Claude Multi-Account Switcher

Quickly switch between Claude accounts (subscriptions) in Claude Code inside VS Code, with live usage limits for all your accounts at a glance.

Why

You have several Claude subscriptions. When one account runs out of usage (the 5-hour or weekly window), switch Claude Code to another account with a single click — no manual logout and re-login.

Features

• Save accounts — click "Save current" to save the account Claude Code is logged in with, or "+ Add account" to log in to another account in an isolated login that does not touch the current one (tokens are kept in VS Code's encrypted secret storage).
• Stays logged in — the extension behaves like one more Claude Code process: it refreshes rotating OAuth tokens only under Claude Code's own refresh lock and writes every rotation back to all local copies, so neither Claude Code nor the extension is left with a spent token.
• Fast switching — from the panel, the status bar, or the command palette (QuickPick).
• Live usage limits — utilization (%) of the 5-hour and weekly windows for each account, with time until reset. Data comes from the same source as the /usage command.
• Say Hi warmup — run a one-turn claude -p "Hi" on inactive saved accounts using --model haiku by default, without switching the active .credentials.json.
• Independent account windows — open the same project in separate VS Code windows, each with its own Claude account and CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR.
• Browser authorization — if Claude Code CLI is unavailable, complete OAuth login in the default browser; a dedicated command is available even when the CLI is installed.
• Login helper — prefers an integrated terminal with claude auth login when the CLI is available, then falls back to browser authorization. Completed logins are detected automatically.
• Isolated reauthorization — if a saved profile's credentials break, re-login happens in that profile's own CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR instead of copying the currently active account.
• Status bar — the active account and its usage % always in view.

Requirements

• Claude Code CLI is optional for browser authorization, account switching, and usage checks. It is still required for Say Hi, CLI-based identity checks, and using Claude Code itself.
• For CLI-only features, the claude command must be available in VS Code's PATH, or claudeSwitcher.claudeCommand must point to the full path of claude, claude.exe, or claude.cmd.
• On Windows PowerShell, Claude Code CLI can be installed with:

irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex

How it works

• Claude Code credentials live in ~/.claude/.credentials.json. Switching accounts swaps the contents of that file (a .bak backup is kept so you can undo) and the cached oauthAccount in ~/.claude.json, so Claude Code shows the right account.
• After switching you must reload the VS Code window so Claude Code picks up the new account — the extension offers to do it automatically (auto-reload can be enabled in settings).
• Saved inactive accounts are warmed up through an isolated CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR under the extension's global storage. This lets "Say Hi" refresh/use that account without changing the currently active Claude Code account.
• Independent windows use generated .code-workspace files under the extension's global storage. Each window points Claude Code at the selected account's isolated config directory.
• Usage is read from the unofficial api.anthropic.com/api/oauth/usage endpoint (the same source as /usage). It is heavily rate-limited, so refreshing is capped to a safe interval (240s by default, minimum 180s) plus a manual ⟳ refresh.

Token handling (why you no longer need to re-authorize daily)

Claude Code's OAuth refresh tokens are single-use: every refresh returns a new refresh token and invalidates the old one. When two programs hold copies of the same login and one of them refreshes without telling the other, the other one gets invalid_grant and asks you to log in again. This extension therefore:

1. Uses Claude Code's own refresh lock. Before spending a refresh token it takes the same locks Claude Code uses (<configDir>/.oauth_refresh.lock and <configDir>.lock) in every config directory holding that login. Claude Code waits for the lock, then re-reads the file and adopts the new tokens instead of spending the old ones.
2. Writes every rotation back (compare-and-swap) to each local credentials file that still holds the spent token, and to the saved profile.
3. Always uses the newest generation across the saved profile, ~/.claude and the profile's isolated config directory, and refreshes only when the access token is expiring.
4. Watches .credentials.json and imports Claude Code's own rotations immediately, and identifies the logged-in account by its account id (via /api/oauth/profile), so a profile is recognized even after both of its tokens rotated.
5. Saves the outgoing account first when switching, under the lock, so the account you switch away from keeps its latest tokens.
6. Never retries a refresh token the server rejected, and recovers automatically as soon as any copy contains a newer valid login.

