Feature: Options > Git > manage multiple accounts

[penCsharpener]

It would be great to be able to manage multiple git credentials in the options.
Additionally it'd be nice to set an git credential override for each repository.

Otherwise when a user works with personal and work related accounts they always have to change between the accounts.

[joshaber]

Thanks for the suggestion!

This idea is interesting for the future, but this is beyond the scope of our current roadmap.

I'm going to add the future-proposal label to this issue and close it out, so that we don't get overwhelmed with our backlog! We'll revisit these as part of our next planning session.

[anormore]

@joshaber -- Until then, can we get a button to quickly sign out / manage accounts? I understand it's not roadmap, so even a keyboard shortcut would be sweet.

CTRL + SHIFT + O?

[jasonhirstnimble]

+1 please.
Or a Switch Accounts button.

[john026]

+1 so badly need this as independent contractor working with multiple agencies and clients, all who want separate accounts

[vd-tech]

If you know how to use the terminal commands for git you could use the following i have a nice setup using this with multple accounts SSH Keys with Multiple GitHub Accounts

Just don't miss this step else you might have a hard time with the setup
Registering your new SSH Keys New keys need registered before they are useful. To register, we need to use ssh-agent and to use that, we need to first make sure it is running:
eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

[shiftkey]

There's a few technical constraints off the top of my head that need to be dealt with alongside the UI/UX concerns for multiple account support:

• permissions to a repository - we detect and infer a GitHub repository through the API, but the API won't return the permissions hash unless you're already authenticated, so we need to have some way to associate accounts with repositories locally
• storing the right credentials - I think this area is fine
• passing the right credentials to Git - again, our GIT_ASKPASS script should handle this because it can already differentiate between your GitHub and GitHub Enterprise accounts, but we'd need to teach Desktop to be smarter about looking up who "owns" a GitHub repository
• this is all specific to HTTPS remotes - SSH is a different beast, and we don't do any work to setup your SSH environment currently from within Desktop

Putting all that aside, I'd like to understand more about the situations why people are using multiple accounts? Things that have been mentioned here:

• "having separate accounts to differentiate between personal and work projects"
• "each client wants a different account to grant access to the repository"

For reference, GitHub supports outside collaborators as a way for organizations to add users to specific repositories, without needing to add them to a team and granting them too much access to the organization.

[jasonehirst]

I work with three GitHub accounts from three emails.
One is my personal account for my own projects.
The other two are both corporate accounts where I have been required to join each organisation at GitHub.
I'm getting bored with regularly performing two factor...

[john026]

i'm required to create accounts using the email of the organisation. they will only grant access to accounts registered using the company email... it's their "policy"... not a choice.

since i work for multiple organisations (often during the same day), i can be required to switch between repos and accounts.

using github desktop this means logging out everytime i have to switch projects.

[j-f1]

@john026 Is it possible to add all your email addresses to one account?

[jasonehirst]

I'm in the same boat and no it's not possible to amalgamate the accounts. GitHub needs this feature. I can switch accounts with Gmail, Amazon and so on.. seems useful...

…

On Tue, Jun 26, 2018, 18:21 Jed Fox ***@***.***> wrote: @john026 <https://github.com/john026> Is it possible to add all your email addresses to one account? — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#3707 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AHg3VmubweHb05r2ixl9Xq_oaC99DHsyks5uAm2bgaJpZM4RQBu3> .

[farhan-sauce]

+1 This feature is in high demand.
It's sad to know that even after 6 months there is no further planning to include this feature. :-(

[0reo27]

This would be a dope feature to add for sure!

[theclapp]

This has worked for me so far (for all of five minutes), and is a variation on the old "use a different browser to manage a different identity" advice:

• Use Chrome
• Create a "new person". Settings -> manage other people -> add person.
• With that person, login to GitHub as whoever you'd like.
• Repeat for as many GH identities as you need, I guess. I only have two, so YMMV there.

Edit: I didn't realize this issue was for the GH desktop client, sorry. Please thumbs-down if you'd like this comment deleted.

[hessmjr]

+1

• Git Tower currently offers this and its one of the main reasons I haven't moved away from it.
• I currently have a personal account, a business account, plus an enterprise account from grad school. None of those are optional and I can't imagine logging in and out between them as often as I switch. I was recently reviewing Github Desktop to see if this feature was added and its going to continue to hold me back. Otherwise would love to switch.

[paulshryock]

+1

I frequently use both a personal account and a contractor account for a client.

Right now I have to follow this full process, just to switch accounts:

1. Open GitHub Desktop > Preferences
2. Accounts > Log out of personal account
3. Accounts > Log into contractor account
4. Open GitHub Desktop > Preferences again, since it closed automatically
5. Git > Update Email and Save
6. Close GitHub Desktop
7. Re-Open GitHub Desktop (in order for Git Email to be truly updated)

If I don't follow all of these steps, then my commits are made by the wrong email address, and therefore the wrong GitHub account.

I would love to easily:

1. Switch between accounts
2. Switch between Git Email
3. Not have to close and reopen GitHub Desktop

It would also be nice to:

4. Change multiple things in Preferences without the window automatically closing before I'm done

Edit:

Actually, after some trial and error, I have a pretty simple workflow for switching accounts. Since my personal account is a GitHub.com account, and my contract account is an Enterprise account, I'm able to leave those both signed in at the same time.

