How to use Claude Desktop Switcher for separate workspaces on one Mac

Using Claude for work, personal projects, and client work can mean switching more than an account. You may also want separate chat, Projects, Cowork, Artifacts, and Claude Design contexts, with Claude Code following the same environment when you need it.

Claude Desktop Switcher is a macOS menu bar utility for managing those environments. The desktop workflow is entirely graphical. Developers can optionally connect a terminal to an environment with the separate csw command.

In this guide, I’ll walk through installation, the three separation modes, everyday switching, and the details worth checking before sharing or deleting data. It follows the current English user guide and v0.24.7 release.

Product screenshot from the project website.

1. Understand what an environment means

CSW calls your existing desktop and CLI setup Existing Claude. New environments have dedicated data directories. You decide which supported components should remain separate and which should carry over from Existing Claude.

There are three behaviors:

• Shared: the environment uses the existing component through a link. Changes to shared data can affect both environments.
• Isolated: the environment starts with its own independent component.
• Copied: the component is duplicated once, then each copy evolves independently.

This distinction matters. Sharing rules or history is an intentional connection between environments. Choose separation based on the data you actually want to keep apart.

CSW provides application-data separation. It should not be treated as an operating-system sandbox or a guarantee against every form of data exposure. Keep appropriate backups and follow your organization’s rules for accounts, connectors, and files.

2. Install the desktop app

Start with the official Claude Desktop app available on your Mac. Then:

1. Open the v0.24.7 release page.
2. Download Claude-Desktop-Switcher_0.24.7_universal.dmg. This build supports both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.
3. Open the disk image and drag Claude-Desktop-Switcher.app into Applications.
4. Launch CSW. Its settings window opens, and a menu bar icon appears.

The first-run cards explain Existing Claude and the environment workflow. If the menu bar is crowded, you can reopen settings from the Dock icon. If the installer remains mounted, the settings window offers an Eject action.

The DMG contains the desktop utility. It does not install the csw CLI. You can skip the terminal section below if you only want the graphical workflow.

3. Create an environment and choose its separation level

Click New environment, give it a name such as Work, and optionally choose an icon and add a note. A note identifying its purpose and intended account helps when your list grows.

Separate everything

This is the recommended default. Supported components start independently, with nothing carried over from Existing Claude.

Choose it for work and personal accounts, separate clients, or projects where you want a clean starting point. It also allows the environment to run alongside another Claude instance.

Separate conversations and memory too

This mode reuses supported global configuration while giving the environment its own project conversation history, auto-memory, and input history.

The carried-over CLI components include global rules (CLAUDE.md), rule files (rules/), skills, plugins, tool permissions and hooks, and worktree configuration. This suits a separate account or purpose where you want familiar rules without carrying over previous conversations.

Separate the account only

This mode also carries over CLI project conversations, auto-memory, and input history. It suits a continuous workspace used with different accounts, for example where billing is separated by purpose.

The label needs one qualification: desktop connector and app settings, device identifiers, and session state still remain separate. It does not make every desktop setting shared.

For any mode, open Configure in detail, item by item to inspect the individual choices. Then click Create this environment.

The guide’s component-level explanation is especially useful here: most carry-over options concern Claude Code configuration. Desktop MCP connectors live in the independently managed desktop configuration, so plan to configure them for each environment.

4. Launch it and sign in

Select the environment and press Launch this environment. On its first launch, sign in through the official Claude app with the account intended for that environment. Subsequent launches normally retain that sign-in.

There are two launch patterns:

• Environments with shared settings run one at a time. Quit the running Claude before opening another shared environment.
• Fully isolated environments offer Launch alongside, allowing you to open them without first quitting a running Claude.

For example, you can create independent Work and Research environments and keep both open. If Research instead shares configuration with Existing Claude, use the single-instance workflow to avoid competing writes to shared files.

To identify a window, use Check the current environment in the menu bar menu. To find a particular environment’s window, select it in CSW and press Bring to front. Multiple Claude windows can share one Dock icon, so the Dock alone is not a reliable identifier.

