How to run multiple
Claude Code accounts side by side.

If you use Claude Code for both work and personal projects, you've probably hit this friction: you can only be logged into one account at a time. Switching means /logout, /login, re-authenticate, every single time.

There's a better way. With one line in your shell config, you can run both accounts simultaneously in separate terminal windows, each with their own sessions, memory, and settings.

Heads Up: Check Your Work Policy First

Before you set this up on a work machine, check with your employer or IT department. Many companies have policies against running personal accounts on company hardware, and for good reason. A personal Claude account on a work laptop can blur the line between personal and company data, surface credentials or MCP connections through the wrong session, and complicate compliance, auditing, and incident response. I ran into this at my own workplace, they asked me to keep my personal Claude off the work machine, and honestly that's a fair call. If you're unsure, keep your personal account on your personal hardware.

The Problem

Claude Code stores everything (credentials, session history, project memory, MCP server configs) in a single ~/.claude directory. One directory means one account.

But Claude Code supports a CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR environment variable that lets you point to a different config directory. That's the entire trick.

The Setup (2 Minutes)

Step 1: Create a Shell Alias

Add this to your ~/.zshrc (or ~/.bashrc for bash):

# Claude Code - personal account (separate config dir)
alias claude2='CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.claude-personal claude'

Then reload your shell:

source ~/.zshrc

Step 2: Bootstrap Your Personal Config

You have two options here.

Option A: Start fresh

Just run claude2, the config directory gets created automatically on first launch:

claude2

Option B: Copy your existing config

If you want your personal instance to start with all your existing sessions, settings, and project memory:

cp -R ~/.claude ~/.claude-personal

This copies everything: sessions, MCP server configs, project memory, settings. From this point on, the two directories evolve independently.

Step 3: Authenticate Your Personal Account

claude2

Once inside the session, run:

/login

Authenticate with your personal account. This overwrites the credentials in ~/.claude-personal only, your work account in ~/.claude stays untouched.

How It Works

The alias sets CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR before launching Claude Code. This tells it to use ~/.claude-personal instead of the default ~/.claude for all config, credentials, and session data.

• claude → uses ~/.claude → Work account

• claude2 → uses ~/.claude-personal → Personal account

Each directory stores its own:

• Authentication credentials, persisted in macOS Keychain, scoped to the config dir

• Session history, resumable with --continue or --resume

• Project memory, per-project context that carries across sessions

• MCP server configs, account-level .mcp.json

• Settings, settings.json and settings.local.json

Running Both Simultaneously

Open two terminal windows and run one in each:

# Terminal 1, work
claude

# Terminal 2, personal
claude2

They run completely independently. No conflicts, no shared state.

Resuming Named Sessions

You can name sessions in either account and resume them later:

# Start a named session on your personal account
claude2 -n "side-project-auth-refactor"

# Resume it later
claude2 --resume side-project-auth-refactor

Going Further: Three or More Accounts

The pattern scales. Need a client account too?

alias claude-client='CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.claude-client claude'

Each alias is a fully isolated Claude Code environment.

Tips

• Auth persists across reboots. Both accounts stay logged in until you explicitly /logout.

• Project-level config is separate from account config. Your CLAUDE.md files and per-project settings live in the repo, not in ~/.claude, so they're shared across both accounts automatically.

• MCP servers are per-account. If you configure MCP servers in one account, you'll need to configure them in the other too (or copy the .mcp.json between config directories).

TL;DR

# Add to ~/.zshrc
alias claude2='CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.claude-personal claude'

# Reload shell
source ~/.zshrc

# Optionally copy existing config
cp -R ~/.claude ~/.claude-personal

# Authenticate personal account
claude2
# then run /login inside the session

# Now both work independently
claude    # → work account
claude2   # → personal account

One alias. Two accounts. Zero friction.