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Your Laptop → GitHub (Push / Pull via SSH)#

A. Generate SSH Keys (One per account)#

1️⃣ Personal GitHub account#

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "personal@github" -f ~/.ssh/github_personal

Creates:

~/.ssh/github_personal
~/.ssh/github_personal.pub

2️⃣ Work GitHub account#

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "work@company" -f ~/.ssh/github_work

Creates:

~/.ssh/github_work
~/.ssh/github_work.pub

B. Add PUBLIC keys to GitHub#

Personal account#

cat ~/.ssh/github_personal.pub
  • GitHub → Personal Account → Settings → SSH Keys → Add

Work account#

cat ~/.ssh/github_work.pub
  • GitHub → Work Account → Settings → SSH Keys → Add

C. SSH Config (CORE STEP)#

Create / edit config:

nano ~/.ssh/config

# Personal GitHub
Host github.com-personal
  HostName github.com
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github_personal
  IdentitiesOnly yes

# Work GitHub
Host github.com-work
  HostName github.com
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github_work
  IdentitiesOnly yes

Permissions:

chmod 700 ~/.ssh
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/config

D. Use Correct Remote URLs#

Personal repo#

git clone git@github.com-personal:USERNAME/repo.git

or update existing repo:

git remote set-url origin git@github.com-personal:USERNAME/repo.git

Work repo#

git clone git@github.com-work:ORG/repo.git

or:

git remote set-url origin git@github.com-work:ORG/repo.git

E. Test SSH Connections#

ssh -T git@github.com-personal
ssh -T git@github.com-work

Expected:

Hi USERNAME! You've successfully authenticated.

Set per-repo identity:

Personal repo#

git config user.name "Your Name"
git config user.email "personal@email.com"

Work repo#

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