[Feature Request] Account Portability: Dual-Email Linking and Improved Workspace Onboarding

[drish08]

Context

I am currently onboarding for the Hugging Face "AI Agents Course" course. During the sign-up and certification process, I identified a workflow friction that poses a risk to user identity retention and certification validity.

The Problem

Currently, the onboarding flow creates ambiguity regarding personal vs. professional identities:

1. Workspace Friction: Immediately after signing in (via email), the system prompts users to join a company workspace. This happens even if the user intends to engage in a personal capacity, creating confusion.
2. Certification Vendor Lock-in: If a user signs up with a corporate email (name@company.com) to join that workspace, their course progress and certifications are tied to that email.
3. The "Bus Factor" Risk: If a user leaves that company and loses access to the email, they risk losing access to their certifications and Hugging Face profile history.

Proposed Solution

I propose aligning the Hugging Face account model closer to GitHub's "Personal Account + Organization Access" model.

1. Allow Multiple Emails per Account

Users should be able to link a Primary Personal Email (for recovery/certs) and a Secondary Work Email (for SSO/Workspace access) to a single User ID.

2. Decouple Certifications from Email Domains

Certifications should be issued to the unique user_id or handle, not the email address. This ensures that even if a work email is removed from the profile, the certification remains attached to the user.

3. Revised Onboarding Logic

Please see the proposed logic flow below:

• User signs up.
• System asks: "Are you using this account for Personal use or Work?"
  • If Personal: Default to personal profile, optional "Join Org" later.
  • If Work: Prompt to link corporate email as a secondary alias, keeping the personal email as the recovery root.

Benefits

• Long-term Retention: Users keep their accounts (and certifications) throughout their entire career, not just their tenure at one company.
• Data Integrity: Prevents "orphaned" certifications when employees leave organizations.
• Better UX: Reduces friction for users taking courses on their own time using work computers, or vice versa.

Thank you for considering this improvement to the learner experience!