Claude Account Switcher

Switch between Claude Desktop accounts from your panel, without logging out.

Click the panel icon, pick an account. When one account hits its usage limit, jump to the next and keep going.

---

Why this exists

Claude Desktop only keeps you signed into one account at a time. To switch, you log out and log back in. That's slow, and if you try to speed it up by copying config files around, you can end up with a broken session. Electron keeps your login spread across a few different browser storages, not in one tidy file, so a half-copy leaves the app confused about who you are.

This tool gives each account its own profile folder (~/.config/Claude-<name>) and launches Claude against it with Electron's --user-data-dir flag. Switching accounts just means closing the window and reopening it pointed at a different folder. No file surgery, nothing to corrupt.

Your chats are stored on Anthropic's servers, so switching never loses them. Each folder only holds a login session.

---

What it does

• Puts an icon in your Cinnamon panel. Click it to see your accounts and pick one.
• Builds that list automatically from your ~/.config/Claude-* folders. There's no config file to edit.
• Opens a small window (the gear item) where you can add an account, remove one, report a bug, or open the project on GitHub.
• Marks which account is currently running.
• If Claude Desktop hides in the system tray instead of closing, the switch forces it shut so the new account opens cleanly.

---

Requirements

• Linux Mint or another Cinnamon desktop
• Claude Desktop for Linux at /usr/bin/claude-desktop. If yours lives elsewhere, set the CLAUDE_DESKTOP_BIN environment variable.
• python3-gi for the manage window. It ships with Linux Mint; the installer checks for it.

---

Install

git clone https://github.com/JoseJimenez-M/claude-account-switcher.git
cd claude-account-switcher
bash install.sh

Then:

1. Reload Cinnamon with Ctrl+Alt+Esc (or Alt+F2, type r, Enter).
2. Right-click the panel and choose Add applets to the panel.
3. Find Claude Account Switcher and add it.

Uninstall

cd claude-account-switcher
bash uninstall.sh

That removes the applet and nothing else. Your ~/.config/Claude-* account folders stay where they are. Reload Cinnamon afterward so the panel updates.

---

First run

Click the icon, open Manage accounts, and hit Add. Give the account a name like work, and Claude Desktop opens on a fresh profile so you can log in. Do that once per account. From then on, one click on the icon moves you between them.

---

How it fits together

File	What it does
bin/claude-accounts.sh	The core manager: list, switch, add, remove, current. It handles closing and relaunching, including the forced shutdown when the app clings to the tray.
bin/claude-accounts-gui.py	The manage window (GTK/Python): open, add and remove accounts, plus small GitHub and bug-report buttons.
applet/.../applet.js	The Cinnamon applet. It reads your existing profiles, builds the menu, and calls the manager.

Accounts are just folders:

~/.config/Claude            <- your original install, left alone
~/.config/Claude-work       <- an added profile
~/.config/Claude-personal   <- another one

Removing an account deletes only its own ~/.config/Claude-<name> folder.

---

Screenshots

Panel menu — click an account to open it.

Manage window — open, add, or remove accounts.

---

Things worth knowing

• Switching closes the window that's open. Anything you were typing in a chat box is gone, same as a normal logout. The saved chats aren't affected.
• If you use Cowork, note that each profile gets its own Electron data, which can mean a separate Cowork environment per account. I haven't tested that under heavy Cowork use, so expect extra disk usage if you lean on it.
• Claude Desktop prints vaInitialize failed and atom_cache lines when it starts. Those are harmless GPU and Electron warnings, not errors from this tool.

---

Porting to macOS or Windows

The trick isn't Linux-specific. --user-data-dir is an Electron flag, so the same idea works anywhere Claude Desktop runs. What changes is how you launch it and where the folders sit (open -n -a "Claude" --args --user-data-dir=... on macOS, a shortcut carrying the flag on Windows). If you want to build a mac or Windows front-end, open a PR. I'd be glad to have it.

---

Bugs and contributions

Open an issue or a pull request here: https://github.com/JoseJimenez-M/claude-account-switcher/issues

License

MIT, by Jose Jimenez. See LICENSE.