Account Switcher for Claude Code (unofficial)

Switch between multiple official Claude Code accounts in VS Code / code-server — without logging out of any of them.

Each account's local state (~/.claude/ and ~/.claude.json) is snapshotted into a named profile; switching swaps the live state atomically and reloads the window.

⚠️ Warning — unofficial tool

This extension is not made or endorsed by Anthropic. It works by copying and swapping the official Claude extension's local state files (~/.claude and ~/.claude.json), which include OAuth credentials, sessions and settings. Use it at your own risk, for private use.

• It never modifies the Anthropic extension itself.
• It never edits, prints or logs tokens — files are only copied as-is.
• Every state change is preceded by a timestamped backup.
• Profile snapshots contain login credentials. The profiles folder is created with 700 permissions — do not commit it, sync it, or loosen it.

How it works

~/.claude-profiles/
├── active-profile.json        # which profile is currently live
├── Main/
│   ├── profile.json           # metadata (name, createdAt, lastSavedAt)
│   ├── .claude/               # snapshot of ~/.claude
│   └── .claude.json           # snapshot of ~/.claude.json
├── Work/
│   └── ...
└── _backups/
    └── 2026-06-11T12-00-00-000Z-switch-to-Work/
        ├── backup.json        # reason, time, active profile at the time
        ├── .claude/
        └── .claude.json

A switch does, in order:

1. Validate the target profile (folder exists, JSON parses, credentials file has a usable shape — values are never read into logs or UI).
2. Save the live state into the currently active profile.
3. Back up the live state to _backups/<timestamp>-switch-to-<name>/.
4. Swap: the target snapshot is copied to staging paths next to ~/.claude, then moved into place with rename() (atomic on the same filesystem). If any step fails, all completed renames are undone and the previous state is left intact.
5. Enforce permissions: ~/.claude → 700, ~/.claude.json and ~/.claude/.credentials.json → 600.
6. Reload the window so the official Claude extension rereads the state.

Full usage guide

Knowing which account you're on

After installing and reloading, look at the bottom-left status bar of VS Code / code-server. You'll see the active profile at all times:

👤 Claude: Main

• Claude: <name> — this account's state is currently live.
• Claude: no profile — no profile imported yet (see first-time setup below).

You can also run Claude Profile Switcher: Show Status from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) for the full picture: active profile, all profiles, backup count and the exact paths in use.

Switching accounts (day-to-day)

1. Click Claude: <name> in the bottom-left status bar (or Ctrl+Shift+P → Claude Profile Switcher: Switch Official Claude Account).
2. Pick the account you want from the menu. The currently active one is marked ● active now.
3. Confirm the dialog. The extension saves your current account's state, takes a backup, swaps the files, and reloads the window automatically.
4. After the reload the Claude panel is on the other account — the status bar now shows its name.

Important: start a New Chat after switching. Conversations belong to the account that created them. If a chat tab from the previous account is still open and you type into it, you'll get No conversation found with session ID: …. That's not a bug — it means sessions are correctly isolated per account. Click the ＋ (New Chat) button in the Claude panel instead. Your old conversations come back whenever you switch to the profile they belong to.

First-time setup (registering your accounts)

1. While logged in with account 1: Ctrl+Shift+P → Import Current Claude Account → name it (e.g. Main). The status bar now shows Claude: Main.
2. Create Empty Profile → name it (e.g. Work).
3. Switch to Work (status bar → pick Work). The window reloads and the Claude panel shows a login screen — account 1 is safely stored in its profile, not logged out.
4. Log in to the Claude panel with account 2.
5. Run Save Current State to Active Profile once, so the login is captured into Work.
6. Done. From now on switching is a single click on the status bar, and both accounts stay logged in permanently. Repeat steps 2–5 for any third account.

Rules of thumb

• After every switch → New Chat (don't reuse a stale conversation tab).
• Let running Claude tasks finish before switching, so the snapshot isn't taken mid-write.
• After logging in or changing Claude settings, run Save Current State to Active Profile so the profile snapshot is current (switching also saves automatically — this is only for extra safety).
• Something broke? Run Restore Last Backup. Every switch keeps a timestamped backup automatically.

Commands (Command Palette)

The status bar shows the active profile (e.g. Claude: Main); clicking it opens the switch menu.

Recovery instructions

If anything goes wrong (interrupted switch, wrong account, corrupted state):

1. From VS Code: run Claude Profile Switcher: Restore Last Backup.

2. Manually (terminal), pick the newest folder in ~/.claude-profiles/_backups/ and restore it:

   ls ~/.claude-profiles/_backups/            # newest = last in list
   B=~/.claude-profiles/_backups/<chosen-backup>
   rm -rf ~/.claude ~/.claude.json
   cp -a "$B/.claude"      ~/.claude        2>/dev/null || true
   cp -a "$B/.claude.json" ~/.claude.json   2>/dev/null || true
   chmod 700 ~/.claude
   chmod 600 ~/.claude.json ~/.claude/.credentials.json 2>/dev/null || true
   

3. Reload the VS Code / code-server window.

4. Worst case (no usable backup): delete ~/.claude and ~/.claude.json and log in to the Claude panel again. Nothing outside your home directory is ever touched.

Stray ~/.claude.staging-* / ~/.claude.old-* entries can only exist after a hard crash mid-swap; they are safe to delete after restoring a backup.

Settings

Build from source

npm install
npm test          # compiles + runs the core test suite in a temp sandbox
npm run package   # produces account-switcher-for-claude-code-<version>.vsix

Install with: code-server --install-extension account-switcher-for-claude-code-<version>.vsix (or VS Code: Extensions: Install from VSIX…).

Support this project

This tool is free and open source. If it saves you time, you can sponsor me on GitHub or buy me a coffee — it keeps the extension maintained as Claude Code evolves. Stars on the repo help others find it too. ⭐

Notes & limitations

• VS Code/code-server is reloaded after a switch; unsaved editors prompt as usual.
• Switching while a Claude task is actively writing to ~/.claude can snapshot a mid-write state; the backup taken before each switch covers this.
• Profiles created by v0.2.0 of this extension (stored in extension global storage) are migrated automatically to ~/.claude-profiles on first run.