Claude Code Account Switcher

Русская версия

Bind different Claude Code accounts to different directories. On cd, the correct account is activated automatically.

Two distributions:

• Rust CLI (claude-acc) — cross-platform: macOS, Linux, Windows; zsh, bash, PowerShell. Recommended.
• Shell script (claude-switch.sh) — zsh-only, macOS-focused. Single file, no binary, no compilation.

Both share the same on-disk format (~/.claude-switch/) so you can switch between them freely.

You don't switch accounts — you cd. CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR is resolved per shell from the current directory, so work dirs use the work account and personal dirs use yours, in parallel terminals at the same time. There is no global "currently active account" to forget to switch back to.

Download from GitHub Releases, then run:

claude-acc install

This will:

• Copy the binary to ~/.claude-switch/bin/claude-acc (.exe on Windows)
• Install the IDE wrapper at ~/.claude-switch/bin/claude (see IDE integration)
• Auto-detect your shell (zsh/bash/PowerShell)
• Add shell integration to your rc file

To update later, just run claude-acc update — it downloads the latest release binary for your platform and swaps it in. (Or download a new binary manually and run claude-acc install again.)

Building from source, the extra steps Windows needs, and the zsh script are in Installation and platforms.

# 1. Add accounts (opens Claude login)
claude-acc add work

# 2. Link work account to a directory
cd ~/work
claude-acc link work

# Done! cd into ~/work or any subdirectory uses the work account.
# Everything else uses the standard ~/.claude/ config.

• The account follows the directory. cd into a linked tree and plain claude is on that account — in every terminal, at the same time, with no global state to switch back. See Directory inheritance.
• Each account is a whole config dir — its own settings.json, CLAUDE.md, agents, skills, plugins, MCP servers and history, not just a login. See Accounts and configuration.
• IDEs follow too. JetBrains and the VS Code terminal go through a wrapper on PATH; the VS Code extension's native UI takes one more command. See IDE integration.
• You can see who each config dir is signed in as — live, from the OAuth profile API — and pin it, so a re-login with the wrong browser session is reported instead of silently rebinding. See Identities.
• Rate limits per account, 5h and 7d, so you can pick a fresh one before you hit a wall. See usage.
• Conversations can move between accounts. Hit a limit mid-task and carry on elsewhere — --resume offers it for you. See Sessions across accounts.
• The desktop app too. Isolated profiles that run side by side, in two windows, on two accounts. See Claude Desktop profiles.

~/.claude-switch/
├── accounts/
│   └── work/        ← Claude config for work account
├── config           ← default=work (or empty for ~/.claude/)
└── links            ← bindings: path=account

On directory change:

1. Looks up the current directory in ~/.claude-switch/links
2. If not found — walks up the directory tree
3. If no binding — uses the default account (or ~/.claude/ if none set)
4. Sets CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR

Linking a directory applies to all subdirectories automatically. You don't need to link each project separately:

~/work                  → work      (linked explicitly)
~/work/project-a        → work      (inherited)
~/work/project-b        → work      (inherited)
~/work/project-b/src    → work      (inherited)
~/personal              → ~/.claude/ (default)

A more specific link always wins. This lets you set exceptions:

~/work                  → work      (linked)
~/work/project-a        → work      (inherited)
~/work/secret           → personal  (linked — overrides parent)
~/work/secret/src       → personal  (inherited from secret)

Use default as a reserved name to explicitly fall back to ~/.claude/:

~/work                  → work      (linked)
~/work/project-a        → work      (inherited)
~/work/hobby            → ~/.claude/ (linked to default — overrides parent)
~/work/hobby/sub        → ~/.claude/ (inherited from hobby)

cd ~/work/hobby
claude-acc link default
# hobby → ~/.claude/ (default)

The README is the overview. Each topic has its own page:

Auto-detected from LANG. Override with:

export CLAUDE_ACC_LANG=ru  # or en

$ claude-acc status
Active account: ~/.claude/ (standard)

$ claude-acc add work
Account 'work' created. Starting login...

$ cd ~/work
$ claude-acc link work
work → account 'work'

$ cd ~/work/secret-project
$ claude-acc status
Active account: work (linked to work)

$ cd ~/hobby/my-bot
$ claude-acc status
Active account: ~/.claude/ (standard)

claude-acc update          # download + install the latest release
claude-acc update --check  # just report whether a newer version exists

For the Rust CLI, update queries the latest GitHub release, and if it's newer than the running binary, downloads the prebuilt asset for your OS/architecture and swaps it in over ~/.claude-switch/bin/claude-acc. Needs curl; prebuilt assets exist for macOS (x86_64/arm64), Linux (x86_64/arm64), and Windows (x86_64). On other platforms, build from source with cargo install --path ..

For the shell script, claude-acc update re-fetches the latest claude-switch.sh from GitHub into the file you sourced it from; re-source it (or open a new shell) to pick up the changes.

MIT