Sub-accounts of a primary GitHub Account

[BenjamenMeyer]

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It would be great if GitHub added a feature where users could create sub-accounts of their GitHub account.

Requirements

• separate profile page
• some properties (like 2FA requirements) could get passed through to the primary account
• easier login process
• sub-accounts could be restricted to given organizations and organization profiles

Use Cases

• How are multiple Copilot licenses handled? #56234 - Copilot licenses apply the most restrictive license scenario across the whole account. Sub accounts could limit that by using a sub-account for the license for a given organization (employer, etc).
• Separating public work from employer work - many companies want dedicated GitHub accounts that can be restricted by their policies; however this means more authentication for the user. Sub-accounts could share some authentication (primary GitHub, 2FA) but then allow the sub-accounts to have additional restrictions (no public data, etc) per the company policy when enrolled in those organizations and the related repositories/discussions/etc could be limited to the sub-accounts.

The goal here is to make it easier for users to manage multiple GitHub accounts and their respective profiles for various scenarios. I'm sure there's more than what I've listed above those are just the ones that come quickly to mind.

[softwarecreations]

@BenjamenMeyer, great feature request! Sub-accounts would simplify managing multiple personas (e.g., personal vs. work) with shared 2FA and org-specific restrictions, like Copilot licensing. It’s a perfect fit for GitHub’s multi-tenant push.

Workarounds:

• Use separate accounts with GitHub CLI (gh auth login) or tools like gh-multiauth.
• Leverage orgs for isolation; manage SSH keys per account via ~/.ssh/config.
• Browser extensions like SessionBox for session switching.

How to move this forward:

1. Mark this as the accepted answer
2. Upvote the question and answer

Then @github should notice it if it gets more votes.

[odeatavanade]

how does your workaround fixe the GH Copilot licensing issue ? it would force a second GH CP subscription which is good for GH numbers but not for the customers 🤔

[BenjamenMeyer]

how does your workaround fixes the GH Copilot licensing issue ? it would force a second GH CP subscription which is good for GH numbers but not for the customers 🤔

@odeatavanade The GH Copilot License would be tied to the individual accounts with each sub-account being able to have their own unique license.

Think of this like AWS Profiles when you use the AWS Command-line tooling or boto3. The primary account is there and manages the authentication, has its own "default" profile; but then the sub-accounts can be separately used once authenticated. A sub-profile may be a member of an organization that the primary profile is not a member of - if the user wants access to that organization then they would need to switch to the "profile" used for that organization; same would apply to GH Copilot Licenses - each "profile" (sub-account) could be linked to different licenses. Perhaps each by default receives the license of the main account, but then if a sub-account is a member of an organization it would get the limitations of that organization.

[BenjamenMeyer]

@odeatavanade it would also make premium request consumption issues like outlined at https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/56234#discussioncomment-13877998 easier to track/manage and clear on which account should use it. Presently its likely a mess since you can have multiple licenses but no way to separate them.

[derberg]

Use separate accounts

It is the worst possible workaround and advice one could give. I also don't get how accepting a workaround answer helps to make the problem visible to GitHub.

https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/56234 has a lot of upvotes and an answer since 2023...

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[derberg]

Let me share with you what would be the best for me as a user. I use my best mocking skills you can imagine 😄

I described my issue in details here: https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/56234#discussioncomment-15559225
I got blocked by reaching the limit in the license that was assigned to me by the company I work for. I wanted to switch to my old personal license and purchase on my own more access - and I simply could not do it.

So yeah, idealy I can have multiple licenses, and in IDE I see which one I use currently and can easily switch between. If switching the license means clearing conversation with agent, that is fine, but I just wanna be able to switch.

For open source maintainers and consultants it is a must have feature really.