Switching AI Coding Accounts Without the Logout Dance

The problem

If you use more than one account for AI coding tools — personal Cursor, work Cursor, a side-project Claude Code login, Codex on another ChatGPT account — you know the drill:

1. Sign out

2. Sign in again

3. Wait for OAuth

4. Hope the app actually picked up the new session

5. Repeat tomorrow

Each tool stores auth differently. Cursor and VS Code use SQLite (state.vscdb). Claude Code splits tokens and account metadata across Keychain and ~/.claude.json. Codex uses ~/.codex/auth.json. None of them ship a “switch profile” feature.

I built cursor-account-switcher to fix that: save sessions as named profiles, swap them in one command, optionally restart the host app.

What it does

cursor-switch is a small Go CLI that:

• Saves the current auth session under a profile name (personal, work, etc.)

• Restores a saved profile into the live auth store

• Force-quits and relaunches apps that need it (Cursor, VS Code)

• Leaves CLI-only tools alone (Claude Code, Codex) — no restart needed

Everything stays local under ~/.cursor-account-switcher/. No cloud, no account server.

Supported platforms

PlatformProfile storageRestarts app?Cursorstate.vscdb auth keysYesClaude CodeOAuth tokens + ~/.claude.json accountNoCodex~/.codex/auth.jsonNoVS Code / Copilotstate.vscdb + KeychainYes

Each platform has its own account list and saved profiles. Switching Claude doesn’t touch your Cursor profiles.

The dashboard TUI

Run cursor-switch with no args and you get a full-screen dashboard:

• Left: all platforms, live session indicator, default marker

• Right: accounts for the selected platform — status, email, last saved time

• Keys: ←/→ platform · ↑/↓ account · enter switch · s save · a add · d set default · r refresh

No more scrolling through a flat list of “Switch Personal / Save Personal / Switch Work / Save Work” for every platform.

Quick start

Install (macOS / Linux):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/reloadlife/cursor-account-switcher/main/install.sh | bash

Save your current sessions:

cursor-switch save personal
cursor-switch save work

Switch:

cursor-switch switch work

Multi-platform:

cursor-switch --platform claude save personal
cursor-switch -p claude switch work
cursor-switch p list          # platform aliases: p, platforms, plat

How it works (without the magic hand-wave)

Under the hood it’s boring on purpose:

1. Read auth from the platform’s real storage (SQLite, JSON files, macOS Keychain)

2. Write it to ~/.cursor-account-switcher/<platform>/profiles/<name>.json

3. On switch: write saved auth back, update active profile, quit + reopen the IDE if needed

Claude Code was the trickiest: macOS Keychain holds a big JSON blob (OAuth + MCP plugin tokens). The tool extracts only claudeAiOauth, reads email from oauthAccount in ~/.claude.json, and merges tokens back on restore so MCP auth doesn’t get wiped.

Security

Profiles contain live auth tokens. Treat ~/.cursor-account-switcher/ like passwords:

• Don’t commit it

• Don’t sync it to public dotfiles repos

• File permissions are 0600 / 0700 where possible

Open source

MIT-style project, Go + Bubble Tea TUI.

• Repo: github.com/reloadlife/cursor-account-switcher

• Latest release: v0.2.0 — multi-platform support + dashboard TUI

Issues and PRs welcome if you want Windsurf, Zed, or another tool added.