[Feature Request] Account-level settings sync across devices

[wesleyfolly]

Problem

Claude Code settings are stored locally in ~/.claude/ with no way to sync across devices. Users with multiple machines (e.g., Linux desktop + MacBook) must manually maintain separate configurations.

This has been requested multiple times (see #6037, #19634, #13461, #12119) but no official response from Anthropic yet.

Requested Feature

Sync the following via authenticated Anthropic account:

What	Path	Why
Global instructions	~/.claude/CLAUDE.md	Core user preferences
Rules	~/.claude/rules/	Persistent learnings
Commands/Skills	~/.claude/commands/	Custom slash commands
Settings	~/.claude/settings.json	User preferences
Keybindings	~/.claude/keybindings.json	Custom shortcuts

Why Account-Level Sync?

1. Already authenticated - Users already log in with Anthropic account
2. Precedent exists - VS Code Settings Sync works exactly this way
3. Cross-platform - Paths differ between OS (/home/ vs /Users/), cloud sync abstracts this
4. High demand - Multiple duplicate issues show community wants this

Proposed UX

# Enable sync (one-time)
claude config set sync.enabled true

# Manual sync commands
claude sync push    # Upload local to cloud
claude sync pull    # Download cloud to local
claude sync status  # Show sync state

Or automatic background sync when authenticated.

Current Workarounds

Users currently resort to:

• Dropbox/iCloud + symlinks (breaks with absolute paths)
• Manual copy between machines
• Maintaining separate configs (defeats the purpose of persistent learnings)

Related Issues

• [Feature Request] Add a new config layer: Account settings #6037 - Account settings layer (closed by autoclose, not rejection)
• [FEATURE] Account-level CLAUDE.md #19634 - Account-level CLAUDE.md (duplicate)
• Feature Request: Account-Level Slash Commands Sync Across Machines #13461 - Account-level slash commands (duplicate)
• [FEATURE] Account-Level Skill Synchronization Between CLI and Web #12119 - Skill sync CLI/Web (duplicate)
• [FEATURE] Cross-Environment Conversation History Synchronization for Claude Code CLI #17682 - Cross-environment history sync (open)

[120tc2cp]

Agree.

I sync my config across devices using a private git repo that symlinks into
~/.claude/. It covers CLAUDE.md, settings.json, commands, and skills.

An install.sh script sets up the symlinks and configures two hooks:

• SessionStart hook — git pull on every new session
• PostToolUse hook — auto-commits and pushes whenever Claude edits a config
  file

Works well for me but it's a lot of plumbing for what should be a built-in feature - would love native account-level sync.

[olw83]

I came here to make this feature request.

[thomashillman]

Also desperately looking for this to be solved. I run across desktop, Claude.ai (using Claude code) and then iOS.

[thomashillman]

Agree.

I sync my config across devices using a private git repo that symlinks into ~/.claude/. It covers CLAUDE.md, settings.json, commands, and skills.

An install.sh script sets up the symlinks and configures two hooks:

• SessionStart hook — git pull on every new session
• PostToolUse hook — auto-commits and pushes whenever Claude edits a config
  file

Works well for me but it's a lot of plumbing for what should be a built-in feature - would love native account-level sync.

Just to confirm I’ve embarked on something similar to this now as it’s an issue that shouldn’t need a workaround but absolutely does.

[pcgotan]

+1 on this. Filed #29644 separately for MCP server sync specifically — closing it in favor of this broader issue since MCP sync is a subset of account-level settings sync.

The key pain point from my side: I have MCP servers configured in ~/.claude.json (Claude Code CLI) and ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (Claude Desktop) separately, and claude.ai (browser) has its own UI config. There's no way to maintain a single source of truth across all three products, let alone across multiple machines.

[thomashillman]

+1 on this. Filed #29644 separately for MCP server sync specifically — closing it in favor of this broader issue since MCP sync is a subset of account-level settings sync.

The key pain point from my side: I have MCP servers configured in ~/.claude.json (Claude Code CLI) and ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (Claude Desktop) separately, and claude.ai (browser) has its own UI config. There's no way to maintain a single source of truth across all three products, let alone across multiple machines.

How are you doing claude.ai (browser) config? I’m doing this weird mashup between config in my “personal preferences” and then I’ve also set up a project which has my CLAUDE.md content in its instructions and then the project files are also then backed by my GitHub repo as knowledge files (the ones that contain shared skills etc).

Then… in the “Code” section of the web app I’ve also configured my environment to do a git clone of my repo.

[placenameday]

While waiting for official support, I built a lightweight workaround: claude-code-backup

It's a single Claude Code slash command (/backup) that:

• Backs up your entire ~/.claude/ config (settings, CLAUDE.md, agents, commands, skills, memory, plugins, credentials)
• Automatically detects and replaces all secrets/tokens/keys with descriptive placeholders (GitHub PATs, OAuth tokens, API keys, JWTs, etc.)
• Verifies no real secrets remain before packaging
• Outputs a timestamped .tar.gz

Install:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/commands && curl -o ~/.claude/commands/backup.md \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/placenameday/claude-code-backup/main/backup.md

Then just run /backup in any Claude Code session.

It's AI-driven (not a static script), so it adapts to config changes — new MCP servers, new env vars, new credential formats are detected dynamically each time.

Not a replacement for proper account-level sync, but useful for migration and disaster recovery in the meantime.

[toroleapinc]

Hey all — I've been dealing with exactly this problem. I work across a Linux desktop and a MacBook, and keeping my Claude Code config, skills, memory, and agents in sync was a constant pain.

While waiting for an official solution from Anthropic, I built claude-brain to bridge the gap. It syncs your entire Claude Code brain state — CLAUDE.md, settings, skills, agents, rules, and auto-memory — across machines via Git. The key difference from just copying files is it does intelligent semantic merging (so accumulated memory from different machines gets deduplicated rather than clobbered).

Setup is just /brain-init <your-git-remote> on the first machine and /brain-join on others. It auto-syncs via hooks on session start/end, so there's zero daily effort.

Obviously I'd love for Anthropic to build this natively, but until then this has been working well for me. Happy to answer any questions!