Using GIT_SSH_COMMAND to switch SSH key based on current working directory

May 2, 2024

I have two Github accounts (work + personal), both with their own SSH keys (key_work & key_personal)

Projects live in:

~/git/work
~/git/personal

I’m trying to set the GIT_SSH_COMMAND up as an environment var such that it looks at the directory the git command is called from, and picks the appropriate ssh key.

So far I’ve tried

.zshrc

export GIT_SSH_COMMAND='~/git-ssh.sh'

~/git-ssh.sh

#!/bin/bash

dir=$(pwd);

if [[ $dir == *"work"* ]]; then
  ssh -i ~/.ssh/key_work -o IdentitiesOnly=yes
elif [[ $dir == *"personal"* ]]; then
  ssh -i ~/.ssh/key_personal -o IdentitiesOnly=yes
else
  exit 1
fi

However when running git clone git@github.com:someorg/repo.git from git/work (or personal) I get

git clone git@github.com:someorg/repo.git
Cloning into 'repo'...
usage: ssh [-46AaCfGgKkMNnqsTtVvXxYa] [-B bind_interface] [-b bind_address]
           [-c cipher_spec] [-D [bind_address:]port] [-E log_file]
           [-e escape_char] [-F configfile] [-I pkcs11] [-i identity_file]
           [-J destination] [-L address] [-l login_name] [-m mac_spec]
           [-O ctl_cmd] [-o option] [-P tag] [-p port] [-R address]
           [-S ctl_path] [-W host:port] [-w local_tun[:remote_tun]]
           destination [command [argument ...]]
       ssh [-Q query_option]
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

The SSH key has access, and worked before I set GIT_SSH_COMMAND, so there must be an issue with my script. Any ideas?

>Solution :

ssh running from your script misses destination (user@host). Git passes a destination as an argument to the script but you’ve forgotten to pass it to ssh. My advice is to pass all arguments from the script to ssh: