gh-user-manager

🧙‍♂️ gh-user-manager

A CLI tool that lets you juggle multiple GitHub identities like a pro (or wizard)

Tired of Git yelling at you for using the wrong credentials? Switching between your personal and work GitHub accounts shouldn't feel like hacking the matrix.

gh-user-manager is your command-line sidekick that helps you add, switch, and manage multiple GitHub profiles instantly — securely, with minimal setup, and full control.

🚀 Installation

npm install -g gh-user-manager

✨ Boom! You now have gh-user-manager available globally.

Now if you want the pre-commit hook to show the current identity and confirm the commit, run:

gh-user-manager init

This will add a pre-commit hook to your repository that will show the current identity and confirm before commit.

🧰 Features

• ✅ Add multiple GitHub profiles (work, personal, secret villain account, etc.)
• ✅ Switch between them instantly
• 🧹 Auto-clears Keychain access to prevent weird Git behavior
• ✨ No need to manually edit .gitconfig ever again
• 💥 Ships like a native CLI

💡 Why tho?

Git doesn't like confusion. If you're using multiple accounts on the same machine, it often:

• Pushes with the wrong user/email
• Prompts for wrong credentials
• Uses cached Keychain tokens
• Breaks your commit history

This tool fixes all of that. Set your Git profile once, switch between them like a breeze, and focus on your actual code.

🛠️ Usage

➕ Add a profile

gh-user-manager add \
  --name work \
  --email [e-mail] \
  --username work-dev \
  --platform github \
  --auth https \
  --token ghp_xxxxxx

Adds a new profile to gh-user-manager config

🔀 Switch profiles

gh-user-manager switch work

This will:

• switch to the profile you mention
• Clean up old GitHub credentials

❌ Delete a profile

gh-user-manager delete work

This will:

• Remove the profile from gh-user-manager config

👀 List profiles

gh-user-manager list

See all your saved profiles and the currently active one.

🌐 Git Platforms in gh-user-manager

A platform defines the Git hosting service (like GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, etc.) and how authentication is handled — especially for HTTPS-based personal access tokens (PATs).

Each platform has:

A domain (e.g., github.com)

An authFormat (e.g., https://{username}:{token}@{domain}) used to construct the credential string saved to .git-credentials

Your profiles use these platforms when switching Git identities on your system.

🧰 Platform Management Commands

➕ Add a New Platform

gh-user-manager add-platform \
  --name myhost \
  --domain git.mycompany.com \
  --auth-format "https://{username}:{token}@{domain}"

Option Description Required Default --name Name/key of the platform (e.g., github, gitea) ✅ Yes — --domain Git domain used by this platform ✅ Yes — --auth-format Credential format (with {username}, {token}, {domain}) No https://{username}:{token}@{domain}

ℹ️ If --auth-format is not provided, a sensible default will be used.

📋 List All Platforms

gh-user-manager list-platforms

Displays all registered Git platforms along with their domains and auth formats.

🖊️ Update an Existing Platform

gh-user-manager update-platform \
  --name gitlab \
  --domain gitlab.company.com \
  --auth-format "https://{username}:{token}@{domain}"

Option Description Required --name Platform name to update ✅ Yes --domain New domain (optional) No --auth-format New auth format string (optional) No

You can update just the domain, just the auth format, or both.

🗑️ Delete a Platform

gh-user-manager delete-platform \
  --name myhost

Removes a custom platform by name. Built-in platforms (like github) can also be deleted, though it's not recommended unless you plan to override them.

🔄 Reset Platforms to Defaults

gh-user-manager reset-platforms

Restores the default platforms:

github.com

gitlab.com

bitbucket.org

A backup of the current platform file will be saved as:

~/.gh-user-manager-platforms.json.bak

♻️ Restore Platforms from Backup

gh-user-manager restore-platforms

Restores the platform config from the last .bak backup (if available).

🧠 Additional Notes

You can define custom Git providers (e.g., Gitea, Azure DevOps) using add-platform

Every profile is linked to a platform using the --platform flag (defaults to github if omitted)

HTTPS authentication only works if authFormat is valid and includes {username}, {token}, and {domain} placeholders

💡 Example: Adding & Using a Custom Platform

gh-user-manager add-platform \
  --name gitea \
  --domain gitea.dev.local \
  --auth-format "https://{username}:{token}@{domain}"

gh-user-manager add \
  --name dev \
  --email [e-mail] \
  --username dev-user \
  --platform gitea \
  --auth https \
  --token your_token_here

Now, switching to dev will use your custom Gitea host and its credentials.

📦 What This Tool Doesn’t Do (Yet)

• Wash your dishes

🤹‍♂️ Final Words

Managing multiple GitHub users shouldn't be harder than managing your personal life. Let gh-user-manager do the juggling — you just commit.

✍️ About the Author

Built with ☕, 🚀, and a healthy dose of "Why isn't this easier?", gh-user-manager was crafted by cinfinit — a developer who got tired of Git forgetting who they were.

When not switching identities like a GitHub secret agent, they’re probably:

• Refactoring code that was "just fine yesterday"
• Naming things (the hardest part of programming)
• Avoiding merge conflicts like landmines

"I built this tool because I felt we all have been at that place once where we really needed it. You’re welcome to use it, break it, improve it, or just stare at it in awe." — You, probably

Change Log

v0.2.0

• Added the concept of platforms and it's management commands
• Added pre-commit hook to show current identity and confirm commit