The only thing I need to change is which account is signing the commits. So when I'm switching between personal and contractor work, here's my simplified workflow:

1. Press cmd + , to open Preferences
2. Click Git
3. Update my email address and click Save
4. Switch to a different (or the same) repo; then my profile avatar changes

[faheemstepsharp]

any update on this matter? it's been 5 years now

[geoidesic]

Is there a work-around? I.e. it's possible to add another account to an organisation as an admin. So potentially you can log in to your second account, create an organisation and invite your primary account as an administrator?

[khrnchn]

up. quite tedious for me to switch between work and personal accounts. every time I switched to a work repo, I had to open options > sign out > sign in via browser.

[steveward]

From #19157:

It would be nice to be able to set git credentials (user, email, psw/token) for each repo.

Very useful to people working on different projects with different github users

[rcroft-work]

+1 for this feature

I have 3 GH accounts: a personal account, a work (public) account, and a work (internal) account.

I switch between them a lot and the experience (in general) isn't great (involves workarounds/etc). The GH CLI has support for this functionality and this feels like a pretty large feature gap for the GH Desktop app not to support multiple accounts.

[khrnchn]

+1 for this feature

I have 3 GH accounts: a personal account, a work (public) account, and a work (internal) account.

I switch between them a lot and the experience (in general) isn't great (involves workarounds/etc). The GH CLI has support for this functionality and this feels like a pretty large feature gap for the GH Desktop app not to support multiple accounts.

yeah I have just tried out GH CLI, they have nice commands

[faheemstepsharp]

Github Desktop needs to focus on add multiple account support, better AI based commit messages and A more visual and animated feel(optimistic UI)

[Yarflam]

[...] better AI based commit messages [...]

What? Why? The names of the commits must be identified by you, for you.

[pituluk]

Github Desktop needs to focus on add multiple account support, better AI based commit messages and A more visual and animated feel(optimistic UI)

No, AI everywhere is cancer

[devops-at-alinea]

This is sorely needed, seems like such a basic function I can't believe it hasn't been added yet (after 5 years). It makes the GitHub desktop pretty much useless unless you're a hobbyist or chained to a work machine.

[sergio-gn]

I need this feature as well. I have both a client account and a personal account for different projects, and I've accidentally committed personal changes using the client account multiple times, which isn't professional. I’d like to avoid asking for the client's 2FA code every time I need to commit something because I had to log out to make personal commits.

[Xonatron]

It would be nice to elegantly switch accounts and see the repos only for each account. To keep a developer's mind space in the right project / company.

[Hjarpe]

This is a sorely needed feature, bump!

[tyVandeZande]

GUYS!!!! The feature has been confirmed and added!!! FUlly working. 5 years since this chain started and (at least) a decade after the normalization of multiple accounts, MS has answered our prayers!!! Thank you. Thank you.

[Husain01]

GUYS!!!! The feature has been confirmed and added!!! FUlly working. 5 years since this chain started and (at least) a decade after the normalization of multiple accounts, MS has answered our prayers!!! Thank you. Thank you.

Source? @tyVandeZande

[hitecSmartHome]

GUYS!!!! The feature has been confirmed and added!!! FUlly working. 5 years since this chain started and (at least) a decade after the normalization of multiple accounts, MS has answered our prayers!!! Thank you. Thank you.

Without announcement? Link?

[Clicketyclick]

In the version of september 12th your login name has a dropdown with "Switch dashboard context".
I had to use a SMS to verify login for the first time.
Works fine with dynamic switch between profiles.
"A small step for man - a gigant leap for mankind!"

[Clicketyclick]

In the version of september 12th your login name has a dropdown with "Switch dashboard context". I had to use a SMS to verify login for the first time. Works fine with dynamic switch between profiles."

It's the Android version and web version, but not in the Windows app (Version 3.4.5 (x64) or Version 3.4.6-beta1 (x64))

[programming-with-ia]

In the version of september 12th your login name has a dropdown with "Switch dashboard context". I had to use a SMS to verify login for the first time. Works fine with dynamic switch between profiles."

It's the Android version and web version, but not in the Windows app (Version 3.4.5 (x64) or Version 3.4.6-beta1 (x64))

everyone knows. but need for windows app

[ThermoMan]

Who the heck does development on a phone?
Still, if the code is there, how long until it's in a useful version of the app?

[tyVandeZande]

Who the heck does development on a phone? Still, if the code is there, how long until it's in a useful version of the app?

The planned release will be 4.1.2025. So Close.

[faheemstepsharp]

We have been asking for YEARS for this KINDLY @github so somehing instead of FIXING BUGS!!! make new features aND UI UX

[RobertSiwy]

i want to come back to the original request ##11797 from https://github.com/j3p0uk:

Describe the feature or problem you’d like to solve
I have multiple distinct GitHub Enterprise servers that I interact with. I would like to be able to configure all of them to be used via GitHub Desktop.

Proposed solution
All GitHub Desktop users will be able to interact with multiple GitHub Enterprise servers, which is not unusual in a large company.

It is open for three and a half year!
Please check the possibility to implement! Nowadays it's evaen more usal in big companies to have multiple GitHub Enterprise servers!
Thank you in advance!

[the-rockkk]

In the version of september 12th your login name has a dropdown with "Switch dashboard context". I had to use a SMS to verify login for the first time. Works fine with dynamic switch between profiles."

It's the Android version and web version, but not in the Windows app (Version 3.4.5 (x64) or Version 3.4.6-beta1 (x64))

This request is for the Desktop app. The feature has been on the web version for a long time. TBH I didn't realize there was an Android version.... LOL

[jordiup]

keeps getting buried lol, but here it is 👇

Link to solution

[OwaliShawon]

I think this feature is much needed