Setup Multiple SSH Keys

How to Manage Multiple SSH Keys

If you have multiple keys, create an SSH config file as follow:

nano ~/.ssh/config

Add the following according to your key name:

Host gitlab.com
    HostName gitlab.com
    User git
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
    AddKeysToAgent yes

Host github.com
    HostName github.com
    User git
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
    AddKeysToAgent yes

What if we have multiple GitLab or GitHub keys?

Edit the config as follows:

# Personal GitLab
Host gitlab.com-personal
    HostName gitlab.com
    User git
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/gitlab_personal
    AddKeysToAgent yes

# Work GitLab
Host gitlab.com-work
    HostName gitlab.com
    User git
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/gitlab_work
    AddKeysToAgent yes

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

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

Note: Here, you need to specify custom name for the Host.

Set proper permissions

chmod 600 ~/.ssh/config
chmod 700 ~/.ssh
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
chmod 644 ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Clone/Configure repositories with the right host

Personal GitLab project
git clone git@gitlab.com-personal:username/repo.git

Work GitLab project
git clone git@gitlab.com-work:company/repo.git

Personal GitHub project
git clone git@github.com-personal:username/repo.git

Work GitHub project
git clone git@github.com-work:company/repo.git

Note: above examples are according to the previous config file

For existing repositories:

Check current remote

git remote -v

Change to personal GitLab

git remote set-url origin git@gitlab.com-personal:username/repo.git

Change to personal GitHub

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

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