ClaudeWorks

Named profiles for Claude Code.

A macOS desktop app that manages Claude Code configurations as named, isolated profiles: plugins, MCP servers, skills, slash commands, and settings per session.

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Why this exists

I kept managing two Claude Code setups by hand, the work one with its MCP servers and skill set, the personal one with a different CLAUDE.md and different tools. Swapping meant editing ~/.claude.json and mcp.json by hand, then undoing it next session. Claude Code has no native multi-profile support, so I built this instead.

ClaudeWorks gives each configuration a real isolated environment: its own CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR, its own MCP servers, its own skills. Plugin caches are shared via symlinks so you install once and updates propagate automatically. A curated marketplace with 647 featured plugins and 4,795 skills ships inside the app.

What it does

• Named profiles with real isolation. Each profile runs in its own CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR. MCP servers, skills, agents, and slash commands from profile A physically cannot appear in profile B's session (per-process isolation, not config swapping).

• Curated plugin marketplace + global search. Browse 114 curated marketplaces and 647 featured plugins without leaving the app. A single search bar queries 7,009 flat entries (every marketplace, plugin, skill, command, agent, and MCP server) at once.

  

• Multi-alias launch with per-alias directory and action. One profile ships arbitrary shell aliases, each one cd's to a directory and optionally auto-runs /workflow or a saved prompt. One profile can intercept the bare claude command so plain claude in any terminal lands in your default profile, without the bloat of the other profiles.

  ship-api     → cd ~/code/api,    then /workflow
  debug-mobile → cd ~/code/mobile, then runs a prefilled prompt
  claude        → opens Default profile (bare-claude interception)
  

• Per-profile /workflow (and named variants). Write a /workflow body once per profile and it becomes a real Claude Code command in that profile's session. Named variants (/workflow-debug, /workflow-deploy) can be scoped to specific launch directories.

• Multi-agent Teams (experimental). Compose a team from existing profiles with drag-and-drop, assign roles, pick a lead, and launch. The lead runs a generated /start-team that spawns each teammate via Claude Code's native agent-teams feature.

  

• Per-profile MCP management, down to the directory. Global MCP servers (~/.claude.json) and project-scoped ones (~/.mcp.json) both surface in every profile. Each profile can disable individual servers per-directory: load context7 at home, skip it inside a sensitive repo.

• Status bar builder with 17 widgets, saveable. Drag-to-reorder custom status bar (model, branch, context, usage, cost, rate limits, section breaks, per-widget options), named save/load, and per-profile override.

  

• Export a profile as a self-contained JSON (exportProfile) and import it on another machine. importProfile shows you exactly which plugins are missing before you try to run it.

• Profiles Doctor runs a health check across your profiles, plugins, and alias scripts, flagging orphaned config, broken plugin refs, and alias collisions. Detect mode is read-only. Repair mode prompts before touching anything and writes a .bak-<ts> first.

• Local skills in ~/.claude/skills/ show where they came from: a .skillfish.json marker gets a cyan skillfish tag; a .git/ directory with a resolvable remote gets a violet git tag.

What it doesn't do

macOS only at launch. Windows is planned and Linux likely follows. The Electron shell is already cross-platform, but the terminal launch and Keychain sync need ports.

Profiles live on your machine, no cloud sync. Use exportProfile / importProfile to move them.

No GitHub token required. ClaudeWorks tries the gh CLI first, then GITHUB_TOKEN, then falls back to anonymous fetches (60 req/h). See Architecture for the fallback chain.

Teams need Anthropic's experimental flag (CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS=1). The feature works today but expect behaviour to shift as the upstream matures.

We don't generate or manage Claude API keys. Run claude login first. The app copies credentials from your existing login.

Install

From a release

1. Download the latest .dmg from the Releases page.
2. Open the DMG and drag ClaudeWorks to Applications.
3. First launch, macOS will flag the app as unsigned; right-click, Open, confirm.
4. Run gh auth login if you haven't. ClaudeWorks uses the gh CLI for GitHub API calls, which gives you 5,000 req/h instead of 60.

From source

git clone https://github.com/Mduffy37/claudeworks.git
cd claudeworks
npm install
npm run build
npm start

Requires Node 20+, Electron 33, and the gh CLI on your PATH for marketplace features. Run npm run dev for the Vite dev server + Electron watch loop.

Quickstart

Create your first profile

1. Launch ClaudeWorks. The sidebar shows your profiles (the app seeds a profile-creator workspace to help you author one).
2. Click New profile in the sidebar dock.
3. Pick which plugins, skills, agents, and MCP servers load in this profile. Everything defaults to off. Opt in to what you want.
4. Click Save.

Launch a profile

Click the Launch button on the profile card. A terminal opens with CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR already set. Terminal.app is the default; iTerm2 can be selected in Settings, with more terminal options on the way.

Or type your shell alias. If you added aliases: [{ name: "ship-api", directory: "~/code/api" }] to the profile, ship-api from any terminal cd's to that directory and starts a Claude Code session in that profile.

Discover plugins

Open Configure Claude → Plugins → Browse. The global search bar queries every marketplace, plugin, skill, command, agent, and MCP server at once (7,009 entries across 114 marketplaces). Click any plugin card for the detail pane: upstream README rendered inline, with a peer-plugin list beside it.

Architecture

Profiles as config directories

Each profile lives at ~/.claudeworks/profiles/<name>/config/ and launches with CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR pointing at it. This is Claude Code's built-in way to redirect its config root per session, so each profile's MCP servers and skills live in their own namespace.

Plugin caches under ~/.claude/plugins/cache/ are shared across profiles via symlinks. Installing a plugin once makes it available everywhere, and upstream updates propagate automatically. When a profile excludes a specific plugin item, ClaudeWorks materialises a small overlay for just the affected directory; everything else stays symlinked.

