_{The regular Claude, a Work profile and a Personal profile, each with its own taskbar button.}

Claude Desktop signs in to one account at a time. multi-claude adds profiles: each profile is the
official app opened with its own data folder, so it keeps its own login. Open them side by side, pin
them next to each other, tell them apart by color.

• The official app, untouched. Nothing is patched or copied, so Claude's updates keep working.
• No artwork shipped. Each icon is recolored from the Claude logo already on your computer.
• Its own taskbar button on Windows, instead of one more window stacked on the regular Claude.
• Small and readable. Plain scripts, no dependencies, no admin rights.

Requirements

• Windows 10 or 11 with Claude Desktop from claude.ai/download.
• macOS with Claude in /Applications.
• Linux with the official Claude Desktop package for Ubuntu or Debian, and python3.

Install

Windows, in PowerShell:

irm https://github.com/thomasog/multi-claude/releases/latest/download/install.ps1 | iex

macOS and Linux, in a terminal:

curl -fsSL https://github.com/thomasog/multi-claude/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh

Your regular Claude stays as it is. The installer offers to add an extra one right away: give it a
name (e.g. Work) and pick a color. It installs for your user only and checks the download against
the SHA-256 pinned in the installer. Every script is in this repository if you'd like to read it
first.

Use

multi-claude add Work --color blue           # a new profile, in the Start menu, Applications or app launcher
multi-claude add Work --claude-code synced   # its Claude Code also gets your skills and CLAUDE.md
multi-claude list                            # your profiles
multi-claude remove Work                     # remove it; its sign-in data is kept
multi-claude doctor                          # check this computer
multi-claude doctor --selftest               # Windows only: also test taskbar tagging

Open a profile from its launcher. (multi-claude open Work does the same; on Windows it keeps the
terminal busy until the profile closes.)

Colors: green (default) blue purple red teal pink gray, or any hex value such as
C0392B.

[!IMPORTANT]
Signing in to a new profile: by e-mail, open the link in your browser, do not let it open
Claude, and ask for a code instead. Type the code in the profile, so the login stays in that window.
With single sign-on, quit every other Claude first, including other profiles (on Windows, also from
the tray): the browser returns the login through a claude:// link, which goes to whichever Claude
is open. Each profile remembers its login.

More: how it works · troubleshooting

[!NOTE]
On a Mac or Linux? multi-claude was tested by hand on one Mac (macOS 27.2, Claude 4.4212,
November 2026) and has only run in CI on Linux. A short report helps a lot, even if everything
just worked: macOS ·
Linux.

FAQ

How is this different from an account switcher?
Account switchers keep one Claude open and swap its sign-in when you pick another account, which
restarts Claude (and closes every Claude window, profiles included). multi-claude keeps every account
open at once and never touches sign-ins: each profile signs in on its own.

Can I use Claude Code in every profile at once?
Yes. A new profile's Code tab keeps its own Claude Code folder, with its own settings, sessions and
memory, so two accounts never write the same ~/.claude. With --claude-code synced it also uses
your skills, agents, commands, output styles and CLAUDE.md from ~/.claude; with
--claude-code shared it uses ~/.claude itself, as older profiles do. Run add again to
change it; how it works.

Do profiles combine usage limits?
No. Each profile is simply signed in to its own account, with that account's plan and limits.

Will my regular Claude keep working as before?
Yes. Its data, Start menu entry, pinned button and claude:// links are untouched; profiles only add
their own launchers. A few things exist once per computer, though. See the limitations below.

How do I update?
Run the install command again. To recolor a profile, run multi-claude add <name> --color <color>
with the same name.

Known limitations

Some Claude features are registered once per computer, so the profiles share them. To keep your
regular Claude in charge of them:

• Global keyboard shortcut (Quick Entry). Only one app can own a shortcut; whichever Claude opens
  first gets it. In each profile's settings, turn the shortcut off or give it another key.
• Open at login. Leave this setting alone in profiles. On Windows the packaged (MSIX) app has a
  single startup entry, so turning it off in a profile can turn it off for your regular Claude too.
• Claude in Chrome pairs with one Claude per computer, and every instance tries to claim it.
  On Windows and Linux multi-claude keeps it on your regular Claude, in Chrome, Edge, Brave and
  Chromium, while profiles run, and multi-claude doctor shows the pairing. On macOS Claude points
  the browser at a helper inside Claude.app, not at a data folder, so there is nothing to repair.
• Updates restart every Claude. An idle Claude may install an app update on its own, and updating
  closes all Claude windows, including the one you are working in. Quit the profiles you are not
  using.
• Tray icons. Every instance shows the same Claude icon in the system tray (or menu bar), with the
  same tooltip. The taskbar buttons and launchers are the ones that tell profiles apart.
• Notifications from a profile show up as "Claude", and clicking one may bring up your regular
  Claude.
• Cowork on Windows runs in one profile at a time: Claude runs one Cowork VM per Windows user.
• macOS Dock: a running profile shows Claude's own icon, because the running app is Claude itself.
  Its colored launcher stays open beside it while the profile runs, so the Dock shows which profiles
  are open, and clicking the colored icon brings that profile forward. Keep the colored icon in the
  Dock and use it, not Claude's.

Uninstall

multi-claude uninstall

Your profiles' sign-in data, and their own Claude Code folders, stay in
%USERPROFILE%\.multi-claude\data (Windows), ~/Library/Application Support/Claude-* (macOS) or
~/.config/Claude-* (Linux). Delete those folders to sign out for good.

_{multi-claude is an independent, unofficial project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic.
Claude and Anthropic are trademarks of Anthropic, PBC. MIT License.}