claude-profiles

Switch between multiple Claude Code accounts instantly.

Install

Option A — Standalone (curl):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anstapol/claude-profiles/main/claude-profiles \
  -o ~/.local/bin/claude-profiles && chmod +x ~/.local/bin/claude-profiles

Make sure ~/.local/bin is in your PATH.

Option B — Git clone (auto-updates with git pull):

git clone https://github.com/anstapol/claude-profiles.git
cd claude-profiles
./install.sh

Requires macOS or Linux, and Python 3.6+.

Usage

# Save your current logged-in account
claude-profiles save work

# Log into another account and save it
claude /logout && claude
claude-profiles save personal

# Switch between them
claude-profiles use work
claude-profiles use personal

# Re-save the active account's (refreshed) tokens into an existing profile.
# Refuses unless the active account matches the profile.
claude-profiles refresh work

# Overwrite an existing profile without the confirmation prompt
claude-profiles save work -y

# List all profiles
claude-profiles list

# Show current account
claude-profiles current

# Rename a profile
claude-profiles rename work work-main

# Remove a profile
claude-profiles rm old-account

Restart Claude Code after switching for changes to take effect.

Why not just /login?

/login opens your default browser and adopts whatever account is signed into claude.ai there — so if that session doesn't match the account you intended, it silently swaps you. claude-profiles use <name> restores credentials directly, with no browser round-trip, so the switch is deterministic regardless of browser state.

How it works

Claude Code stores auth in two places — OAuth tokens and account metadata in ~/.claude.json. On macOS, tokens go in the macOS Keychain; on Linux, they live in ~/.claude/.credentials.json. claude-profiles saves and restores both. Profiles live in ~/.claude/profiles/<name>/.

On switch, per-account caches in ~/.claude.json (feature flags, billing eligibility, etc.) are also cleared so Claude Code re-fetches them for the new account on next startup, instead of carrying the previous account's state across.

Security

Profile files contain OAuth tokens stored as plaintext JSON on disk. On macOS, Claude Code normally stores these in the Keychain; on Linux, they're already plaintext in ~/.claude/.credentials.json. Saved profile directories are set to mode 700 and files to mode 600 (owner-only access), but anyone with access to your user account can read them. If this is a concern, ensure your home directory has appropriate permissions and enable full-disk encryption.