Claude Anchor

An app for macOS, Windows and Linux that routes Claude Code to the right Claude account for each folder, shows rate limits and usage, and continues a conversation on another account. Use it from the menu bar (or the system tray on Windows and Linux), a floating button, or a pop-out panel. The screenshots show the macOS app.

Download the video with sound. Still frame: docs/tour.jpg.

Menu	Accounts	Folder rules

Settings	Floating button	Glance card

The screenshots are taken from the current build. Dark mode, six accounts, first-run and sign-in screens are also in docs/.

Unofficial and not affiliated with Anthropic. Free, MIT licensed. macOS 14+, Windows 10/11 (x64) and Linux (x86_64).

What's new in 0.6

• fish and cmd.exe. On Linux, claude is routed in fish as well as bash and zsh. On Windows, it is routed in cmd.exe as well as PowerShell.
• Long folder paths on macOS. Conversations in folders with paths over 200 characters are shared between accounts like any other.
• Fresh card on Windows and Linux matches the Mac: one row of account chips.
• The usage dial stays put (0.6.2). After sleep or a network change, the last known numbers stay on screen with a note instead of the dial disappearing.
• Removing an account works from the menu bar (0.6.3). Remove and Sign out now confirm inside the panel.

What's new in 0.5

• Reset times on every berth. Each account shows when its 5-hour window resets ("resets in 1h 39m"), so you can see which account frees up next.
• No dollar figures on subscription plans. Pro, Max and Team are a flat fee, so the Usage card shows tokens only. Turn on Settings > Usage > Show API-price estimates to see the API price. Estimates use current API prices, including Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5, Haiku 5.5 and 1-hour cache writes.
• Continue from VS Code and Cursor. Continue anchors at the other account, then Reopen in VS Code brings the conversation back on it with its history.
• Lighter. The pop-out uses about a quarter of the memory and a sixth of the CPU it did. One failed limits check no longer shows a warning, and limits from a window that has since reset read as unused.

What's new in 0.4

• Windows and Linux. A tray app with the same harbor switcher, limit rings, usage, last conversation card, Accounts, Rules and Settings panes, and floating button. Install with install.ps1 or install.sh.
• anchor command line on Windows and Linux for routing, limits, usage, accounts, rules and Continue from a terminal. See Command line.
• Routing beyond zsh. On Windows and Linux, claude is routed in bash, zsh and PowerShell, and in VS Code and Cursor. 0.6 adds fish and cmd.exe.

What's new in 0.3

• Clay redesign. Warm paper (light) and charcoal (dark) surfaces with a clay-orange accent. Rings show the 5-hour and weekly limits. Bottom navigation: Accounts, Rules, Settings, Quit.
• Drop anchor. Drag the anchor onto an account's berth, or click a berth, to make it the default. Works with one account or ten.
• Fresh resets. An account whose 5-hour window has reset and is unused is marked fresh, with an optional notification.
• Refresh control. A refresh button, an "Updated" time, and intervals from every 30 seconds to manual only.
• Pop-out window. Move the full menu into a small floating panel that stays on top and doesn't take focus.
• Floating button. A small round button, on by default, with usage at a glance. Click it for a glance card.
• Last conversation card. Shows the conversation's folder, an account menu and one "Continue on " button.
• Folder rules show a status line when their account is near its limit.

The full list is in the changelog. Task-by-task instructions are in the user guide.

Install

macOS

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SumithSB/claude-anchor/main/install.sh | bash

Or with Homebrew:

brew install --cask sumithsb/tap/claude-anchor

Prefer to read the script first:

curl -fsSLo install.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SumithSB/claude-anchor/main/install.sh
less install.sh && bash install.sh

What it touches, in short (macOS): it reads Claude Code's logins from your Keychain only to show your limits, and sends them only to api.anthropic.com. It never copies or stores them. There's no telemetry or analytics. On disk it writes to ~/.claude-anchor, one line in ~/.zshrc, and one setting in your VS Code and Cursor settings (backed up first). Your existing ~/.claude is never changed. On Windows and Linux it reads the same logins from Claude Code's own .credentials.json instead, and adds its line to your bash, zsh, fish or PowerShell profile (and, on Windows, a cmd.exe AutoRun entry). The full list is under Files it touches.

