Manage Multiple GitHub Accounts Locally
Learn how to manage multiple GitHub Accounts Locally
Introduction
You might have been in a situation where you need to manage multiple GitHub Accounts.
For example, let’s say you use the same PC for work and personal projects. Also, you have your GitHub Work Business Account and your personal GitHub Account.
Managing this it is not trivial, but with not much effort it can be done.
Two accounts:
- username_work
- username
Configure ssh keys
Configure Default Key
Create one key with the default id_ed255519 name. Choose the one you usually use the most.
Tips:
- Use the default ssh-key name
- Use a good password to remember
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ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "username_work@work_domain.com"
# Enter file in which to save the key (/home/username/.ssh/id_ed25519): Press enter
# Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Copy the SSH publick key to your clipboard
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cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub | xclip -selection clipboard
Then go to GitHub SSH and GPG Keys and create New SSH Key here named f.e. work-ssh-key.
Configure Second Key
Create one key with the default id_ed255519 name. Choose the one you usually use the most.
Tips:
- Use the same password used previously
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ssh-keygen -t ed25519_personal -C "username@gmail.com"
# Enter file in which to save the key (/home/username/.ssh/id_ed25519): id_ed25519_personal
# Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Copy the SSH publick key to your clipboard
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cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_personal.pub | xclip -selection clipboard
Then go to GitHub SSH and GPG Keys and create New SSH Key here named f.e. personal-ssh-key.
Edit ssh config file
Open ~/.ssh/config or create it if does not exist (touch ~/.ssh/config) and add the following entries
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# Work github account
Host github.com
HostName github.com
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
IdentitiesOnly yes
# Personal github account
Host github-personal
HostName github.com
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_personal
IdentitiesOnly yes
Configure ssh-agent
Start ssh-agent
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eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
Add both keys to the agent
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ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_personal
Check they have been added:
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ssh-add -l
And then, test your connection:
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ssh -T git@github.com
# Hi username_work! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.
ssh -T git@github-personal
# Hi personal! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.
Manage GitHub Repositories
From now on, for the default account we can proceed as usual. Cloning and other git ops on repositories can be used normally
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git clone git@github.com:cli/cli.git
git fetch
git pull
git push
For the personal account though, we would need to use the custom HostName
For example, if we’d like to clone git@github.com:pachoyan/pachoyan.github.io.git, we would need to clone it as:
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git clone git@github-personal:pachoyan/pachoyan.github.io.git
If you check the remote, the host name git@github.com should be replaced with your custom name git@github-personal.
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git remote -v
# origin git@github-personal:pachoyan/pachoyan.github.io.git (fetch)
# origin git@github-personal:pachoyan/pachoyan.github.io.git (push)
Fix existing repositories
If you already had one cloned with the wrong remote for your personal account. For example:
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git remote -v
# origin git@github.com:pachoyan/pachoyan.github.io.git (fetch)
# origin git@github.com:pachoyan/pachoyan.github.io.git (push
You can easily replace it by running
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git remote set-url origin git@github-personal:pachoyan/pachoyan.github.io.git
Then verify, it’s now pointing to the right HostName
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git remote -v
# origin git@github-personal:pachoyan/pachoyan.github.io.git (fetch)
# origin git@github-personal:pachoyan/pachoyan.github.io.git (push)
GitHub CLI
If you are a GitHub CLI user you might want to configure it to work with multiple accounts too.
Check you do not have set GITHUB_TOKEN variable on your shell first
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echo $GITHUB_TOKEN
# must be empty
First, configure your main account by selecting GitHub.com and the main ssh-key
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gh auth login
# Where do you use GitHub?
# > GitHub.com
# SSH
# Select ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
# Title: GitHub CLI
Then, configure your main secondary by selecting GitHub.com again and the personal ssh-key
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gh auth login
# Where do you use GitHub?
# > GitHub.com
# SSH
# Select ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_personal.pub
# Title: GitHub CLI
Finally check, both have been configured
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gh auth status
# github.com
# ✓ Logged in to github.com account pachoyan (/home/pchorro/.config/gh/hosts.yml)
# - Active account: true
# - Git operations protocol: ssh
# - Token: gho_************************************
# - Token scopes: 'admin:public_key', 'gist', 'read:org', 'repo'
# ✓ Logged in to github.com account work (/home/pchorro/.config/gh/hosts.yml)
# - Active account: false
# - Git operations protocol: ssh
# - Token: gho_************************************
# - Token scopes: 'admin:public_key', 'delete_repo', 'gist', 'read:org', 'repo'