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Accounts

Each Claude Code config folder is an account with its own login and sessions: ~/.claude, plus any ~/.claude-<name> folder Claude Code has used. Codex works the same way: ~/.codex is an account named codex, and any ~/.codex-<name> (used with CODEX_HOME) is another. perch finds them all on its own.

Two Claude Code accounts

Section titled “Two Claude Code accounts”

Lots of people have two: one from work (Teams or Enterprise) and their own (Pro or Max). Claude Code can stay signed in to both at once, each in its own folder. This is Anthropic’s own setup, not a workaround.

  1. Add one line to ~/.zshrc (or ~/.bashrc):

    Terminal window
    alias claude-work='CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.claude-work claude'

  2. Open a new terminal and run claude-work. Claude Code asks you to log in: use your work account. Plain claude keeps your personal one.

  3. That’s it. perch finds ~/.claude-work on its own and names it “work”. Run /status in either one if you ever want to check which account it is.

Each folder has its own login, settings, CLAUDE.md, MCP servers and session history, so work and personal stay apart. In perch each gets its own color and usage meter, and a repo that looks like it belongs to your other account gets a quiet “!”.

Is that allowed? Yes: a work account and a personal one is exactly what Anthropic documents it for. What isn’t fine is opening extra accounts of your own to get around a plan’s usage limits. Each plan is meant for one person, and if you keep running out, a bigger plan is the honest answer. If your employer has rules about which accounts may be used on a work machine, follow those.

Codex works the same way, with CODEX_HOME (for example CODEX_HOME=~/.codex-work codex).

Names

Section titled “Names”

Each account is named after its folder: ~/.claude-personal is “personal”. The plain ~/.claude is named to fit the others:

Folders on your Mac Names
~/.claude and ~/.claude-personal work, personal
~/.claude and ~/.claude-work personal, work
~/.claude and ~/.claude-acme claude, acme
only ~/.claude claude

Changing them

Section titled “Changing them”

Rename accounts, add a folder by hand, or pick colors in Settings → Accounts. Each account’s color shows on its sessions, tags and pull requests, so you always know which one you’re in.