The app is ad-hoc signed, not notarized by Apple. The installer and the Homebrew cask clear the download quarantine so it opens normally. If you download the zip by hand, macOS blocks the first launch: open System Settings > Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway.

The installer downloads the latest release and verifies its SHA-256 checksum. If no release is available it builds from source. It installs the app to /Applications (or ~/Applications), adds one line to ~/.zshrc (skip with CLAUDE_ANCHOR_NO_SHELL=1) and launches the app.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/SumithSB/claude-anchor.git
cd claude-anchor
CLAUDE_ANCHOR_FROM_SOURCE=. ./install.sh

This builds, installs and adds the shell hook. scripts/build.sh --install only copies the app, so terminal claude isn't routed until you add source ~/.claude-anchor/anchor.zsh to ~/.zshrc.

scripts/package.sh produces dist/ClaudeAnchor-<version>.zip and its .sha256.

Windows

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SumithSB/claude-anchor/main/install.ps1 | iex

Needs 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 and PowerShell 5.1 or later. The installer downloads the latest release, verifies its SHA-256 checksum, installs the app for your user, adds one marked line (# claude-anchor) to each PowerShell profile, and adds a claude doskey macro to cmd.exe's AutoRun. Skip both with CLAUDE_ANCHOR_NO_SHELL=1.

The build is unsigned, so Windows SmartScreen may stop the first launch with "Windows protected your PC". Click More info, then Run anyway.

Open a new terminal after install so claude is routed.

Linux

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SumithSB/claude-anchor/main/install.sh | bash

Needs x86_64. The installer downloads the AppImage and the anchor CLI from the latest release and verifies both checksums. Other architectures, or a machine with no usable release, build from source. That needs Rust and the packages listed in cross/tray/README.md.

• Tray. GNOME needs the AppIndicator extension to show the tray icon. The tray sends no click events on Linux, so open the app from the tray's menu (Open).
• AppImage. It needs FUSE 2 (libfuse2) to run.
• Wayland. There is no floating button and no Ctrl+Alt+A hotkey. Use the tray menu.

Open a new terminal after install so the shell hook loads.

CLAUDE_ANCHOR_NO_SHELL=1 skips the shell hook lines in ~/.bashrc and ~/.zshrc.

Upgrading

Homebrew users:

brew update && brew upgrade --cask claude-anchor

The upgrade quits Claude Anchor. Open it again from Applications (or Spotlight) afterwards.

Curl installer users re-run the installer. It quits the running app, installs the new version and opens it:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SumithSB/claude-anchor/main/install.sh | bash

brew upgrade only knows about apps Homebrew installed. If it says Cask 'claude-anchor' is not installed, the app came from the curl installer, a downloaded zip or a source build. Either re-run the installer above, or switch to Homebrew so brew upgrade works from then on:

brew install --cask --force sumithsb/tap/claude-anchor

--force replaces the app already in /Applications, which Homebrew otherwise refuses to overwrite.

Settings and accounts live in ~/.claude-anchor and are untouched by upgrades. Config files from earlier versions still load. The new keys are optional.

Requirements

• macOS 14 or later, Windows 10/11 (64-bit), or Linux (x86_64)
• Claude Code CLI (curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash). On Windows: irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex
• zsh for terminal routing on macOS (VS Code and Cursor routing works regardless). Windows routes PowerShell and cmd.exe; Linux routes bash, zsh and fish.
• Swift toolchain (xcode-select --install) only for building from source on macOS. Rust and the Tauri packages in cross/tray/README.md for building on Windows or Linux.

