git-account

A small CLI for managing multiple Git identities (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket) on a single machine. It generates a dedicated SSH key per account, wires up ~/.ssh/config with a host alias, and switches your global user.name / user.email on demand.

Why

If you push to more than one Git host — personal GitHub, a work GitLab, a client's Bitbucket — you've probably hit the "wrong author email on a commit" or "permission denied (publickey)" dance. git-account keeps each identity isolated (its own key, its own host alias) and lets you switch between them with one command.

Install

Requires Go 1.24+ and ssh-keygen / ssh-add on your PATH.

git clone <this-repo> git-account-cli
cd git-account-cli
go build -o git-account .
mv git-account /usr/local/bin/   # or anywhere on your PATH

Usage

git-account <command> [args]

Command	Description
add <name> <email> <type>	Create a new account. type is github, gitlab, or bitbucket. Generates a key, updates ~/.ssh/config, and prints next steps for uploading the public key.
switch <name>	Set the global user.name / user.email and load this account's key into ssh-agent.
use <name> [path]	Bind a directory (default: cwd) and its subdirectories to an account. Inside the tree, git auto-applies that account's identity and SSH key.
unuse [path]	Remove the binding for a directory (default: cwd).
list	Show all configured accounts, directory bindings, and the current global Git identity.
rename <old> <new>	Rename an existing account. Renames the SSH key pair, updates the SSH config host alias (<host>-<new>), per-account include file, and any directory bindings. Email and type are unchanged. Existing clone URLs that referenced the old host alias must be updated.
remove <name>	Delete the account: SSH key pair, SSH config block, saved metadata, and any directory bindings pointing at it.
help	Print the help text.

Example: add a personal GitHub and a work Bitbucket

git-account add personal_github me@example.com github
git-account add work_bitbucket  me@company.com bitbucket

After running add, follow the printed instructions to paste the public key into the Git host's SSH key settings.

Cloning under a specific account

add creates a host alias of the form <host>-<name> (e.g. github.com-personal_github, bitbucket.org-work_bitbucket). Use that alias in your clone URL:

git clone git@github.com-personal_github:me/my-repo.git
git clone git@bitbucket.org-work_bitbucket:company/internal.git

The host alias is what tells SSH which key to use, so the right identity is picked up automatically.

Switching the global commit identity

git-account switch personal_github

This updates ~/.gitconfig's user.name / user.email and adds the account's key to ssh-agent. Per-repo overrides via git config user.email … still work as usual.

Per-directory accounts

If you keep work in ~/code/work and personal projects in ~/code/personal, you can bind each tree to an account once and forget about it:

git-account use work_bitbucket ~/code/work
git-account use personal_github ~/code/personal

Any repo under those paths automatically uses the right user.name, user.email, and SSH key — no switch required, and plain git@github.com:… clone URLs work without the host-alias prefix because core.sshCommand is pinned per directory.

Bindings are implemented as native git includeIf "gitdir:<path>/" entries in ~/.gitconfig pointing at a per-account include file (~/.git_accounts_config/<name>.gitconfig), so anything that reads git config — including IDEs and other tools — picks up the right identity.

To remove a binding:

git-account unuse ~/code/work

git-account list shows every active binding.

What it touches

• ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_<name> and .pub — generated key pair (no passphrase).
• ~/.ssh/config — adds a Host <alias> block with IdentitiesOnly yes.
• ~/.git_accounts_config/<name>.ini — saved account metadata.
• ~/.git_accounts_config/<name>.gitconfig — per-account include file with user.* and core.sshCommand (created on use).
• ~/.gitconfig — user.name / user.email (on switch); [includeIf "gitdir:…"] blocks (on use).

remove cleans up the SSH key, SSH config block, account metadata, include file, and any directory bindings pointing at the account. It does not revert the global user.name / user.email.

Notes

• Keys are generated with ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -N "" (no passphrase) for convenience. If you'd rather use a passphrase, generate the key yourself and edit the .ini to point at it.
• add won't overwrite an existing key file with the same name — it reuses it.
• The tool assumes standard hostnames (github.com, gitlab.com, bitbucket.org). Self-hosted instances aren't supported out of the box.