Stop Pushing Work Code with Your Personal Email: The Ultimate Guide to Multiple GitHub Accounts on Windows

Source: Dev.to

The Concept: SSH Keys & Aliases

Git uses a single global user by default. To switch between accounts you need:

• Two separate SSH keys (one for personal, one for work).
• An SSH config file that maps an alias (e.g., github-work) to the appropriate key.

Step 1: Generate Unique SSH Keys

# Create the .ssh directory if it doesn't exist
mkdir "$HOME\.ssh"
cd "$HOME\.ssh"

Personal key

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "personal@gmail.com" -f id_personal

Work key

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "work@company.com" -f id_work

Note: Do not overwrite your existing default key (id_rsa).

Step 2: The “Eval” Problem (Windows Solution)

The usual eval $(ssh-agent -s) command often fails in PowerShell. Instead, enable the built‑in Windows ssh-agent service so it persists across reboots.

# Run PowerShell as Administrator
Get-Service -Name ssh-agent | Set-Service -StartupType Automatic
Start-Service ssh-agent

Add your keys (you can do this in a regular PowerShell window):

ssh-add $HOME\.ssh\id_personal
ssh-add $HOME\.ssh\id_work

Verify that both keys are loaded:

ssh-add -l

Step 3: Upload Keys to GitHub

1. Open the Personal public key file (id_personal.pub) and copy its contents.
2. In GitHub → Settings → SSH and GPG keys, click New SSH key, paste the key, and save.
3. Repeat the process with the Work public key (id_work.pub) on your company’s GitHub account.

Step 4: The Magic Config File

Create a file named config (no extension) inside $HOME\.ssh\ with the following content:

# Personal Account – Default
Host github.com
  HostName github.com
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_personal

# Work Account – Alias
Host github-work
  HostName github.com
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_work

Step 5: Cloning & Configuring Repositories

• Personal projects: Clone as usual.

  git clone git@github.com:username/repo.git

• Work projects: Use the alias github-work instead of github.com.

  git clone git@github-work:company/repo.git

Set Your Local Identity

Immediately after cloning a work repository, configure the local Git identity to avoid committing with the wrong email:

git config user.name "Your Work Name"
git config user.email "work@company.com"

Bonus: Fixing a Commit Pushed with the Wrong Email

If you already pushed a commit that shows your personal email, you can rewrite it without deleting the repository.

1. Update the local Git config (if not already set):

   git config user.email "work@company.com"

2. Amend the last commit to reset the author information:

   git commit --amend --reset-author --no-edit

3. Force‑push the corrected commit:

   git push -f origin main

Conclusion

Setting up multiple GitHub accounts on Windows takes about 10 minutes but saves you from endless “Permission denied” errors and the embarrassment of mixing identities. Once the ssh-agent service and SSH config file are in place, everything works seamlessly in the background.

Happy coding! 🚀