How it works

• Each extra account gets its own CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR under ~/.claude-anchor/accounts/.
• Shared settings, skills and plugins are symlinked from ~/.claude into each account dir.
• The primary account stays in ~/.claude, with CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR unset.
• ~/.claude-anchor/routes maps folders to accounts (longest matching folder wins, plus a default line). A zsh claude function reads it and sets CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR for the current folder.
• VS Code and Cursor are routed through claudeCode.claudeProcessWrapper, which points at a small wrapper script in ~/.claude-anchor/bin.
• Limits come from Anthropic's OAuth usage endpoint, using the token Claude Code already keeps: in the Keychain on macOS, read with /usr/bin/security, and in <config dir>/.credentials.json on Windows and Linux. Tokens are never stored, logged, or sent anywhere except api.anthropic.com. The app never refreshes tokens; Claude Code does that.

Using it

Switch the default account (drop anchor)

The harbor switcher shows each account as a berth on a chain. The anchor marks the default account, which new sessions start on.

• Drag the anchor onto a berth to make that account the default.
• Click a berth and the anchor sails there.
• Arrow keys work too.

With a few accounts, every berth is roomy. With more, the berths get compact. Past about six, they scroll along a quay with arrows, and dragging toward an edge scrolls it. An Add berth appears when there is room. Long account names are truncated.

Folder rules and overflow

Send a folder, and its subfolders, to an account under Rules. Each rule is a row in the Folders card: the folder, an account menu, an Overflow switch and a ⋯ menu. Click Add folder, or drop a folder onto that row. The Default card shows the account every other folder uses. The longest matching folder wins. A rule shows a status line when its account is near its limit.

Overflow lets a folder use the default account when its own account is near its limit.

When the active account nears its limit, the default moves to one with headroom. If an account is over its limit, the overflow goes to a fresh account first when one is available.

The menu

The menu bar window is a fixed height and scrolls. From top to bottom: the header with the pop-out and refresh buttons, the harbor switcher, the fresh card when an account has a full 5-hour window, the default account's card with its 5-hour and weekly rings, the Usage card, and the Last conversation card. The bottom bar has Accounts, Rules, Settings and a Quit button.

Accounts, Rules and Settings open as panes with a back button. In Accounts, the Signed in card lists every account, with Add account as the last row. Use an account's ⋯ menu to rename it, change its flag, or reorder it with Move up and Move down.

Reading the rings

The rings show the 5-hour and weekly limits. Teal means fine, amber starts at 75%, and red starts at 90%.

Fresh resets

An account is fresh when its 5-hour window has reset and nothing has been used in the new window. A fresh account gives you a full window for free. This applies to the account you're on as well as the others. You'll see it in these places:

• a teal FRESH badge on its berth,
• in the menu, a "Full 5-hour window on" card with a chip per fresh account (click one to anchor there; on Windows and Linux, an "Anchor at " button), or, when only the account you're on is fresh, a teal " has a full 5-hour window" card that says your limit just reset,
• a teal glow and ↻ badge on the floating button.

Every other berth shows when its 5-hour window resets, such as "resets in 1h 39m", so you can see which account frees up next.

The app can also send a notification: "'s 5-hour window reset. Full window available." for another account, or "'s 5-hour window reset. You're on a full window." for the account you're on. Turn it off with the fresh-reset notification setting (notifyFresh).

Refresh

The refresh button in the header spins while it works. "Updated 2 min ago" sits under the title and turns amber when the data is outdated. The popover also refreshes when you open it if the data is more than 30 seconds old.

Choose how often limits refresh in Settings > Refresh limits: Live (every 30 s), 1 min, 5 min (default), 15 min, or Manual only. Live mode calls Anthropic's usage endpoint more often.

Pop-out window

Click the pop-out button in the header to move the full menu into a small floating panel. It stays above other windows, doesn't take focus from the app you're in, and adds no Dock icon. Close it to return to the menu bar.

Floating button

The floating button is on by default. It is a 44 pt round button that starts at the bottom right of the screen. Drag it anywhere; it stays above other windows. Show or hide it in Settings > Floating button, or press ⌥⌘A.

