Ask HN: Separate personal vs. work GitHub account?

5 points·anoojb··6 comments

Does anyone keep separate Github user accounts for personal vs work?

Is there a reasonable risk a company can claim ownership of non-work projects when the same Github user account is used for contributing to both personal and work projects?

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I absolutely keep my personal GitHub account separate from my work one for that reason. It's also because I like to keep my work life and personal life separate. That's why I don't use my work email for private matters (you never should anyway!) and I don't use my work PC for anything other than work. It keeps things clear cut for both my employee and myself.

I do keep separate accounts. It is quite easy to use multiple GitHub accounts on the same machine. Here is how I do it: https://dev.to/fedekau/automatically-managing-personal-and-w...

Not only that, but for example if I work on some open source project with company paid time my commits will be from "Dying Kneepad" <dyingkneepad@company.com> and if I later commit to the same project but on my own spare time (and not representing the interests of the company) I will commit with "Dying Kneepad" <dying@kneepad.com>.

Definitely keep them separate. Sometimes, depending on whether or not you have side gigs, you might want more than just those two.

There’s just no reason to risk it by having one account for both. Even if there are no conflicts with your work, what happens when you inevitably move on to another role?

Exactly.

Employers have lawyers that can likely compel GitHub to terminate an account. And to minimize support/legal burden they would likely comply.

Especially since Github does not seem to have a public policy on this topic that would make it clear how they would adjudicate a situation like this...

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