GitHub Account Switcher for VS Code

A lightweight, responsive VS Code extension that displays your active GitHub account in the Status Bar and allows you to quickly switch between multiple accounts and sync local Git identities using the official GitHub CLI (gh).

AI usage disclosure

🛠️ Tools Used

• IDE / Agent Environment: Google Antigravity IDE
• CLI / Linters / MCP: codegraph
• Skills: vscode-extension (internal)

🧠 Models Used

• Gemini 3.7 Flash

💬 Author's Note & Commentary

made this so that i could switch account easily in antigravity ide

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🚀 How to Use

1. Status Bar Item & Rich Tooltip

Once activated, you will see a GitHub icon and your active username in the status bar. Hover over it to see authentication details, active scopes, and the current workspace's Git author identity:

2. Switching Accounts

1. Click the status bar item (or press Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P and run GitHub Account Switcher: Switch GitHub Account).
2. Select the desired account from the QuickPick menu:

3. The extension runs gh auth switch --user <username>, automatically synchronizes your repository git config (user.name and user.email), and updates the status bar immediately.

3. Adding New Accounts

Select $(add) Log in new account from the QuickPick menu to launch an interactive gh auth login terminal session.

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✨ Features

• ⚡ Real-Time Active Account in Status Bar: Always know which GitHub account is currently active ($(github) octocat).
• 🔄 One-Click Quick Switcher: Click the status bar item or open the Command Palette to view all logged-in accounts and switch instantly.
• 🎯 Workspace Identity Auto-Detection: When opening an existing repository, the extension inspects local Git configuration (user.email, user.name, or remote URL) and automatically switches the active GitHub account to match.
• ✨ Auto-Configure on git init: When initializing a new repository (git init), the extension automatically configures local Git identity (user.name and user.email) using the currently active GitHub account.
• 📁 Automatic Git Config Synchronization: When switching accounts, automatically updates your repository's local (or global) git config user.name and user.email to match the selected GitHub account.
• 🏢 Enterprise & Multi-Host Support: Supports accounts across both github.com and custom GitHub Enterprise servers.
• ℹ️ Rich Status Tooltip: Hover over the status bar item to view details such as active host, Git protocol (SSH / HTTPS), token source, OAuth scopes, and the current workspace's active Git author name & email (clearly indicating whether it is local or global fallback).
• 🔑 Integrated Login: Trigger gh auth login directly inside an integrated VS Code terminal to add new accounts.
• 👁️ Auto-Sync & Focus Refresh: Automatically updates when you switch back to VS Code after modifying accounts in an external terminal.

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📦 Installation

Manual VSIX Installation

Download the latest github-account-switcher-x.x.x.vsix from GitHub Releases.

Via VS Code / IDE UI

1. Open the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X).
2. Click the ··· (Views and More Actions) menu icon at the top-right of the Extensions panel.
3. Select Install from VSIX... from the dropdown menu.
4. Select the downloaded .vsix file to install.

Via Command Line

code --install-extension github-account-switcher-0.1.5.vsix

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📋 Prerequisites

This extension leverages the official GitHub CLI (gh) to manage credentials and execute account switches securely.

1. Ensure the GitHub CLI is installed on your system (gh --version).
2. Authenticate your accounts via terminal:

   gh auth login

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⚙️ Configuration Settings

Customize behavior in VS Code Settings (Ctrl+, / Cmd+, searching for GitHub Account Switcher):

Setting	Default	Description
githubAccountSwitcher.autoSwitchOnWorkspaceOpen	true	Automatically detect local repo git identity and switch to matching GitHub account on workspace open.
githubAccountSwitcher.autoSwitchOnWindowFocus	true	Automatically detect local repository git identity and switch when returning/focusing this VS Code window.
githubAccountSwitcher.syncGitConfig	"local"	Synchronize git config on switch ("local" updates repo config, "global" updates global config, "off" disables).
githubAccountSwitcher.refreshInterval	60	Auto-refresh interval in seconds (0 to disable background polling).
githubAccountSwitcher.statusBarAlignment	"right"	Alignment of the status bar item ("left" or "right").
githubAccountSwitcher.statusBarPriority	100	Priority order in the status bar (higher numbers appear further left).
githubAccountSwitcher.showHost	true	Show host domain prefix for non-github.com accounts (e.g. ghe.corp:username).
githubAccountSwitcher.ghPath	"gh"	Custom path to the GitHub CLI binary if not in your system PATH.

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⌨️ Extension Commands

Command	Title	Description
github-account-switcher.switchAccount	Switch GitHub Account	Opens the account picker menu.
github-account-switcher.refresh	Refresh Accounts	Re-queries gh auth status immediately.
github-account-switcher.login	Log In New Account	Opens terminal to run gh auth login.

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions, issues, and feature requests are welcome! Please read our Contributing Guide to get started with local development and submitting pull requests.

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📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.