claude-switch (csw) Cheatsheet

What is claude-switch?

claude-switch (csw) is a macOS CLI tool for managing multiple Claude accounts — both Claude Code and Claude Desktop — with a single command. It stores all credentials in the macOS Keychain (the same store Claude itself uses), so no tokens ever sit as plaintext on disk.

If you juggle a work and personal Claude account, this is the tool for you.

Installation and setup: see github.com/mtxr/claude-switch.

Core Concepts

Concept	What it means
Profile	A named snapshot of ~/.claude.json + ~/.claude/ for one account
Symlink swap	csw switches accounts by pointing the symlinks, not copying data
Keychain	macOS hardware-backed store — tokens are never written to plaintext files
Active profile	The account ~/.claude.json currently points to

Commands

Profile management

# Save the currently active session as a named profile
csw save <name>

# List all saved profiles
csw list

# Delete a profile permanently
csw delete <name>

# Show current session info
csw whoami

# Log out of every profile at once
csw logout-all

Switching accounts

# Switch directly to a named profile
csw switch <name>

# Open interactive fuzzy-finder to pick a profile (requires sk or fzf)
csw pick

First-time setup

# 1. Save whatever account is active right now
csw save personal

# 2. Switch to an empty slot (logs you out of the current session)
csw switch work

# 3. Log into your second Claude account
claude login

# 4. Save it
csw save work

After this, switching is instantaneous — csw only swaps symlinks.

Common Patterns

Work / personal split

csw switch work     # morning
csw switch personal # evening

Claude Desktop restarts automatically on each switch.

Interactive picker

csw pick
# → fuzzy-browse your profiles with sk or fzf, Enter to switch

Confirm which account you’re on

csw whoami

Gotchas & Tips

Don’t touch ~/.claude.json by hand. csw manages it as a symlink. Manual edits will break switching.

csw pick needs sk or fzf. csw switch <name> always works without them.

Keychain must be unlocked. On a freshly booted machine, open any Keychain-backed app first (Safari, 1Password) if switching fails.

Claude Desktop restarts on switch. This is intentional. Close open conversations before switching if you don’t want them interrupted.

Next Steps

• Repo & issues: github.com/mtxr/claude-switch
• Claude Code docs: docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code

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Source: zero2hero.run/cheatsheets/claude-switch-cheatsheet — Zero to Hero cheatsheets for developers.