• The ring shows the 5-hour usage of the default account.
• A flag badge marks the account.
• A teal glow (it pulses a few times, then stays) and ↻ badge mean the account you're on, or another account, has a full 5-hour window.
• A red badge means usage is 90% or more.

Hover for a tooltip with the account and its usage (it adds "full 5h window" when the account you're on is fresh). Click it for a small glance card:

• the harbor, to switch accounts,
• the 5-hour and weekly bars,
• " has a full 5-hour window" when the account you're on is fresh,
• an Anchor at · full 5h button when another account has a fresh 5-hour window,
• Open full menu →, which opens the menu bar menu, and a refresh button.

Its settings are listed in the settings reference.

Continue a conversation

The Last conversation card replaces the old Continue on menu. It shows the conversation's folder and one account menu, with fresh accounts first. Pick an account and click Continue on . The app copies the transcript to that account and resumes it in a new Terminal tab. A confirmation appears when it is done. For a conversation that ran in VS Code or Cursor (macOS), it makes that account the default instead: close the conversation's tab, then click Reopen in VS Code.

A running session keeps its account. Continuing starts a new process under the other account.

Editors, history and checking accounts

• VS Code and Cursor are routed automatically: on first launch the app sets their Claude process wrapper (your settings are backed up first). New conversations follow the default account and folder rules; running ones keep their account. Turn it off in Settings > "Use in VS Code and Cursor".
• Conversation history is shared per folder: before claude starts (terminal or VS Code), the folder's conversations are synced across your accounts, so --resume, -c and the VS Code history list keep working after you switch. A copy is only ever extended, never overwritten if the two have diverged, and usage stays with the account that ran it. Set CLAUDE_ANCHOR_NO_SYNC=1 to turn this off.
• To see which account a session uses, run /status in it, or check $CLAUDE_ANCHOR_ACCOUNT. Don't go by ~/.claude.json: it always belongs to your primary account.

Bypass the shell function with CLAUDE_ANCHOR_OFF=1 or by exporting CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR. anchor-which prints what the current folder resolves to.

Command line (Windows and Linux)

The anchor CLI is installed to ~/.claude-anchor/bin/anchor (%USERPROFILE%\.claude-anchor\bin\anchor.exe on Windows). The installer does not add that folder to your PATH, so use the full path or add the folder yourself. The CLI and the tray app read and write the same files, so a change made in one shows in the other.

anchor exec -- <program> [args...]    run a program routed for the current folder
anchor which [dir]                    config dir used for a folder
anchor status                         accounts, rules and limits
anchor limits [--json]                5-hour and weekly limits
anchor usage [--by account|project|model] [--days N]
anchor account list | add <name> | login <id> | remove <id> [--to <id>] | rename <id> <name>
anchor default <id>
anchor rule list | add <folder> <account> [--overflow] | remove <folder>
anchor editor on|off                  VS Code / Cursor integration
anchor continue <account>             continue the last conversation on another account
anchor install | uninstall            shell hook, binaries, editor integration

anchor help prints this list, and anchor version prints the version.

claude is routed automatically in bash, zsh, fish, PowerShell and cmd.exe. In any other shell, run Claude through the CLI instead: anchor exec -- claude.

Settings reference

Settings are in the app's Settings pane, in three cards: General, Limits and Floating button. They are stored in ~/.claude-anchor/config.json. Every key is optional, and older files still load without them.

The VS Code and Cursor switch is described under Editors, history and checking accounts.

Privacy

No telemetry. The only network traffic is to the usage endpoint on api.anthropic.com.

Files it touches

The macOS list above is the full set. Windows and Linux touch these paths instead:

Linux

• ~/.claude-anchor/: config, routes, usage history, bin/anchor and bin/claude-wrapper, and accounts/.
• ~/.bashrc and ~/.zshrc: one marked line each, if the file exists. If neither exists, ~/.bashrc is created.
• ~/.config/fish/conf.d/claude-anchor.fish: one marked line, only if ~/.config/fish exists. XDG_CONFIG_HOME is respected. Uninstall deletes the file.
• ~/.config/<editor>/User/settings.json for VS Code, Cursor, Code - Insiders and VSCodium, if the file exists. XDG_CONFIG_HOME is respected. Backup: settings.json.anchor-backup.
• ~/.local/bin/claude-anchor.AppImage: the app.
• ~/.local/share/applications/claude-anchor.desktop: the menu entry.
• An autostart .desktop file in ~/.config/autostart, when Start at login is on.