To return to your original setup, select Existing Claude and use Launch Existing Claude. v0.24.7 can reopen it while recognized, fully isolated environments remain running. It refuses to proceed if a running process cannot be verified as a known fully isolated environment. Follow the prompt to quit other instances when necessary.

5. Optional: connect Claude Code

This section assumes Claude Code is already installed and the claude command is available. The separate csw tool manages environments; it does not install Claude Code.

The terminal inside a Claude Desktop app launched through CSW inherits that environment. You can run:

claude

A terminal opened separately, such as Terminal or iTerm2, needs an explicit environment selection.

First, download the standalone csw asset from the release page. From the directory containing the downloaded file, the documented installation example is:

chmod +x csw
mv csw /usr/local/bin/
csw --version

Use a directory on your PATH that you can write to; /usr/local/bin/ is the example rather than a requirement. Updating the desktop app does not update this separate binary.

Then, for an environment named Work, run the documented command in your external terminal:

eval $(csw env Work)
claude

This points that shell’s CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR at the environment. It does not rewrite your shell startup files or switch other terminal tabs.

Desktop and CLI authentication are separate. The first time you run Claude Code in an environment, complete its sign-in as well. For subscription usage, choose your Claude subscription account rather than an API-billed account. The built-in terminal and an external terminal pointed at the same environment use that environment’s CLI sign-in.

Check the current tab with:

echo $CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR

A path ending in .context-switcher-claude/profiles/Work/cli-data identifies the Work environment. csw status reports CSW’s selected environment, which can differ from the environment of the terminal you are using. Launch alongside does not change that selection.

If you already customize CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR, note that CSW looks for Existing Claude’s CLI data at the standard ~/.claude location. It does not automatically adopt a custom location or rewrite your existing setup.

6. Check sharing, and handle duplication carefully

In the environment detail screen, use Isolation check → Check now to verify whether links and isolated components match the configuration. The check is read-only. Its CLI equivalent is:

csw doctor

If it reports broken or missing share links, the documented repair command is:

csw doctor --fix

This can create or correct links when their declared source exists. Recent versions can also replace an empty placeholder directory with the expected link; they do not replace a nonempty directory. Read the reported result rather than assuming every issue is automatically repairable.

One Cowork caveat: the guide notes that Claude Code in desktop Cowork sessions does not load a linked ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md or ~/.claude/rules/. If your workflow depends on these shared rules, check that behavior before relying on it.

Duplicate is useful for copying an environment, but use New environment for a different account. Duplication copies Desktop cookies, so the duplicate can open with the original account’s sign-in. Logging out in either can log out the other. CLI Keychain sign-in is normally not copied, although a fallback .credentials.json file is copied if present. Plugins also have special handling and may need reinstalling in an isolated duplicate.

7. Updates, recovery, and deletion

Claude Desktop’s own update relaunch can bypass CSW and open Existing Claude. If that happens, check CSW’s environment marker, quit the relaunched instance, and launch your intended environment through CSW again.

When you quit all Claude instances for an update, CSW remembers the environments that were open together. The Reopen banner restores them on request, skipping those already running. Shared environments still obey the single-instance restriction. Nothing reopens merely because the banner appears.

For backups, expand Location of this environment’s data and use Show in Finder. The detail view includes paths, approximate sizes, and shared-link targets.

Normal deletion moves an environment into macOS Trash. Before emptying Trash, you can restore its folder to:

~/.context-switcher-claude/profiles/

Return to CSW and it should reappear. Delete permanently skips Trash and cannot be undone. In v0.24.7, both deletion paths refuse to remove a running environment, and deletion also stops if the running state cannot be checked. Quit the environment before deleting it.

Privacy and next steps

The Privacy and Transparency document explains the files CSW accesses and provides verification commands. The project documents no network communication or telemetry from CSW itself; opening documentation or release links delegates to your browser. The official Claude applications retain their own network behavior.

CSW is an unofficial, MIT-licensed project, with no warranty. Use accounts in accordance with Anthropic’s current terms and your organization’s policies.

Start with one fully isolated environment, sign in, and check which window and account you are using. Once that workflow is clear, decide whether sharing selected configuration would help.

• Website and screenshots
• Full user guide
• Download v0.24.7
• Source code and issues