How to transfer commits from work account to personal account?

[luc-ureg]

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Hi all, I have been working at a company for a few months now, and am wondering if if's at all possible to transfer the commits form my work account to my personal one? Just to show that i have not been inactive for that time.

What would be the best way to transfer the commits to my personal account? and would it be possible to transfer them, delete the work email and still have the commits???

Thank you in advance for any help I really appreciate it

A few details:

• the repositories are all private
• The email may or may not be deleted after I leave
• I will most likely delete the work Github account once I leave

[MasteraSnackin]

The commits themselves are tied to the email address and name configured in Git when you made them, not your GitHub account. Here's how to handle this:

Understanding Commit Attribution

Commits on GitHub are linked to accounts through the email address in the commit metadata. If you made commits with your work email, those commits will show your work account's profile picture and username on GitHub.

Solutions

Option 1: Change Commit Author Information (Recommended)

You can rewrite the Git history to change the author email from your work email to your personal email. This will make the commits appear under your personal account.

Warning: This rewrites history, so only do this on repositories you control or private repos.

# Clone the repository
git clone <repo-url>
cd <repo-name>

# Use git filter-repo (recommended) or git filter-branch
# Install git-filter-repo first: pip install git-filter-repo

git filter-repo --email-callback '
  return email.replace(b"work@company.com", b"personal@gmail.com")
'

# Or for specific author:
git filter-repo --mailmap <(echo "Personal Name <personal@gmail.com> Work Name <work@company.com>")

Alternatively, using git filter-branch (older method):

git filter-branch --env-filter '
OLD_EMAIL="work@company.com"
NEW_NAME="Your Name"
NEW_EMAIL="personal@gmail.com"

if [ "$GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL" = "$OLD_EMAIL" ]
then
    export GIT_COMMITTER_NAME="$NEW_NAME"
    export GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL="$NEW_EMAIL"
fi
if [ "$GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL" = "$OLD_EMAIL" ]
then
    export GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="$NEW_NAME"
    export GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL="$NEW_EMAIL"
fi
' --tag-name-filter cat -- --branches --tags

Option 2: Add Your Work Email to Your Personal Account

Before deleting your work email:

1. Go to your personal GitHub account → Settings → Emails
2. Add your work email address
3. Verify it while you still have access
4. Keep it there even after leaving (you don't need the inbox, just the verified status)

This way, commits made with your work email will be attributed to your personal account. Even if the email becomes invalid later, GitHub will still associate those commits with your account.

Option 3: Transfer Repository Ownership

If these are your personal repositories hosted under a work account:

1. Go to repository Settings → Danger Zone
2. Transfer ownership to your personal account
3. The entire repository with all commit history moves to your personal account

What Happens If You Delete Your Work Email?

If you delete your work email from the work GitHub account:

• Commits will still exist in the repository
• They'll show as authored by the email address (not linked to any account)
• They won't show on any profile's contribution graph
• They'll appear as unattributed commits

Recommendation for Your Situation

Given your details:

1. Before leaving: Add your work email to your personal GitHub account and verify it
2. If the repos are private and you own them: Transfer them to your personal account
3. If you want to rewrite history: Use Option 1 to change all commit authors
4. After leaving: You can remove the work email from your personal account if needed (commits will still be attributed)

This way, your contribution history is preserved on your personal profile, even after your work account is deleted.

[luc-ureg]

Hello ok thank you for your response, I was just wondering, do the collaborators need to do anything after I run this?

im not a git expert so I asked Chatgpt and searched online and tried cloning the repo locally and using --no-local flag, then checked the emails from the commits using: git log --format="%an <%ae>" | sort | uniq

And found that there was my work username BUT with my private email as I wanted, so I was wondering if it worked, then it should be fine to actually do it on the distant repo right?

Thank you so much for your help

Or can they just keep using the repository as is?

