROFILE     USER         EMAIL                  SSH KEY
  ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  personal    Jane Doe     jane@example.com        (default)
● work        Jane Dev     jane@company.com        ~/.ssh/id_work

The ● marker indicates the profile whose user.name and user.email match the current repository's git identity.

`use` — Apply a profile

git-profile use work                 # sets identity in .git/config
git-profile use personal --global    # writes to ~/.gitconfig

Sets the following git config keys (only those present in the profile):

Profile field	git config key
`git_user`	`user.name`
`git_email`	`user.email`
`ssh_key_path`	`core.sshCommand`
`gpg_key_id`	`user.signingkey`
`sign_commits`	`commit.gpgsign`

`current` — Show active identity

git-profile current

Current git identity

  user.name   Jane Dev
  user.email  jane@company.com
  ssh-key     (default)
  gpg-key     ABC123DEF456
  gpg-sign    true

  Matched profile: work

`import` — Bootstrap from existing git config

Already have git configured? Import it as a profile in one command:

git-profile import --id personal --global   # imports from ~/.gitconfig
git-profile import --id work                # imports from current repo's .git/config

Any core.sshCommand containing -i /path/to/key is automatically parsed and stored as ssh_key_path.

`edit` — Modify a profile

git-profile edit work

Opens a pre-filled interactive prompt. Press Enter to keep the current value.

`rename` — Rename a profile

git-profile rename work work-backup

All profile fields are preserved. Any repos with gitprofile.default = work must be updated manually:

git config gitprofile.default work-backup

`remove` — Delete profiles

git-profile remove personal              # prompts for confirmation
git-profile remove work personal --yes   # skip confirmation

`install-hooks` and `set-default` — Auto-apply on commit/push

# Step 1: install hooks in a repo
cd my-project
git-profile install-hooks

# Step 2: set the default profile for this repo
git-profile set-default work

# Set a global fallback for all repos
git-profile set-default personal --global

From now on, git commit and git push in this repo automatically call git-profile ensure before running:

ensure resolution order:
  1. Local gitprofile.default  (set by set-default in this repo)
  2. Global gitprofile.default (set by set-default --global)
  3. Interactive picker        (terminal only)

GPG Commit Signing

git-profile manages all GPG signing settings — user.signingkey and commit.gpgsign — so you never have to edit them manually.

1. Find your GPG key ID

gpg --list-secret-keys --keyid-format=long

sec   ed25519/ABC123DEF456 2024-01-01 [SC]
      ABCDEF1234567890ABCDEF1234567890ABC123DE
uid   [ultimate] Jane Dev <jane@company.com>

The key ID is the part after / on the sec line — ABC123DEF456 here.

2. Create a profile with GPG signing

git-profile add \
  --id work \
  --name "Jane Dev" \
  --email jane@company.com \
  --gpg-key "ABC123DEF456" \
  --sign-commits

3. Apply the profile

git-profile use work

This writes four git config keys at once:

[user]
  name       = Jane Dev
  email      = jane@company.com
  signingkey = ABC123DEF456
[commit]
  gpgsign    = true

4. Verify signing works

git commit --allow-empty -m "test gpg signing"
git log --show-signature -1

Using different keys per identity

git-profile add --id work \
  --name "Jane Dev" --email jane@company.com \
  --gpg-key "WORK_KEY_ID" --sign-commits

git-profile add --id personal \
  --name "Jane Doe" --email jane@example.com \
  --gpg-key "PERSONAL_KEY_ID" --sign-commits

git-profile add --id oss \
  --name "Jane Doe" --email jane@oss.dev
  # no GPG — leave unsigned for OSS contributions

cd ~/work-project  && git-profile use work
cd ~/personal-blog && git-profile use personal
cd ~/oss-project   && git-profile use oss

Disabling GPG signing for a repo

Applying a profile that has no gpg_key_id does not unset signing keys — it leaves any existing user.signingkey and commit.gpgsign values in place. To explicitly disable signing:

git config --unset user.signingkey
git config --unset commit.gpgsign

Configuration

Profiles are stored at $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git-profile/config.json (defaults to ~/.config/git-profile/config.json).

Override the path with --config:

git-profile --config ~/dotfiles/git-profile.json list

Example config file:

{
  "version": 1,
  "profiles": {
    "work": {
      "id": "work",
      "git_user": "Jane Dev",
      "git_email": "jane@company.com",
      "ssh_key_path": "~/.ssh/id_ed25519_work",
      "gpg_key_id": "ABC123DEF456",
      "sign_commits": true
    },
    "personal": {
      "id": "personal",
      "git_user": "Jane Doe",
      "git_email": "jane@example.com",
      "ssh_key_path": "~/.ssh/id_ed25519_personal"
    },
    "oss": {
      "id": "oss",
      "git_user": "Jane Doe",
      "git_email": "jane@oss.dev"
    }
  }
}

Shell Completions

# bash
git-profile completion bash > /etc/bash_completion.d/git-profile

# zsh
git-profile completion zsh > "${fpath[1]}/_git-profile"

# fish
git-profile completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/git-profile.fish

Development

git clone https://github.com/hapiio/git-profile
cd git-profile

make build    # compile to ./git-profile
make test     # run tests with -race
make cover    # open coverage report in browser
make install  # install to $GOPATH/bin
make lint     # run golangci-lint
make snapshot # build release snapshot via GoReleaser

Release (maintainers)

Releases are fully automated via GoReleaser and GitHub Actions.

git tag v1.2.3
git push origin v1.2.3
# Publishes binaries, Homebrew formula, .deb/.rpm, AUR package

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup instructions, coding conventions, and the PR process.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 22 Commits
.github		.github
cmd		cmd
docs		docs
internal		internal
.codecov.yml		.codecov.yml
.gitignore		.gitignore
.goreleaser.yaml		.goreleaser.yaml
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
Makefile		Makefile
README.md		README.md
article.md		article.md
go.mod		go.mod
go.sum		go.sum
main.go		main.go
mkdocs.yml		mkdocs.yml

Folders and files

Latest commit

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git-profile

Features

Installation

Homebrew (macOS / Linux)

go install

Pre-built binaries

Linux packages (.deb / .rpm)

Quick Start

Usage

Command Reference

add — Add a profile

list — View all profiles

use — Apply a profile

current — Show active identity

import — Bootstrap from existing git config

edit — Modify a profile

rename — Rename a profile

remove — Delete profiles

install-hooks and set-default — Auto-apply on commit/push

GPG Commit Signing

1. Find your GPG key ID

2. Create a profile with GPG signing

3. Apply the profile

4. Verify signing works

Using different keys per identity

Disabling GPG signing for a repo

Configuration

Shell Completions

Development

Release (maintainers)

Contributing

License

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`add` — Add a profile

`list` — View all profiles

`use` — Apply a profile

`current` — Show active identity

`import` — Bootstrap from existing git config

`edit` — Modify a profile

`rename` — Rename a profile

`remove` — Delete profiles

`install-hooks` and `set-default` — Auto-apply on commit/push

Packages