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The Problem

If you use more than one Claude Code account, the usual advice is to keep a separate config directory per account. That works, but it splits your chat history in two — each account only sees its own sessions. What most people actually want is the opposite: one shared history, and a quick way to flip which account is logged in.

On macOS this turns out to be easy, because the pieces live in two different places:

• Your login token is stored in the macOS Keychain (service Claude Code-credentials), not in the config folder.
• Your chat history and settings live in ~/.claude.
• Your account identity (email, org, user id) sits in ~/.claude.json.

So if we keep ~/.claude shared and swap only the token and identity, history stays intact for every account.

The Script

Save this as ~/bin/claude-account and make it executable:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# claude-account — switch the Claude Code account while keeping ONE shared
# config dir (~/.claude), so chat history is identical across accounts.
# Only the Keychain token and the identity in ~/.claude.json are swapped.

set -euo pipefail

LIVE_SVC="Claude Code-credentials"
ACCT="${USER}"
STORE="${HOME}/.claude-accounts"
CLAUDE_JSON="${HOME}/.claude.json"
mkdir -p "$STORE"; chmod 700 "$STORE"

die() { printf 'error: %s\n' "$*" >&2; exit 1; }
bkp_svc() { printf 'claude-account:%s' "$1"; }

read_live_token()  { security find-generic-password -s "$LIVE_SVC" -a "$ACCT" -w 2>/dev/null; }
write_live_token() {
  security delete-generic-password -s "$LIVE_SVC" -a "$ACCT" >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
  security add-generic-password -U -s "$LIVE_SVC" -a "$ACCT" -w "$1" >/dev/null
}

save_bkp_token() {
  security delete-generic-password -s "$(bkp_svc "$1")" -a "$ACCT" >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
  security add-generic-password -U -s "$(bkp_svc "$1")" -a "$ACCT" -w "$2" >/dev/null
}
read_bkp_token() { security find-generic-password -s "$(bkp_svc "$1")" -a "$ACCT" -w 2>/dev/null; }

dump_identity() {
  python3 - "$CLAUDE_JSON" <<'PY'
import json,sys
d=json.load(open(sys.argv[1]))
json.dump({k:d[k] for k in ("oauthAccount","userID") if k in d}, sys.stdout)
PY
}
load_identity() {
  python3 - "$CLAUDE_JSON" "$1" <<'PY'
import json,sys
p=sys.argv[1]; d=json.load(open(p)); d.update(json.load(open(sys.argv[2])))
json.dump(d, open(p,"w"), indent=2)
PY
}

cmd="${1:-help}"; name="${2:-}"
case "$cmd" in
  save)   # snapshot the currently logged-in account
    blob="$(read_live_token)" || die "not logged in"
    save_bkp_token "$name" "$blob"
    dump_identity > "$STORE/$name.json"; chmod 600 "$STORE/$name.json"
    echo "saved '$name'" ;;
  switch) # make a saved account active
    blob="$(read_bkp_token "$name")" || die "no saved token for '$name'"
    write_live_token "$blob"
    load_identity "$STORE/$name.json"
    echo "switched to '$name' (restart any running claude session)" ;;
  list)
    for f in "$STORE"/*.json; do echo "  $(basename "$f" .json)"; done ;;
  *) echo "usage: claude-account {save|switch|list} " ;;
esac

Setup

# make it runnable and put ~/bin on your PATH
chmod +x ~/bin/claude-account
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

# you're currently logged in — snapshot this account
claude-account save work

# now log in as the second account inside Claude Code
claude          # then run:  /login
claude-account save personal

Daily Use

claude-account switch work       # flip to the work account
claude-account switch personal   # flip to the personal account
claude-account list              # see saved accounts

After a switch, restart any running claude session so it picks up the new token. Because ~/.claude never changes, both accounts always see the exact same chat history.

Optional: shell aliases

alias claude-work="claude-account switch work"
alias claude-personal="claude-account switch personal"

Why This Beats Directory-Based Profiles

• Shared history — one ~/.claude, so no split sessions.
• Secure — tokens stay in the encrypted Keychain, never in a plaintext file.
• Tiny — no gigabytes of duplicated plugins/history per profile.
• Fast — switching is an instant Keychain + JSON swap.

That's the whole thing: a ~40-line script that gives you clean multi-account switching on Claude Code, with your history following you everywhere.