A safe, one-time CLI tool to set up **profile-based Git identity** (work / personal) on a single machine using Git’s native configuration features.
npm install git-profile-switchA safe, one-time CLI tool to set up profile-based Git identity (work / personal) on a single machine using Git’s native configuration features.
This tool helps developers avoid accidentally committing with the wrong name or email — especially on company-provided machines.
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Many developers use the same machine for:
- Company work repositories
- Personal projects and open-source contributions
Git has only one global identity by default.
This leads to common issues such as:
- Commits pushed with a personal email to a company repo
- Commits pushed with a work email to personal or open-source repos
- Violating company policies unintentionally
- Manually switching git config values back and forth
Git does support conditional configuration, but setting it up correctly is non-trivial and error-prone.
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git-profile-switch helps you set up profile-based Git identities once, based on repository folder paths.
Specifically, it:
- Creates separate Git config files for different profiles (e.g. work and personal)
- Configures Git’s native includeIf rules to apply identities by folder
- Backs up existing Git configuration before making changes
- Provides read-only commands to verify and diagnose the setup
After setup, Git itself handles identity resolution — this tool does not run again.
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This is intentionally a minimal and conservative tool.
It does not:
- Switch Git identities dynamically at runtime
- Intercept Git commands or commits
- Run in the background
- Modify SSH keys or SSH configuration
- Interact with GitHub or any remote service
- Rewrite commit history
- Install Git hooks
- Require continuous usage after setup
You can uninstall this tool after setup and your configuration will continue to work.
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This tool uses Git’s built-in includeIf feature.
At a high level:
- Repositories under one folder (e.g. ~/code/work) use one identity
- Repositories under another folder (e.g. ~/code/personal) use another identity
- Git resolves the correct identity automatically based on repository location
No custom Git behavior is introduced.
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- No data is uploaded anywhere
- No network calls are made
- No credentials are collected
- No background processes are started
- All changes are local and reversible
This tool is designed to be safe to run on company-managed machines.
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This project is under active development.
v1 focuses on:
- Initial setup (init)
- Verification (doctor)
- Status inspection (status)
Advanced features may be considered later, but are intentionally out of scope for v1.
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This tool is designed to be used via npx without permanent installation.
``
npx git-profile-switch init
You may also install it globally if you prefer:
`
npm install -g git-profile-switch
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`
git-profile-switch init
This command:
- Prompts for work and personal Git identities
- Creates profile-specific Git config files
- Safely updates your global Git configuration using includeIf
You will be shown a preview and must explicitly confirm before any changes are made.
`
git-profile-switch status
Shows a read-only summary of detected profile-based Git configuration.
`
git-profile-switch doctor
Performs read-only checks and reports potential problems such as:
- Missing Git installation
- Missing profile files
- Missing or invalid includeIf rules
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This tool uses Git’s built-in conditional configuration feature (includeIf).
At a high level:
- Repositories under a specific directory (e.g. ~/code/work/) use a work identity~/code/personal/
- Repositories under another directory (e.g. ) use a personal identity
- Git resolves the correct identity automatically based on repository location
No background processes, hooks, or runtime switching are involved.
---
This tool is designed to be safe to use on company-managed machines.
It:
- Does not run in the background
- Does not intercept Git commands
- Does not modify SSH configuration
- Does not communicate with GitHub or any external service
- Does not require continued usage after setup
All changes are local, transparent, and reversible.
You can uninstall the tool after setup and the configuration will continue to work.
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To undo changes:
1. Restore your backed-up .gitconfig file:`
ls ~/.gitconfig.backup.*
mv ~/.gitconfig.backup.
2. Optionally remove profile files:
`
rm ~/.gitconfig-work
rm ~/.gitconfig-personal
No other cleanup is required.
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No.
This tool configures Git’s native includeIf` rules once.
Git itself handles identity resolution after setup.
The tool does not run during commits.
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Yes.
The tool does not:
- Run in the background
- Modify SSH keys
- Modify GitHub settings
- Intercept Git commands
It performs a one-time configuration using standard Git features.
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Only repositories inside the directories you configure are affected.
All other repositories continue using your existing Git configuration.
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Not in v1.
v1 intentionally supports only two profiles (work and personal).
Support for additional profiles may be considered later.
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Yes, on a best-effort basis.
The tool works anywhere Git and Node.js are available.
Some environments (e.g. locked-down corporate Windows machines) may require Git Bash or WSL.
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MIT