Curated marketplace

The sibling repo claudeworks-marketplace publishes a v2 schema:

• marketplaces[]: whole upstream marketplaces to surface as drillable cards in the Browse tab.
• plugins[]: individually featured plugins.
• collections[]: shared taxonomy (e.g. "Testing", "Observability").
• index.json: a generated flat snapshot of every item across every marketplace. This backs the global search bar.

Current snapshot (2026-04-17):

Item	Count
Marketplaces	114
Plugins	647
Skills	4,795
Agents	802
Commands	628
MCP servers	23
Total entries	7,009

GitHub backend with graceful fallback

Every GitHub fetch goes through a 3-level backend:

1. gh CLI: if you've run gh auth login, we use execFileAsync("gh", ["api", ...]) for 5,000 req/h and private-repo access.
2. GITHUB_TOKEN fetch: if $GITHUB_TOKEN is set, we use it against api.github.com for 5,000 req/h.
3. Anonymous fetch: 60 req/h fallback. Works for browsing; just slower.

All fetches are LRU-cached (size 50) so revisiting a plugin detail pane is instant.

Features in depth

Multi-agent Teams (experimental)

ClaudeWorks can compose a team from your existing profiles and launch them together:

1. Create a team from the sidebar. Drag profiles in; assign roles; designate a lead.
2. Set per-member instructions. Each teammate gets its own CLAUDE.md plus ownership tags so delegations from the lead route to whichever member owns the named capability.
3. Launch. The lead opens in a new terminal with a generated /start-team command that spawns the rest via Claude Code's native agent-teams support.

Teams are flagged experimental because the underlying Anthropic feature is still behind CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS=1. Expect behaviour to change as the upstream feature matures.

Per-profile /workflow commands

Each profile carries an optional /workflow command body. On profile assembly, ClaudeWorks writes it to <config-dir>/commands/workflow.md. Any session launched from that profile can type /workflow and get the profile's tailored runbook.

Named variants let one profile ship multiple workflow commands (/workflow-debug, /workflow-deploy, /workflow-lint), each scoped to a launch directory. If you maintain three repos with different runbooks from one profile, each cd can land in the right workflow.

Multi-alias launch

Every profile can ship arbitrary shell aliases. Each alias has its own optional directory (the terminal cd's there before launching) and its own launchAction:

• workflow: auto-runs /workflow once the session starts.
• prompt: passes a prefilled prompt to claude -p "<text>" so the session opens already working.

Conflict detection catches alias collisions across profiles at save time. One profile can flag itself isDefault: true, which installs a bare-claude alias so plain claude in any shell runs inside that profile's config dir.

Status bar builder

Drag-to-reorder builder for the Claude Code status bar. 17 widgets (model, branch, context window, usage, cost, rate limits, 7-day Sonnet usage, and more), section-break sentinels, per-widget options, live preview. Save configs by name, load them later, and override per-profile.

Profile export / import

exportProfile writes a self-contained JSON including the plugin list, exclusions, aliases, workflows, MCP overrides, env vars, and settings. On the other machine, importProfile reads the file and surfaces a missingPlugins[] list (exactly which plugins the new machine needs before the profile will fully load).

Profiles Doctor

A diagnostic pass across profiles.json, teams.json, installed_plugins.json, the aliases under ~/.claudeworks/bin/, and plugin reference integrity. Detect mode is read-only. Repair mode is explicit-opt-in and always writes a .bak-<timestamp> before touching anything. exportDiagnostics bundles a sanitised snapshot for bug reports.

FAQ

"How does CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR work?"

CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR is an environment variable Claude Code reads at startup to redirect its config root. Set it to ~/.claudeworks/profiles/work/config/ and Claude Code reads profiles.json, mcp.json, commands/, agents/, skills/, and plugins/ from there instead of ~/.claude/. ClaudeWorks sets this on launch. It's a first-class Claude Code feature, not a ClaudeWorks invention.

"Do I need a GitHub token?"

No. The app uses the gh CLI if authenticated, a GITHUB_TOKEN if one's in your env, and anonymous HTTP otherwise. Anonymous is rate-limited to 60 req/h by GitHub, so the first Browse-tab session runs out quickly. Run gh auth login once.

"Is there telemetry?"

No. The only network calls are the GitHub fetches for marketplace content and a release-version check when you ask for one. Both are readable in src/electron/marketplace.ts and src/electron/diagnostics.ts.

"What about Windows / Linux?"

Planned. The Electron shell is already cross-platform; the terminal launch and macOS Keychain sync need ports. Open an issue if you want to work on either. Happy to share the architecture notes.

"Can I use this without the marketplace?"

Yes. Every profile feature works standalone. The marketplace is one tab inside one modal. Ignore it and the rest of the app is an offline profile manager.

Documentation

Full docs at mduffy37.github.io/claudeworks/docs.

• Installation
• Quick Start
• Profile Editor (every tab)
• Configure Claude
• Aliases & Launch
• Teams
• Profiles Doctor

Contributing

Issues and feature requests are the best way to get involved. I read everything that comes in and they shape what I work on next. If something's broken or you have an idea, open an issue.

To add a plugin to the curated marketplace, open a PR against claudeworks-marketplace (not this repo). The README.md there documents the v2 schema.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.

Acknowledgements

• Anthropic, for shipping Claude Code and for making CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR a first-class feature.
• Every upstream plugin / skill / agent author whose work the curated marketplace surfaces. The marketplace is only useful because you shipped.
• The OSS tools that paved the road: cctm, claudectx, ccp, CCO.