claude-profile

Use Claude Code with a separate profile for each customer, on Windows, macOS and Linux. Each profile has its own:

• sign-in or API key
• AI platform
• MCP servers
• skills and plugins
• session history and memory

Customers can run side by side in separate terminals. Switching never touches a session that's already running, and one customer's Jira or Confluence server never shows up in another customer's session.

claude-profile doesn't change anything machine-wide. Your normal claude and ~/.claude keep working exactly as before, and appear as the default profile.

It's pure Python 3.10+ with no dependencies beyond the standard library.

Install

From PyPI:

pipx install claude-profile      # or: uv tool install claude-profile   or: pip install claude-profile
claude-profile install           # optional: adds the "Claude Profiles" Start menu picker on Windows

Without Python: download a standalone binary from Releases and run it once with install, which puts it in ~/.local/bin:

• claude-profile-windows-amd64.exe
• claude-profile-macos-arm64
• claude-profile-linux-amd64

Each release has SHA256SUMS and build provenance you can check with gh attestation verify <file> --repo CloudOpsWorld/claude-profile.

From source:

python claude_profile/cli.py install

This copies the single file to ~/.claude-profile/app and puts a launcher in ~/.local/bin.

To remove claude-profile, run claude-profile uninstall (or pipx uninstall claude-profile). Your profiles are kept.

Upgrading from 1.x: versions 1.x used the command claudectl and kept data in ~/.claudectl. From 2.0 everything is named claude-profile. If you made profiles with 1.x, close their sessions and rename ~/.claudectl to ~/.claude-profile. Then run claude-profile install once so every profile's status line points at the new command.

Daily use

claude-profile add acme                 # guided: name, AI platform, key or sign-in, bind this folder
cd ~/work/acme-repo
claude-profile                          # starts Claude Code as ACME, because the folder is bound
claude-profile tab globex               # new terminal tab locked to Globex
claude-profile acme --resume            # any claude arguments pass through
claude-profile mcp add jira -- npx -y <jira-mcp>   # goes into this folder's profile only
claude-profile list                     # profiles, bound folders, active profile, Desktop profile

• Bound folders pick the profile automatically. If you start a different profile inside a bound folder, claude-profile asks before continuing.
• Everywhere else, claude-profile uses the active profile. Set it with claude-profile use <name>.
• Every session shows its customer in Claude Code's status line and in the tab title.
• On Windows, tabs open in Windows Terminal with the customer's color. macOS uses Terminal.app. Linux uses the first terminal it finds: GNOME Terminal, Konsole, kitty, WezTerm, Alacritty or Xfce Terminal.

Import your existing setup

claude-profile import --scan     # just show what's in your current Claude setup
claude-profile import            # guided: sort project folders into customer profiles

What the scan finds:

• every project folder Claude has history for (worktrees are folded into their repo)
• MCP servers, both user-wide and per-project
• skills, agents, commands and output styles
• your CLAUDE.md, plugins and preferences
• Claude Desktop's MCP servers
• leftovers from older switcher scripts: extra ~/.claude-* config folders, system-wide ANTHROPIC_* variables, and lines in your PowerShell or shell profile

It skips temporary folders, folders that no longer exist, your home folder and drive roots.

The guided import suggests customers from your folder layout. D:\work\acme\api and D:\work\acme\web become one acme profile, tied to D:\work\acme. You can:

• press Enter to accept each suggestion
• type a name to rename it or merge it into another profile
• press k to keep those folders in your default setup

Then you pick:

• the AI platform for each new profile
• which profiles get which MCP servers
• whether new profiles get your skills, CLAUDE.md, preferences and plugins (plugins are reinstalled cleanly in each profile)

It only copies. Each project's history, memory, prompt history, trust settings and per-project MCP servers go into its profile. Your current setup isn't changed, so it's safe while Claude is running.

Your own sign-in, account details and caches are never copied into a customer profile. The one exception: a ~/.claude-* folder left by an older switcher is adopted whole, including its sign-in, because that sign-in belongs to the customer.

You can also work from a file, which is handy for many folders or for repeating the import:

claude-profile import --plan plan.json                  # write the suggestions to a file you can edit
claude-profile import --apply plan.json --dry-run       # show what would happen
claude-profile import --apply plan.json                 # copy
claude-profile import --apply plan.json --move          # copy, then take it out of the default setup

Running --apply again is safe: it never overwrites anything and doesn't duplicate history.

--move removes the imported customer folders, history and MCP servers from your default setup:

• It refuses while any Claude Code session is running, including Desktop's Code tab.
• It backs up your config first.
• It puts everything it removes in ~/.claude-profile/import-backups/.
• Desktop's Code tab uses your default setup, so moved history no longer shows up there.

--from DIR imports from another Claude config folder instead of ~/.claude.

AI platforms

To add a platform, create ~/.claude-profile/providers.json: a JSON list of entries in the same shape as BUILTIN_PROVIDERS at the top of claude_profile/cli.py. An entry with an existing id replaces the built-in one. To change a profile's models, run claude-profile edit <name>.

Where API keys are stored:

• Windows: encrypted with DPAPI, so only your Windows user can read them.
• macOS: in your login Keychain.
• Linux: in your keyring through secret-tool. Without a keyring, in a file only you can read.

Claude Desktop

Desktop holds one sign-in at a time, so it switches with a restart:

1. Quit Desktop.
2. Run claude-profile desktop acme.
3. Start Desktop.

This swaps the local MCP servers in Desktop's config. Each customer's servers are saved automatically when you switch away.

Cloud connectors added on claude.ai belong to the signed-in account and follow it. If the customer uses a different Claude account, sign out and back in.

Not isolated: Desktop's own Code tab uses Desktop's built-in Claude Code and login. Do isolated customer work in a terminal with claude-profile.

Where things live

Everything is in ~/.claude-profile, on every OS. On Windows this is deliberately not AppData: Microsoft Store Python redirects new files there into a private folder that Claude Code can't see.

Each profile lives in ~/.claude-profile/profiles/<name>/:

• profile.json: platform, models, how the key is stored
• config/: Claude Code's own folder for this customer (login, MCP, skills, plugins, history, memory)
• desktop-mcp.json: this customer's Claude Desktop MCP servers

Set CLAUDE_PROFILE_HOME to put the data folder somewhere else.