Git Accounts

Git accounts

The Git accounts page lists your accounts grouped by provider. Each provider has one active account: the one plain git@github.com:… URLs use.

Add an account

Click Add account at the top, or + Account on a provider's card. The dialog is described step by step in Getting started.

• Generate a new key creates ~/.ssh/id_<type>_<provider>_<account>, for example id_ed25519_github_work. If that file already exists, Lanyard tells you and offers to use it or to pick a free name.
• Use an existing key lets you pick any key in ~/.ssh, or browse for one elsewhere.

After adding, Lanyard shows the public key. Click Copy public key, then Open … key settings to paste it into the provider, and finally Test connection.

Switch the active account

Any of these does the same thing:

• Git accounts page: click the circle next to the account.
• Overview page: pick the account under Signed in as.
• Top bar: the chips show who you are on each provider. Clicking one opens the command palette filtered to that provider's accounts.
• Tray: right-click the tray icon → provider → account.
• Command palette: Ctrl/⌘+K → type the account name.
• CLI: lanyard use github personal.

Switching rewrites the provider's block in the managed section of ~/.ssh/config. If the account has Set the global git identity turned on, Lanyard also runs git config --global user.name and user.email with the account's values.

Deactivate (at the bottom of a provider card) removes the active block. Plain URLs then fall back to SSH's default keys.

Using two accounts side by side

Every account also gets its own alias host: github.com-work, github.com-personal, and so on. A URL that uses the alias always authenticates as that account, whichever account is active.

Clone with a specific account:

git clone git@github.com-personal:jane/dotfiles.git

Or let Lanyard rewrite the URL for you:

git clone $(lanyard url github personal https://github.com/jane/dotfiles)

Point an existing repository at an account (rewrites the origin remote and sets the repository's own user.name and user.email):

• App: account's ⋯ menu → Clone / switch a repository, then choose the folder.
• CLI: lanyard repo github personal ./dotfiles

Test an account

Test runs ssh -T against the provider with the account's key and reads the reply:

Result	Meaning
Authenticated as name	The key works and belongs to name.
Permission denied	The key is not registered with this account, or it has a passphrase and is not in the agent.
Connected, but the server did not recognise this key	The server answered anonymously (Hugging Face does this for unknown keys).
Host key verification failed	The provider's host key in known_hosts doesn't match. See Known hosts.

Test active at the top of the page tests every active account at once; so does lanyard test.

Edit or remove an account

Open the account's ⋯ menu:

• Edit: rename it, change its key, its git name and email, or the global-identity switch.
• Copy public key: copies the .pub contents to paste into the provider.
• Remove account: removes it from Lanyard and from the managed section. You can also move its key to ~/.lanyard/trash; keys still used by another account are kept.

Self-hosted and other providers

Use the chips under More providers to add accounts on Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, Codeberg, Gitea or SourceHut. For your own server (self-hosted GitLab, Gitea, Forgejo, …) choose Self-hosted… and enter its SSH hostname. Set SSH user and Port if they aren't git and 22, and optionally the SSH keys page URL so Lanyard can link to it.

From the CLI:

lanyard providers add work-gitlab --host git.company.com --name "Company GitLab"
lanyard accounts add work-gitlab jane --generate --git-name "Jane Doe" --git-email jane@company.com