Do not use /logout to change accounts

/logout (and claude auth logout) revokes the refresh token on Anthropic's side. If that login was saved as a profile, the saved copy dies with it and must be reauthorized. To change accounts use Switch, to add one use + Add account, or run /login directly — /login does not revoke the previous login.

Each claude auth login creates an independent login, so logging in on another computer does not affect this one. Profiles are stored per machine (VS Code SecretStorage is not synced); add the account on each computer separately instead of copying credential files between machines.

Usage

1. Log in to Claude Code with account #1.
2. Open the Claude Accounts panel (activity bar icon) → "Save current".
3. Click "+ Add account" and log in with account #2. The current Claude Code account is not changed; the new account is saved automatically when the login completes.
4. From now on, switch with one click via "Switch" on an account card (or the status bar / Claude: Switch account). After confirmation the window reloads and Claude Code runs on the selected account.

Commands

Settings

Troubleshooting Say Hi

If Say Hi reports that claude is not recognized, the VS Code extension process cannot find the Claude Code CLI. Try these in order:

1. Run where claude in PowerShell or CMD.
2. If it is found, restart VS Code so the extension host gets the refreshed PATH.
3. If it is not found, install Claude Code CLI. On Windows PowerShell, the official installer is:

irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex

4. If the command exists but VS Code still cannot see it, set claudeSwitcher.claudeCommand to the full path, for example C:\Users\you\AppData\Roaming\npm\claude.cmd or the path returned by where claude.

Parallel VS Code windows

Use Claude: Open independent account window or the Window button on an account card. The extension writes the saved account credentials to a per-account config directory, generates a .code-workspace file for the current folder/workspace, and opens it in a new VS Code window.

The default Claude Code login file is global, so two regular VS Code windows share the same active account. Independent windows avoid that by setting both:

{
  "claudeCode.environmentVariables": [
    {
      "name": "CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR",
      "value": "C:\\Users\\you\\.claude-user2"
    }
  ],
  "claudeSwitcher.credentialsPath": "C:\\Users\\you\\.claude-user2\\.credentials.json"
}

Open one generated window per account you want to run. The extension refuses to open a second active window for the same saved profile: two Claude Code sessions in different config directories would each try to spend the same single-use refresh token.

Security and disclaimers

• This extension does not collect telemetry, analytics, account identifiers, prompts, credentials, tokens, usage data, or any other personal data.
• No login data is sent to the extension author, publisher, marketplace backend, or any custom third-party server controlled by this extension.
• Saved profile secrets are stored in VS Code's encrypted SecretStorage.
• Claude Code itself requires local .credentials.json files. For account switching, Say Hi, and independent windows, the extension writes credentials only to local Claude Code config directories on your machine, including isolated per-account CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR folders under the extension's global storage.
• Credentials are never intentionally logged. Protect your machine and OS user account, because anyone with local filesystem access to your user profile may be able to read Claude Code credential files.
• Network requests made by the extension go only to Anthropic endpoints needed for token refresh, usage-limit checks, and identifying which account a login belongs to (/api/oauth/profile, the same endpoint Claude Code calls after login). Say Hi is executed through the local Claude Code CLI, which communicates with Anthropic as Claude Code normally does.
• This tool is for managing your own accounts.
• The usage endpoint and the token-refresh flow are unofficial and may change or stop working on Anthropic's side.
• Currently the file-based .credentials.json model is supported (Windows/Linux). The macOS Keychain is not supported yet.

Development

npm install
npm run watch       # build in watch mode
# press F5 in VS Code -> Extension Development Host
npm run build:vsix  # build the .vsix package

License

MIT