Add an account¶

claude-profile work      # creates ~/.claude-profiles/work on first use
claude                   # then type /login

That is the whole process. Your existing account is untouched - it stays available as default.

Check it worked¶

claude-profiles

   PROFILE  CONFIG DIR                        ACCOUNT                  AUTH
*  work     ~/.claude-profiles/work           you@company.com          ok
   default  ~/.claude                         you@example.com          ok

AUTH ok on both rows means both accounts are signed in simultaneously.

Naming¶

Profiles are created by being named - there is no registry file to edit. That also means a typo silently creates a new empty profile rather than erroring:

claude-profile porofed        # creates "porofed", reports (not logged in)

Tip

If a profile looks unexpectedly logged out, run claude-profiles and check the list for a near-miss name. Remove the accidental one with rm -rf ~/.claude-profiles/porofed.

default is reserved. It means "no CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR set", i.e. the stock ~/.claude, and is not a directory under ~/.claude-profiles.

Setting CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR relocates everything, not just the login: settings, MCP servers, plugins, permissions and session history are all per-profile. That is usually what you want for work/client separation, but it does mean a new profile starts empty. Full detail: What's shared, what isn't.

To copy settings across:

cp ~/.claude/settings.json ~/.claude-profiles/work/

Never copy .credentials.json between profiles

It belongs to one account. Copying it does not give you two logins - it gives you two profiles pointing at the same account.

Run one command under a profile¶

Without switching your shell:

CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=$(claude-profiles.py path work) claude -p "summarise this repo"

Remove an account¶

claude-profile-remove work

That deletes the profile, its conversations and its stored credentials, after asking you to confirm. Use it rather than rm -rf - on macOS the credentials live in the Keychain, and deleting the directory by hand leaves an orphaned entry behind.