Claude Code accounts, side by side on one Mac

One directory per account

Each account you add gets a directory of its own, such as ~/.claude-work, and claude starts with CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR set to it: the way Anthropic documents under Log in with multiple accounts. Your first account stays in ~/.claude.

Usage from the status line

Set up adds Altseat to Claude Code's status line. While Claude Code runs on an account, Altseat records the session and weekly usage Claude Code reports in the rate_limits fields, and the menu bar shows them for every account, with their reset times.

Optional endpoint poll

Off by default. With Read Claude usage from Anthropic's endpoint turned on in the Accounts window, Altseat asks Anthropic for each account's usage every 15 minutes, so accounts you are not using stay current and the Fable window and the plan show too. It reads the account's Keychain item for this, and Anthropic does not document that endpoint, so it may stop working.

Starts on an account with room

When the active account is at its session or weekly limit, claude starts the next account in your order that has room, makes it the active one and says so before Claude Code opens:

$ claude
altseat: personal is at its session limit, starting work

When every account is at a limit, it starts the active one and names the first to reset:

altseat: every account is at its limit; work resets at 18:25

The order is the one in the Accounts window; drag an account to change it.

Hands over near the limit

When the active account reaches 95 % of its session or weekly window and another one has room, the agent writes a short handoff, the session ends after its current step, and the same conversation continues on the next account in the same terminal. Automatic handoff below has the details and the off switch.

Shared settings and sessions

Every account links to ~/.claude for settings.json, CLAUDE.md, rules, skills, commands, agents, output styles, workflows, keybindings, themes, plugins, projects, agent memory and history. The login stays with each account. With the conversations shared, claude -c continues the last conversation in the current directory on whichever account starts. altseat sync copies your MCP servers and project trust to the other accounts, and every launch keeps them in step.

The Keychain

Not read by default. Claude Code keys each login's Keychain entry to its configuration directory, so the logins stay apart without Altseat touching them. Altseat reads an account's entry only with the endpoint option on.

1. Download Altseat, drag it to Applications and open it.
2. Choose Set up. It puts the altseat command on your PATH, adds the claude, codex and kimi shell functions to ~/.zshrc and adds Altseat to Claude Code's status line; a status line you already have keeps running and showing its output. Then open a new terminal window.

3. Add an account in the Accounts window, or in the terminal:

   $ altseat add work

   It creates ~/.claude-work and links the shared settings into it.

4. Sign in once, with Claude Code's own login:

   $ CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.claude-work claude

   The login completes with the claude.ai account your default browser is signed into. Sign that browser into the second account first, or start the command with BROWSER=/usr/bin/true and open the printed address in a browser signed into it. Sign in in the Accounts window shows the same command with Open in Terminal.

5. Type claude as always. Each account's usage shows in the menu bar once Claude Code has run on it.

Set up writes one marked block into ~/.zshrc, between # >>> altseat >>> and # <<< altseat <<<. Its claude function runs altseat pick claude, which reads Altseat's settings and the last usage on your Mac, with no network call, and prints the directory of the account to start. The function then runs the real claude with CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR set to that directory, or unset for ~/.claude.

Maintenance commands run on your first account without a pick: claude mcp, update, doctor, config, plugin, auth, login, setup-token and install, and --version and --help. When CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR is already set, or altseat is missing or fails, the plain claude runs.

Uninstall Altseat in the menu takes the block and the status line entry out again. Your account directories and their logins stay.

When the active account reaches 95 % of its session or weekly window and another Claude Code account you added has room, Altseat asks the agent, through Claude Code's hooks, to finish the step it is on and write a short handoff: the task, what is done, what comes next, the key files and commands, the open questions and any scheduled loop. The agent ends its turn, Claude Code exits, and the claude function starts it again on the next account in your order with room, in the same terminal and the same directory, resuming the same conversation with claude --resume. The agent reads the handoff and continues. 95 % is the default; handoffAtPercent in ~/.config/altseat/config.json sets another value from 50 to 100.

In the terminal, two lines from altseat, then Claude Code opens again:

altseat: personal is at its weekly limit, continuing on work
altseat: handoff ~/.config/altseat/handoff/2026-10-22-140211-48213-1734-29001.md

With the app open, a macOS notification titled Altseat moved claude from personal to work reads personal is at 96 % of its weekly limit. The menu bar switches to the new active account. If the limit lands before the handoff is written and Altseat's own numbers for the account have reached the threshold, the session still moves: the second line reads altseat: no handoff was written, work resumes from the conversation, and the conversation itself carries the context. Otherwise the session stops at the limit as it would without Altseat.

Handoff files live in ~/.config/altseat/handoff/, one per move, named by date and run and readable only by you. Altseat checks that the file exists and never parses it.

Turn it off with Hand over automatically near the limit in the Accounts window. With it off, a session stops at the limit as it would without Altseat; then exit Claude Code and run claude -c: the next account with room continues the conversation.

The same switch is in the terminal: altseat handoff off turns it off, altseat handoff on turns it back on (--at 90 also sets the threshold), and altseat handoff status shows the switch, the hooks and any session being handed over.

The handoff runs between two Claude Code processes, never under a running one, and only across the Claude Code accounts you added: a session never moves to Codex or Kimi Code. It works in an interactive claude session started in a terminal through the shell function; claude -p, claude --bare and the IDE extensions get no handoff. The app does not need to be open.

Apple Silicon

Altseat 1.x runs on Macs with Apple Silicon and macOS 14 or later.

zsh only

The shell functions are installed in zsh, the default shell on macOS. In bash or fish, claude runs without the pick.

Between processes

Altseat picks the account when claude starts, and the handoff ends Claude Code at a turn boundary before the next account starts. No login changes under a running process, and a session moves only to another Claude Code account you added, never to Codex or Kimi Code.

Fable

Max plans have a separate weekly limit for Fable. Altseat reads it only with the endpoint option on, and a full Fable window does not stop a launch: the account starts, with a warning.

altseat: work is at its Fable limit until Sat 09:00; other models still work

Fresh numbers

The status line carries rate_limits only for Pro and Max subscribers, after the first response of a session. Without the endpoint option, an account's numbers are as fresh as its last session, and an account with no numbers yet counts as having room.

IDE extensions

They start Claude Code without the shell function, so they run your first account and get no handoff.