GitoryxBefore writing your first commit, Git needs to know who you are. git config controls everything from your identity to your preferred editor, merge strategy, and custom aliases. This guide covers local, global, and system-level configuration.
Your commits show up with the wrong author name, or Git keeps opening a text editor you don't recognize. You've never configured Git and now things aren't working the way you expect.
Git's default settings are minimal by design. A few minutes of configuration — your name, email, default editor, and a handful of aliases — will save you hours of friction and make every commit properly attributed.
Common mistakes developers make with this:
Gitoryx: Gitoryx reads your Git config automatically and displays your name and email in the commit panel — so you can verify your identity before every commit.
`git config` reads and writes Git configuration values. Settings can be scoped to a single repository (local), your user account (global), or the entire system. Global settings live in `~/.gitconfig`.
This is the first thing to do after installing Git. These values appear on every commit you make.
git config --global user.name "Jane Doe"
git config --global user.email "jane@example.com"Use the email address associated with your GitHub/GitLab account so contributions are linked to your profile.
Omit `--global` to set a value only for the current repo. Useful when you have a work laptop but also contribute to personal projects with a different email.
cd ~/work/company-project
git config user.email "jane@company.com"Git opens a text editor when you write multi-line commit messages or run interactive rebase. Set it to your preferred editor.
# VS Code
git config --global core.editor "code --wait"
# Vim
git config --global core.editor "vim"
# Nano
git config --global core.editor "nano"Recent Git versions let you configure the initial branch name when creating new repos. Most teams use `main` now.
git config --global init.defaultBranch main
See this workflow in Gitoryx. Reads your global and local user.name / user.email automatically
Free downloadAliases let you create shortcuts for long Git commands you type frequently.
git config --global alias.st "status"
git config --global alias.lg "log --oneline --graph --decorate --all"
git config --global alias.undo "reset --soft HEAD~1"
# Usage:
git st
git lgStore your aliases in your dotfiles to carry them across machines.
List all active settings to verify your config, or open the file directly.
# List all settings and their origin
git config --list --show-origin
# Open the global config in your editor
git config --global --editIf you have one global email and you forget to set a repo-local one for work projects, your personal email ends up in company commit history.
Fix: Set `user.email` at the repo level for work projects, or use Git's `includeIf` to auto-apply a work config for all repos under a certain path.
On Windows, Git may convert line endings (CRLF) in ways that produce diffs on every file even when nothing changed.
Fix: Set `git config --global core.autocrlf true` on Windows, or `input` on macOS/Linux.
Git doesn't validate most config values, so a typo like `code --wai` will silently break your editor setting.
Fix: Test settings immediately after setting them, and use `git config --list` to double-check.
Gitoryx — macOS, Windows & LinuxOn macOS and Linux it's `~/.gitconfig`. On Windows it's usually `C:\Users\<YourName>\.gitconfig`. You can open it directly with `git config --global --edit`.
`--global` applies to all repositories for your user account. `--local` (the default) applies only to the current repository and is stored in `.git/config`. Local settings override global ones.
Run `git config --list` to see all active settings. Add `--show-origin` to see which file each value comes from.
Yes. Use Git's `includeIf` directive in your global `~/.gitconfig` to automatically load a different config file for all repos under a specific directory path.
Everything in this tutorial is faster and clearer with a visual Git client. Gitoryx is free, runs natively on macOS, Windows, and Linux, and built for developers who want to move fast without breaking things.