How to Use Two Different Git Accounts with SSH on the Same Machine

In this quickly guide, we’ll cover:

• Creating and configuring multiple SSH keys
• Setting up Git to use different user accounts per repository
• Automatically signing commits with the correct GPG key

1. Generate SSH Keys for Each Account

Assuming you have no conflicting keys yet, start by generating one for each GitHub account:

# Work account
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "you@work.com" -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_work

# Personal account
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "you@personal.com" -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_personal

This creates two key pairs:

• ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_wor and ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_work.pubk
• ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_persona and ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_personal.publ

2. Add SSH Keys to the SSH Agent

Start the agent and add both keys:

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_work
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_personal

3. Configure the ~/.ssh/config File

# ~/.ssh/config

# Work GitHub
Host github.com-work                     # identifier
  HostName github.com                    # must match the profile host
  User git                               # git is standard user
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_work    # your ssh key for this profile

# Personal GitHub
Host github.com-personal
  HostName github.com
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_personal

This lets you clone like this:

# Personal project
git clone git@github.com-personal:username/personal-repo.git

# Work project
git clone git@github.com-work:company/work-repo.git

4. Configure Git User Info Per Repo

In each cloned repository, configure the local Git identity:

# Inside work repo
git config user.name "Work Name"
git config user.email "you@work.com"

# Inside personal repo
git config user.name "Personal Name"
git config user.email "you@personal.com"

Optionally, if you want Git to automatically pick identities based on folder paths, use a global include with conditions:

# ~/.gitconfig

[includeIf "gitdir:~/code/work/"]
  path = ~/.gitconfig-work

[includeIf "gitdir:~/code/personal/"]
  path = ~/.gitconfig-personal

Then in ~/.gitconfig-work:

[user]
  name = Work Name
  email = you@work.com
  signingkey = <your-signing-key>

Done!