Make GitHub Codespaces automatically pick up a custom gitconfig

Have you ever created a new codespace and found it frustrating that your git aliases no longer work? I have, and turns out it is incredibly easy to get codespaces to pick up a custom gitconfig automatically! (Just undocumented on GitHub's documentation 🤷)

GitHub Codespaces and dotfiles

GitHub codespaces supports setting up dotfiles. Dotfiles are scripts and configs that are automatically copied into your codespace when it is created. This is a great way to set up your environment to your liking.

To set this up, first create a repo to house your dotfiles (example: JamesBurnside/dotfiles). Then, to point GitHub to pull these when it creates new codespaces, set this repo as your dotfiles repo under settings > codespaces:

As of writing this does not update existing codespaces, it only applies to newly created codespaces.

Adding gitconfig to your dotfiles

There is nothing special about gitconfig, it is just a file that is read by git when it is run. All you need to do is add a file called .gitconfig to your dotfiles repo, and it will be copied into your codespaces when they are created!

See JamesBurnside/dotfiles for an example of how my dotfiles repo is set up.