February 25, 2026

Two Claude Code profiles on one machine

Claude Code stores everything — credentials, history, settings, project instructions — in ~/.claude/. Turns out CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR lets you point it somewhere else entirely.

Copied ~/.claude to ~/.claude-work, logged in with my work account there, and added a shell alias:

alias cw='CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.claude-work claude'

After copying, run cw and use /login to authenticate with your work account. From there, claude opens personal, cw opens work. Each has its own CLAUDE.md, MCP servers, history, and auth. No cross-contamination.

Links

pi.dev

paper.design