And does the github name matter at all? or just the email?
Thanks again for your kind help

[luc-ureg]

Ive done as you stated it seems to have worked when inspecting on github my name and email are correct and visible on the remote repo, however I can't see ANYTHING on my personal profile commit graph... please help

[heerathbhat]

Unfortunately, GitHub does not provide any way to transfer commits from one account to another after they’ve already been made.

Commits are attributed based on the email address used at commit time and the repository they belong to. If those commits were made in private company repositories, they will only appear on your contribution graph while:

the repository is accessible to you, and

the commit email is verified on your account.

Once you lose access to the private repos or delete the work account, those contributions will no longer be visible on your personal profile. Deleting the work email or the work GitHub account does not move the commits — they remain in the repository and are usually shown as authored by a deleted/ghost user.

In short:

Commits cannot be transferred between accounts

Deleting the work email/account will not preserve attribution

Private repo contributions generally disappear once access is lost

Recommended alternatives:

Rebuild similar (non-proprietary) projects on your personal GitHub to show continuous activity

Clearly explain on your profile or resume that you were contributing to private company repositories during that time (this is very common and understood by recruiters)

If company policy allows before leaving, add a personal email to commits and verify it on your personal GitHub — though this still won’t help once repo access is removed

There’s no official or safe workaround beyond these options.

[Akash4590]

You cannot directly transfer commits from one GitHub account to another.
Commits are permanently linked to the email address used when they were created.

What you can do instead:

Add the work email (used in those commits) to your personal GitHub account → the commits will then show up as yours.

Or cherry-pick / rebase and recommit using your personal email (this changes commit history).

[luc-ureg]

ok thanks

[CodeWIthAbdullah-007]

How to transfer commits from a work GitHub account to a personal account

Commits on GitHub are not owned by accounts, they are associated with the email address used when the commit was created. Because of this, commits cannot be directly “transferred” between accounts, but they can be correctly attributed to your personal account by following one of the methods below.

---

Option 1: Link your work email to your personal account (Recommended)

If the commits were made using your work email, you can have them appear on your personal account by adding that email there.

Steps:

1. Go to Personal GitHub → Settings → Emails

2. Add the work email address used in your commits

3. Verify the email

Once verified:

• Existing commits using that email will automatically show up on your personal profile

• No history rewriting is required

✅ Safest and simplest approach
⚠️ Requires access to the work email inbox

---

Option 2: Rewrite commit history with your personal email

If you no longer have access to the work email, you can rewrite commit history so commits use your personal email instead.

Example (for a local repository):

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "personal@email.com"
git rebase -r --root --exec 

'git commit --amend --no-edit --reset-author'

Then force-push:

git push --force

⚠️ Important:

• This rewrites commit history

• Should only be done on repositories you own or control

• Not recommended for shared or production repositories

---

Option 3: Cherry-pick commits into a new repository

If you want the commits to exist under your personal account without changing history:

git cherry-pick <commit-hash>

This creates new commits under your personal identity.

Use this when:

• Moving work into a personal project

• Creating a portfolio repository

---

Important notes

• GitHub does not support changing commit ownership directly

• Commits are linked by email address, not username

• Force-pushing can impact collaborators

---

Summary

Goal | Best Option -- | -- Keep original history | Add work email to personal account No access to work email | Rewrite commit history Portfolio / new repo | Cherry-pick commits

[luc-ureg]

I tried option 2 it seems to have worked the repo is fine but I can't see anything on my personal profile, do you have any idea why this is the case? does it take some time to appear?

Thanks for your help

[anurag-dwivedi-live]

You can’t transfer commits between accounts on GitHub. Commit attribution is based on the email address used in the commit, not the username.

If you want those commits to show on your personal account, add and verify the old work email in your personal account settings. Once verified, GitHub will automatically attribute those commits to you.

If you no longer have access to that email, the only workaround is rewriting history with a new email which is possible but risky and not recommended for shared repositories.

