claude-switch

Manage multiple Claude Code accounts on one machine by swapping the live credentials file in and out of a per-account store.

Claude Code reads auth from ~/.claude/.credentials.json. claude-switch keeps a parked copy of each account's credentials under ~/.claude-switch/ and copies the right one into place when you switch. Before every swap it copies the live file back to the outgoing account's slot so any OAuth token refresh that happened mid-session is preserved.

Install

chmod +x switch.sh
ln -s "$PWD/switch.sh" ~/.local/bin/claude-switch

Requires jq, gum, and the Claude Code CLI (claude on $PATH):

# macOS
brew install jq gum

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install jq
go install github.com/charmbracelet/gum@latest

The script aborts if jq or gum is missing.

Usage

claude-switch              # interactive menu (gum)
claude-switch <N>          # switch to account N
claude-switch status       # list accounts, mark active

After switching, start a new Claude session — a running claude process holds its credentials in memory and won't pick up the swap until restarted.

Commands

Command	Description
claude-switch	Interactive account menu
claude-switch <N>	Switch to account N
claude-switch status	Show all accounts and active
claude-switch info / sync	Fetch and display active account info
claude-switch login <N>	Login/refresh account N credentials
claude-switch import	Import current logged-in session as an account
claude-switch add	Add a new account (prompts metadata, runs login)
claude-switch edit <N>	Edit account N metadata
claude-switch remove <N>	Remove account N (cannot be active)
claude-switch help	Show help

info and sync are aliases. The interactive menu also exposes Sync / Import / Add / Edit / Remove entries.

Data layout

~/.claude-switch/
├── accounts.json                  # metadata map, keyed by numeric id
├── active                         # single line: id of currently-active account
├── account1.credentials.json      # parked copy for account 1
├── account2.credentials.json
└── ...

~/.claude/.credentials.json        # live file Claude reads (regular file, not a symlink)

accounts.json:

{
  "1": {
    "identifier": "Work",
    "username": "you@company.com",
    "description": "Acme Corp · pro",
    "lastUsed": "2026-04-17T10:30:00+00:00"
  }
}

Metadata is auto-filled from claude auth status after each switch/login: username from email, description from orgName · subscriptionType, and identifier from orgName if still the default Account <N>.

How it works

The live file is a regular file, not a symlink. On every switch:

1. Copy ~/.claude/.credentials.json back over the outgoing account's parked copy (preserves token refreshes).
2. Copy the incoming account's parked copy over ~/.claude/.credentials.json and chmod 600.
3. Write the new id to ~/.claude-switch/active and bump lastUsed.
4. Run claude auth status to refresh metadata.

login <N> seeds the live file with the account's existing creds (or {}), points active at it, runs claude login so OAuth writes through to the live file, then copies the result back to the parked slot.

import copies the live ~/.claude/.credentials.json into a new account<N+1>.credentials.json slot and registers it. The script refuses to import if the live file is a symlink (legacy state from older versions).

remove refuses to delete the active account — switch elsewhere first.

Because each account is a separate file copy, IDs are append-only: deleting account 3 and adding a new one yields account 4, not a reused 3.

Caveats

• One Claude session at a time. Existing processes keep the old credentials until restarted.
• Credential files are plain JSON. chmod 700 ~/.claude-switch is recommended.
• Compatible with GNU and BSD date (relative-time display detects at runtime).