gitident

Commit with the right git identity everywhere, automatically.

Work email in ~/work, personal email in ~/code, a different signing key for that one client repo: you describe it once in a small YAML file, and git picks the right name, email, signing key and SSH key in every repository.

No more git config user.email in each new clone, and no more commits pushed under the wrong email.

How it works

flowchart LR
    Y["profiles.yaml<br/><i>who you are, and where</i>"] -- "gitident sync" --> G["~/.gitconfig<br/><i>includeIf rules</i>"]
    G --> W["~/work/api<br/>commits as work"]
    G --> P["~/code/blog<br/>commits as personal"]
    G --> X["unknown repo<br/>refuses to commit"]

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1. You list your profiles (name, email, keys) and rules that say where each one applies, by folder or by remote URL.
2. gitident sync turns that into plain git config. Nothing runs in the background.
3. git applies the right profile on its own, so your terminal, IDE and GitKraken all get it right.

Install

brew install leoru/tap/gitident

Alternatively, run go install github.com/leoru/gitident-cli/cmd/gitident@latest, download a release from the releases page, or run make install from a checkout.

Get started

1. Create your config

gitident init

This writes ~/.config/gitident/profiles.yaml. Edit it to look something like this:

version: 1

profiles:
  personal:
    name: Kirill Kunst
    email: kirill@example.org
  work:
    name: Kirill Kunst
    email: kirill@company.com
    signing_key: ~/.ssh/id_work.pub   # optional
    gpg_format: ssh                   # optional
    gpgsign: true                     # optional
    ssh_key: ~/.ssh/id_work           # optional: push/pull with this key

rules:
  - profile: personal
    dirs: ["~/code"]                  # every repo in ~/code
  - profile: work
    dirs: ["~/work"]                  # every repo in ~/work…
    remotes: ["git@github.com:company/**"]   # …and every company repo, wherever it is

2. Apply it

gitident sync --dry-run   # preview
gitident sync             # apply

3. Check it

gitident which            # the identity git uses right here, and why
gitident check            # scans all your repos and reports any problem

Already set up identities by hand, or in GitKraken? Run gitident import instead of init. It reads your current setup and writes the YAML for you. See the migration guide.

Everyday use

I want to…	Run
See which identity a repo uses	gitident which
Use a different profile for this one repo	gitident use work (add --save to remember it in the YAML)
Undo that	gitident unuse
Make a repo's identity work in a dev container or GUI client that ignores includeIf	gitident apply (or materialize: true in the YAML)
Check that a commit would work unattended (identity and signing)	gitident preflight
Stop AI agents (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini, Copilot…) from committing with the wrong identity	gitident agent install
Apply changes after editing the YAML	gitident sync
Find repos with a wrong or missing identity	gitident check
Check that everything is set up correctly	gitident doctor
Remove gitident's changes from ~/.gitconfig	gitident uninstall

Every command also works as git ident ….

When several rules match a repo, the more specific one wins: later rules beat earlier ones, a repo listed under a profile's repos beats any rule, and gitident use beats everything. By default, a repo that matches nothing refuses to commit instead of silently using the wrong email.

Good to know

• gitident only changes a clearly marked block at the end of ~/.gitconfig. Everything else in that file stays as you wrote it.
• Remote-URL rules need git 2.36 or newer. gitident doctor tells you whether your git supports them.
• Shell completion: gitident completion bash|zsh|fish. Homebrew sets it up automatically.

Want the details? The guide covers how it works internally, the full config reference, every command, migrating an existing setup, worktrees, submodules and other edge cases.

License

MIT