[luc-ureg]

Hi, Ok thanks for the tip, then Ill transfer my work email to my personal GitHub account, additionally I was just wondering because I tried to rewrite the git history on a test repository, and it looked like it worked, but when I went on my personal account it didn’t show anything on the profile does it take a certain amount of time to show or is there anything else I can do ? Thanks for your help On 30 Jan 2026, at 5:08 PM, Anurag Dwivedi ***@***.***> wrote: You can’t transfer commits between accounts on GitHub. Commit attribution is based on the email address used in the commit, not the username. If you want those commits to show on your personal account, add and verify the old work email in your personal account settings. Once verified, GitHub will automatically attribute those commits to you. If you no longer have access to that email, the only workaround is rewriting history with a new email which is possible but risky and not recommended for shared repositories. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#185811 (comment)>, or unsubscribe<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BV2UZYAQBYSS5EUSETJFZJT4JMNPNAVCNFSM6AAAAACTESP35KVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTKNRUHA4DCMQ>. You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[anurag-dwivedi-live]

Hey! Great follow up 👍

What you saw when testing locally is expected: rewriting history changes the commit metadata, and GitHub will show the username/email on the commit itself, but that doesn’t guarantee it shows up in your contribution graph right away (or at all) just because the username looks right.

A few things to check if your rewritten commits don’t show up on your profile:

1. Verified email match: The email in the commit must exactly match a verified email on your personal GitHub account. If it doesn’t match 100% (including case, dots, aliases, etc.), GitHub won’t count it.

2. Default branch: Commits only count toward your contributions if they are on the default branch (like main) or merged into it. If they’re only on a feature branch, they won’t show.

3. Time to update: Sometimes the contributions graph updates with a delay (a few minutes to a few hours), but usually it shouldn’t take more than ~24 h.

4. Private repos & settings: If any rewritten commits are in private repos, make sure you’ve enabled “Include private contributions on my profile” in your GitHub settings.

Finally, even if the commit now shows your personal username on the repo page, GitHub doesn’t always reassign the contribution graph retroactively purely because the email was moved the system doesn’t always reprocess old history for the graph.

[wkkkis]

how to transfer commits from work account to personal account (github)

you can’t really “transfer commits” between github accounts. commits live in the repo history forever, and github just attributes them to an account based on the email inside the commit.

how github decides who gets the commit

each commit has an author email (and sometimes a committer email). github links commits to your profile if:

• that email is added to your github account
• and it’s verified (or matches github-provided noreply rules)

so the trick is not moving commits, it’s linking the email.

best case (no history rewrite)

if your work commits were made with you@company.com:

1. add you@company.com as an email on your personal github account
2. verify it (you need access to that inbox)
3. wait a bit / refresh, and those commits may start showing on your personal profile

this does not change repo history. it just changes where github displays credit.

what happens if the work email gets deleted

if you lose access to you@company.com and can’t verify it on your personal account, then:

• commits still exist in the private repos
• but they might not be attributed to any account you control
• they may show as “ghost” / unlinked

so yeah, if you want those commits to count on your personal profile, you usually need to link/verify the email before it disappears.

can i delete the work github account and still keep commits?

commits don’t belong to the account, they belong to the repos.
deleting the work account won’t delete the commits, but it can remove the attribution if no other account has that commit email verified.

rewriting history (usually a bad idea)

yes, it’s possible to rewrite commit authorship (filter-repo / filter-branch) to swap emails.
but this is a big deal:

• rewrites commit hashes
• breaks clones/forks
• everyone has to rebase or re-clone
• companies usually don’t allow it, and for private repos it’s extra messy

realistically: don’t do this unless the org explicitly wants it.

private repos + “just copy them”

careful: copying private company repos to your personal account is often against policy / contracts.
even if you’re trying to show activity, moving code can turn into an HR/legal issue fast.

practical move (what i’d do)

• if allowed: add the work email to your personal github now and verify it
• if not allowed or email will die: don’t fight it, just put the work period on your resume/linkedin (that’s what hiring managers actually care about)

tl;dr

• you can’t transfer commits, only attribution
• attribution = commit email linked to your account
• verify the work email on your personal account before it’s deleted
• deleting the work account doesn’t move anything
• rewriting history is possible but usually not worth it