git-persona

Never commit with the wrong Git identity again.

Automatically switch Git name, email, and SSH key based on repository location using Git's built-in includeIf feature.

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The problem

You have a work GitHub account and a personal GitHub account. You clone repos into different folders. But every now and then, you commit to a personal repo with your work email — or worse, commit to a work repo with your personal email. Now your commit history is wrong, and fixing it means rewriting history.

Managing this manually is error-prone:

git config user.name "Work Name"
git config user.email work@example.com
git config core.sshCommand "ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_work"
# ... repeat for every single repo

The solution

git-persona creates identity profiles and wires them up to folders. Any repo under a profile's folder automatically uses the right name, email, and SSH key. No per-repo config needed.

git persona create work "Work Name" work@example.com ~/dev/work
git persona create personal "Personal Name" personal@example.com ~/dev/personal

Now every repo under ~/dev/work/ uses your work identity. Every repo under ~/dev/personal/ uses your personal identity. Done.

Features

• Automatic identity switching using Git's native includeIf
• Automatic SSH key generation per profile
• Per-repository profile overrides
• Current profile detection
• Native Git subcommand (git persona)
• Zero runtime dependencies (pure Bash)
• Linux, macOS, and WSL support

Table of contents

• Requirements
• Compatibility
• Installation
• Quick Start
• Command reference
• How it works
• File locations
• Testing
• Changelog
• Contributing
• License
• Support

Requirements

• Bash 4.0+
• Git 2.13+ (for includeIf support)
• OpenSSH (for ssh-keygen)

Compatibility

Platform	Status	Notes
Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch, etc.)	✅ Fully supported
Alpine Linux	✅ Fully supported	Pure bash, no GNU sed needed
macOS	✅ Fully supported	Uses built-in bash (or Homebrew bash 5+)
Windows (WSL)	✅ Fully supported	Same as Linux
Windows (Git Bash)	⚠️ Expected to work (untested)	Comes with Git for Windows. See note below
Windows (PowerShell/cmd)	❌ Not supported	Use Git Bash or WSL

Windows with Git Bash: Expected to work but not yet tested. Git for Windows includes a full bash environment with ssh-keygen and all required tools. There may be a path format mismatch between Git Bash's MSYS-style paths (/c/Users/...) and what Git's includeIf expects on Windows. Install via the one-liner from a Git Bash terminal. If you test it, please open an issue with your results.

Installation

One-liner (recommended)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/balaianu/git-persona/main/install.sh | bash

Downloads the script and installs it to ~/.local/bin/git-persona. No cloning required.

From source

git clone https://github.com/balaianu/git-persona.git
cd git-persona
make install

This installs git-persona to ~/.local/bin/ by default. Make sure that directory is in your PATH:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Custom install location

make install PREFIX=/usr/local

Update

cd git-persona
git pull
make update

Uninstall

cd git-persona
make uninstall

This removes the script from ~/.local/bin/. Profile data in ~/.config/git-persona/ is not removed. To remove all profile data:

rm -rf ~/.config/git-persona

Quick Start

Create two identities:

git persona create work "Work Name" work@example.com ~/dev/work
git persona create personal "Personal Name" personal@example.com ~/dev/personal

Add the printed SSH public keys to the corresponding GitHub accounts, then clone repos into the matching folders. Every repo under ~/dev/work/ automatically uses your work identity; every repo under ~/dev/personal/ uses your personal one.

Verify the active profile:

git persona current

List configured profiles:

git persona list

Apply a profile manually to the current repository:

git persona use work

See the Command reference below for all commands and flags.

Command reference

Since the script is named git-persona, Git automatically recognizes it as a subcommand. Both forms work identically:

git persona create work "Name" work@example.com ~/dev/work   # recommended
git-persona create work "Name" work@example.com ~/dev/work   # also works

Create a profile

git persona create work "Work Name" work@example.com ~/dev/work

This will:

1. Generate an SSH key at ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_git_work
2. Create a profile config at ~/.config/git-persona/profiles/work.gitconfig
3. Add an includeIf rule to ~/.gitconfig for ~/dev/work/
4. Print the public key for you to add to GitHub

Add the printed public key to your GitHub account under Settings > SSH and GPG keys.

To skip SSH key generation (e.g. if you already have a key or use HTTPS):

git persona create work "Work Name" work@example.com ~/dev/work --no-ssh-key

The profile will only set user.name and user.email, without core.sshCommand.

List profiles

git persona list

Profiles:
  work
    name:     Work Name
    email:    work@example.com
    base_dir: /home/andy/dev/work
    key:      /home/andy/.ssh/id_ed25519_git_work
  personal
    name:     Personal Name
    email:    personal@example.com
    base_dir: /home/andy/dev/personal
    key:      /home/andy/.ssh/id_ed25519_git_personal

Apply a profile to the current repo

cd ~/some-repo
git persona use work

Apply a profile to a folder

git persona use-folder work ~/projects/client-a

Any git repo under ~/projects/client-a/ will automatically use the work profile.

Show the current profile

git persona current

Current profile: work
  name:  Work Name
  email: work@example.com
  key:   /home/andy/.ssh/id_ed25519_git_work

Delete a profile

git persona delete work

This removes the profile config and includeIf entries. By default, the SSH key is kept — deleting it could break access to remote repos if the key is in use. The base directory is not removed.

To also remove the SSH key pair:

git persona delete work --with-keys

Show version

git persona version

How it works

git-persona uses Git's built-in includeIf directive to apply different configs based on directory paths.

When you create a profile, it generates:

~/.config/git-persona/
  profiles/
    work.conf               # profile metadata (key=value)
    work.gitconfig          # profile-specific git config
    personal.conf           # profile metadata (key=value)
    personal.gitconfig      # profile-specific git config

And adds to ~/.gitconfig:

[includeIf "gitdir:/home/andy/dev/work/"]
    path = /home/andy/.config/git-persona/profiles/work.gitconfig

[includeIf "gitdir:/home/andy/dev/personal/"]
    path = /home/andy/.config/git-persona/profiles/personal.gitconfig

Each profile config sets user.name, user.email, and core.sshCommand:

[user]
    name = Work Name
    email = work@example.com
[core]
    sshCommand = ssh -i /home/andy/.ssh/id_ed25519_git_work -o IdentitiesOnly=yes

So any repo under ~/dev/work/ automatically uses the work identity and SSH key. No per-repo config needed.

File locations

Path	Purpose
~/.local/bin/git-persona	The script
~/.config/git-persona/profiles/<id>.conf	Per-profile metadata (key=value)
~/.config/git-persona/profiles/<id>.gitconfig	Per-profile Git config
~/.ssh/id_ed25519_git_<id>	Per-profile SSH key
~/.gitconfig	Modified with includeIf entries

Testing

make test

Or directly:

bash tests/test_basic.sh

The test suite runs in an isolated temp directory and won't touch your real profiles or SSH keys.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for version history.

Contributing

See Contributing Guide for development setup, testing, and code style.

Pull requests are welcome. Please ensure tests pass before submitting.

Documentation

• Usage Guide — detailed command reference
• Configuration — file locations and internals
• Contributing — development setup and guidelines
• Changelog — version history
• Code of Conduct — community standards

License

MIT — see LICENSE

Support

If you find this tool useful, consider buying me a coffee: