Simplify Your Workflow: Switching Git Profiles Automatically by Folder

You can set up different Git profiles (name/email) per folder using Git’s config hierarchy. Git supports three levels of config:

• System (--system): applies to all users on the machine.
• Global (--global): applies to your user account everywhere.
• Local (--local): applies only to a specific repo (this overrides global/system).

Since you want three different folders (projects) to have their own profiles, you’ll use local config inside each repo.

Option 1 – Set local config in each repo

In each repo’s folder, run:

cd /path/to/repo1
git config user.name "Alice Work"
git config user.email "alice@work.com"

cd /path/to/repo2
git config user.name "Alice Personal"
git config user.email "alice@gmail.com"

cd /path/to/repo3
git config user.name "Alice OpenSource"
git config user.email "alice@opensource.org" 

These settings are stored in .git/config inside each repo. They override your global profile.

Option 2 – Use directory-based config (includeIf)

1. Open your global git config

git config --global --edit

This opens ~/.gitconfig in your editor.

2. Add directory-based rules

Inside ~/.gitconfig, add something like this:

[user]
    name = Alice Default
    email = alice@default.com

[includeIf "gitdir:~/work/"]
    path = ~/.gitconfig-work

[includeIf "gitdir:~/personal/"]
    path = ~/.gitconfig-personal

[includeIf "gitdir:~/oss/"]
    path = ~/.gitconfig-oss

gitdir:~/work/ means “any repo inside ~/work/”.

3. Create separate config files

Now create each file with its profile.

~/.gitconfig-work

[user]
    name = Alice Work
    email = alice@work.com

~/.gitconfig-personal

[user]
    name = Alice Personal
    email = alice@gmail.com

~/.gitconfig-oss

[user]
    name = Alice OpenSource
    email = alice@opensource.org

4. Verify settings

Go into any repo and run:

git config user.name
git config user.email

It should show the correct profile depending on the folder.

Tips:

• Paths must end with a slash (/) to match a folder and all its subfolders.
• If your repos are nested deeper (e.g. ~/work/projects/foo), it still works.
• If you want to match a single repo only, use gitdir:~/work/myrepo/.git instead.