Windows

• %USERPROFILE%\.claude-anchor\: config, routes, usage history, bin\anchor.exe and bin\claude-wrapper.exe, and accounts\.
• Documents\PowerShell and Documents\WindowsPowerShell: Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 in each, with one marked line. Each profile is created if missing.
• HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor, value AutoRun: a doskey claude=… macro for cmd.exe. An existing AutoRun value is kept and the macro is appended with &. Uninstall removes only the macro.
• %APPDATA%\<editor>\User\settings.json for VS Code, Cursor, Code - Insiders and VSCodium, if the file exists. Backup: settings.json.anchor-backup.
• %LOCALAPPDATA%\Claude Anchor\: the per-user app install.
• HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, a "Claude Anchor" value, when Start at login is on.

Credentials on Windows and Linux are read from .credentials.json in each account's config folder (~/.claude for the primary account, ~/.claude-anchor/accounts/<id> for the others). That is Claude Code's own file. The app reads the token for the usage check and sends it only to api.anthropic.com. It does not copy or store it.

Uninstall

macOS

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SumithSB/claude-anchor/main/uninstall.sh | bash

It removes the app, the ~/.zshrc line and the editor setting (with backups), then asks before deleting ~/.claude-anchor. Extra accounts' history lives in ~/.claude-anchor/accounts, and their Keychain logins stay until removed in the app or with security delete-generic-password -s "Claude Code-credentials-<hash>". ~/.claude is never touched.

Windows

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SumithSB/claude-anchor/main/uninstall.ps1 | iex

Removes the app, the PowerShell profile lines, the cmd.exe AutoRun macro and the editor setting. ~/.claude-anchor is kept, and ~/.claude is not touched.

Linux

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SumithSB/claude-anchor/main/uninstall.sh | bash

Removes the app, the .desktop entries, the autostart entry, the shell hook lines and the editor setting. ~/.claude-anchor is kept, and ~/.claude is not touched.

Limitations

• Unofficial; not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic.
• Relies on undocumented Claude Code behaviour that may change: Keychain service naming, the .credentials.json location on Windows and Linux, the usage endpoint, and the transcript layout.
• A running session can't change account. Claude Code picks its config dir and Keychain login once, at startup, and nothing outside the process can change that. Changing the default account or a folder rule affects new sessions only. To move a conversation, use Continue on in the Last conversation card, which copies the transcript and resumes it in a new process (in Terminal, or in a reopened VS Code tab). Running /login inside a session replaces that account's login; it doesn't switch accounts.
• Accounts are picked per folder, so two VS Code windows on the same folder always use the same account. VS Code's Claude settings are machine-wide, so there's no per-window override. To work on one repo with two accounts, open a git worktree of it in the second window and add a folder rule for the worktree's path.
• Ad-hoc signed, not notarized. The installer clears the quarantine flag; a manually downloaded zip may need right-click, Open.
• Windows and Linux builds are unsigned, and are newer than the macOS app. Please report tray, window placement or terminal problems as issues.

Roadmap

Planned, not yet supported:

• Other coding agents: Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, Cursor Agent and other agent CLIs, with the same folder rules and usage view.
• Other providers: OpenAI, Google and other model providers' accounts and API keys, side by side with Claude accounts.

Ideas and pull requests are welcome in Issues.

Acknowledgements

• claude-swap by realiti4, the account switcher that inspired this project. Claude Anchor takes a different approach (one config folder per account instead of swapping credentials), but the idea started there.
• brag by Latent Spaces, used to make an earlier launch video.

The tour above is rendered from real app snapshots with a small HTML composition in docs/video-src.

License

MIT