Multiple Bitbucket accounts with SSH on a single machine

Why set up several Bitbucket accounts?

Managing several Bitbucket accounts (personal and work) on the same machine calls for a specific setup, in order to:

• Separate work and personal access
• Keep the different accounts secure
• Avoid authentication conflicts
• Maintain clear traceability of contributions

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have:

• Git installed on your machine
• A terminal with SSH access
• Your Bitbucket credentials for each account
• Administrator rights on your machine

Step-by-step setup

1. Creating the SSH keys

For each Bitbucket account, create a unique SSH key pair:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -b 4096 -C "your.email@example.com" -f ~/.ssh/bitbucket-account1
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -b 4096 -C "work.email@company.com" -f ~/.ssh/bitbucket-account2

Security note: use a strong passphrase for each key.

2. Adding the keys to the SSH agent

Start the SSH agent and configure it:

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
ssh-add ~/.ssh/bitbucket-account1
ssh-add ~/.ssh/bitbucket-account2

3. SSH configuration

Edit or create the ~/.ssh/config file:

# Personal account
Host bitbucket.org-personal
    HostName bitbucket.org
    User git
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/bitbucket-account1
    IdentitiesOnly yes

# Work account
Host bitbucket.org-work
    HostName bitbucket.org
    User git
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/bitbucket-account2
    IdentitiesOnly yes

4. Adding the public keys to Bitbucket

1. Log in to Bitbucket
2. Go to SSH keys
3. Add the matching public key to each account:

   cat ~/.ssh/bitbucket-account1.pub
   cat ~/.ssh/bitbucket-account2.pub

Day-to-day use

Cloning a new repository

Use the host alias that matches the account:

# For the personal account
git clone git@bitbucket.org-personal:workspace/repo.git

# For the work account
git clone git@bitbucket.org-work:workspace/repo.git

Updating an existing repository

For repositories that are already cloned, update the remote URL:

git remote set-url origin git@bitbucket.org-personal:workspace/repo.git

Per-repository Git configuration

In each repository, set the appropriate Git identity:

# Configuration local to the repository
git config user.name "Your Name"
git config user.email "matching.email@example.com"

Checking the configuration

Test the connection for each account:

ssh -T git@bitbucket.org-personal
ssh -T git@bitbucket.org-work

Troubleshooting

Common problems

1. Permission error: check the permissions on the SSH files

   chmod 600 ~/.ssh/bitbucket-*
   chmod 700 ~/.ssh

2. Key not recognised: check that the SSH agent has actually loaded the key

   ssh-add -l

Additional resources

• Official Bitbucket documentation
• Atlassian SSH guide

This setup lets you work efficiently with several Bitbucket accounts on the same machine, while keeping a clear separation between your different usage contexts.