Run Two Claude Code Accounts at Once (Personal + Office)

Claude Code has no built-in account switcher. If you have a personal subscription and an office one, the default flow is a tedious /logout then /login dance every time you change context. There's an open feature request for a proper switcher, but you don't have to wait for it.

Claude Code stores every credential, session, and setting under ~/.claude. Point it somewhere else with one environment variable and you get a second, fully isolated install. Two accounts, both logged in, side by side.

The one variable that does it

CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR tells Claude Code which directory to read and write its state from. Override it and nothing touches your default ~/.claude.

The plan is simple:

1. Give each account its own config directory.
2. Wrap each one in a shell alias so you never type the variable by hand.
3. Log in once per account. They both stay logged in indefinitely.

Generate your setup

Type your two account names, pick your shell, and copy the result straight into your shell config. The names become both the directory suffix and the command you'll run (claude-personal, claude-office, and so on).

# 1. Create a separate config dir per account
mkdir -p ~/.claude-personal ~/.claude-office

# 2. Append the aliases to ~/.zshrc so they survive new terminals (run once)
cat >> ~/.zshrc <<'EOF'
alias claude-personal='CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.claude-personal claude'
alias claude-office='CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.claude-office claude'
EOF

# 3. Load them into the current terminal
source ~/.zshrc

If you only want to eyeball the zsh version, here's the canonical shape. The whole block is safe to paste into your terminal in one go:

# 1. create separate config dirs
mkdir -p ~/.claude-personal ~/.claude-office

# 2. append the aliases to ~/.zshrc (run this once)
cat >> ~/.zshrc <<'EOF'
alias claude-personal='CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.claude-personal claude'
alias claude-office='CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.claude-office claude'
EOF

# 3. load them into the current terminal
source ~/.zshrc

The cat >> ~/.zshrc step is the one that matters. It writes the aliases into your shell config file, which is what makes them survive new tabs, new windows, and restarts. Typing an alias line directly into a terminal only defines it for that one session, and it dies when the terminal closes.

Log in once per account

Run each alias a single time and authenticate in the browser when prompted:

claude-personal   # opens browser, log in with your personal account

Then, in a separate terminal tab:

claude-office     # opens browser, log in with your office account

That's it. From now on, claude-personal and claude-office each open Claude Code with their own credentials, conversation history, and settings. No repeated logins.

Aliases gone after a restart?

This is the most common way the setup "breaks", and nothing is actually broken. The symptom: claude-personal worked right after setup, then a new terminal or a reboot greets you with command not found: claude-personal.

It means the alias lines were pasted into the terminal but never written to your shell config. Check with:

grep "claude-" ~/.zshrc

If nothing prints, the aliases were never saved. Re-run step 2 from the block above, then open a new terminal.

The good part: your logins are untouched. Credentials live in the config directories, not in the aliases, so as soon as the aliases are back both accounts work immediately. No need to log in again.

What's isolated, and what isn't

Each config directory is a complete, separate world. That's the upside and the catch.

The practical consequence: anything you configure in one account, an MCP connector, a custom command, a tweaked setting, won't appear in the other. If you want the same MCP setup in both, copy the relevant files from one config directory into the other.

Auto-switching per project (optional)

Two aliases are enough for most people. But if your work repos should always use the office account, you can stop thinking about which command to type and let the directory decide.

direnv sets environment variables automatically when you cd into a folder. Drop a .envrc in your work directory:

# ~/work/.envrc
export CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.claude-office

Run direnv allow once, and every plain claude invocation inside that tree uses your office login. Step out of the folder and you're back to the default. It's a nice touch for monorepos where you never want to mix accounts by accident.

When the switcher ships

Anthropic will likely add a native account switcher eventually, and when it does, this approach still won't hurt: separate config directories remain the cleanest way to keep two genuinely independent environments. Until then, one variable and two aliases get you there.

Set it up once. Forget about logging in again.