Do I need two GitHub accounts?

Question

I have a GitHub user account that I use to work.

I want to download some code that I wrote outside of the work and publish it. Is there a way to disguise my username from the public, so the job couldn't see what it was me?

Or do I need to create a separate account to download the code?

Answer 1

See the top of the GitHub help page titled What is the difference between user and organization accounts? :

Your user account is your identity on GitHub.

Therefore, if you do not want your workplace to be able to determine that you are the author of any personal (i.e. non-work related) materials that you published, you need to create and use different GitHubs to take into account this personal material.

For example, use an account called panthro_at_work for work-related repositories and another account called mystery_man_or_woman for your personal items.

However, remember also that

One person or legal entity cannot contain more than one free account.

See Account Terms and also nulltoken answer . Therefore, in order to have two accounts, at least one of them must be a paid account.

Account Consolidation

If you change your mind (at a later stage) about separating work and personal items, GitHub allows you to combine two user accounts; see Combining multiple user accounts .

Transferring repositories between accounts

GitHub allows even smaller actions than this: you can transfer ownership of only part of your repositories in your mystery_man_or_woman account to your panthro_at_work account (or vice versa); see How to transfer a repository .

Answer 2

I want to download some code that I wrote outside of the work and publish it. Is there a way to disguise my username from the public, so the job couldn't see what it was me?

Any activity performed in a public repository is also publicly available. For example, public activity for an Octocat user can be seen at the following URL https://github.com/octocat?tab=activity

Or do I need to create a separate account to download the code?

I would also advise you to take a look at the GitHub Terms of Service , which specifically states: "One person or legal entity cannot contain more than one free account."

So, although the system allows you to create multiple accounts, GitHub legally reserves the right to ban you at its discretion:

• "Violation of any of the conditions below will terminate your account."
• “GitHub’s failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms of Service is not a waiver of that right or provision.”