Show HN: git-found, fixes "Repository not found" with multiple GitHub accounts

A Git credential helper for people with more than one GitHub account. It checks which of your accounts can reach a repo and gives Git that account's token.

If you have multiple GitHub accounts, you've probably seen this on a repo you definitely have access to:

$ git clone https://github.com/mycompany/backend.git remote: Repository not found. fatal: repository 'https://github.com/mycompany/backend.git/' not found

Git sent the token for whichever account is active in gh, and that account can't see the repo. git-found makes Git use the account that can.

The demo uses made-up accounts. git-found is the real script; gh and GitHub are stand-ins (see demo/).

Sign in to the GitHub CLI with each of your accounts first:

brew install advaith334/tap/git-found git-credential-found setup

setup points Git at git-found for every host you're signed in to with gh (usually just github.com).

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/advaith334/git-found/main/install.sh | sh

This puts git-credential-found in ~/.local/bin and runs setup.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/advaith334/git-found/main/git-credential-found -o ~/.local/bin/git-credential-found chmod +x ~/.local/bin/git-credential-found git-credential-found setup

setup adds this to ~/.gitconfig:

[credential "https://github.com"] helper = helper = /Users/you/.local/bin/git-credential-found useHttpPath = true

It writes the full path so GUI apps like GitHub Desktop and IntelliJ can find it.

When Git asks for a password, git-found goes through these in order:

If none of them can see it, you get a clear message instead of a bare 404:

git-found: none of your gh accounts on github.com (sam, sam-work) can see mycompany/secret. git-found: check the URL, or add an account that has access with: gh auth login --hostname github.com

If the right account is blocked by the org's single sign-on, it tells you and prints the link to approve the token:

git-found: sam-work can reach mycompany/backend, but its token isn't approved for the org's single sign-on. git-found: approve it here, then try again: https://github.com/orgs/mycompany/sso?authorization_request=...

Why Git doesn't handle this already

GitHub answers 404 rather than 401 when you're signed in but your account can't see a private repo. Git only retries with other credentials after a 401, so it never gets to your second account. The GitHub CLI's own helper only ever returns the active account's token (cli/cli#326 has been open since 2020).

Command What it does

git-credential-found setup [host...] Point Git at git-found (default: every host gh is signed in to)

git-credential-found which [url] Show which account it would use for a repo

git-credential-found doctor [url] Check why a repo still fails

git-credential-found forget [url] Clear the remembered account for one repo, or all of them

git-credential-found uninstall [host...] Remove git-found from your Git config

A URL can be owner/repo, an HTTPS URL or an SSH URL. Without one, which and doctor use the current repo's origin.

$ git-credential-found doctor git-found 0.2.1 doctor: mycompany/backend on github.com

Remote URL ✗ git@github.com:mycompany/backend.git uses SSH, and Git only asks credential helpers for HTTPS logins fix: git remote set-url origin https://github.com/mycompany/backend.git

Accounts on github.com · sam can't see this repo ✓ sam-work can push

Git config ✓ useHttpPath is on, so git-found can see which repo Git wants ✓ Git asks git-found, which picks sam-work (push)

1 problem(s) found.

It looks at the remote URL (SSH, or a token stuck in it), what each account can do, expired logins, single sign-on, your pin, and whether some other credential helper answers before git-found.

If two of your accounts can reach a repo and you want a specific one, set it inside the repo:

git config found.account sam-work

The pin only applies to that repo's own remotes, so cloning something else from inside it isn't affected. A username in the URL (https://sam@github.com/...) overrides everything.

$ GIT_FOUND_DEBUG=1 git fetch git-found: mycompany/backend as sam: none git-found: mycompany/backend as sam-work: push

Other ways to deal with this

Picks per repo automatically No per-org config No extra SSH keys

git-found yes yes yes

gh auth switch no, you switch by hand, for everything yes yes

includeIf with a helper per org yes no yes

SSH host aliases yes no, every remote needs rewriting no

Git Credential Manager no, it asks you to pick no yes

FAQ

Where do the tokens live? In the GitHub CLI's keyring, same as before. git-found reads one when Git needs it and never writes tokens anywhere. They're passed through environment variables and pipes, not command-line arguments. The only file it writes is ~/.cache/git-found/accounts, which maps repos to account names.

GitHub Enterprise? Yes. Run gh auth login --hostname your.ghe.host, then git-credential-found setup.

SSH remotes? No. Credential helpers only run for HTTPS. Switch with git remote set-url origin https://github.com/owner/repo.git; doctor will point this out.

It picked the wrong account. Pin the one you want with git config found.account <login>, or run git-credential-found forget owner/repo so it checks again.

Can it pick the account for gh pr create, or fix my commit email? No. git-found only handles Git's HTTPS logins, and it's going to stay that way.

How do I remove it? git-credential-found uninstall, then gh auth setup-git to go back to the GitHub CLI's helper.

Requirements Bash (the macOS 3.2 one is fine), Git and the GitHub CLI. Tested on macOS and Ubuntu.

Issues and PRs welcome. test/run.sh runs the tests against a stand-in gh, so you don't need network access or GitHub accounts.