Add a second Claude Code account to Headroom

To add a second Claude Code account to Headroom, open the panel's "…" menu, choose "Add an Account…", type a short name, click "Sign In with Claude…" and finish signing in in your browser. The account then appears in the panel and works in Claude Code too. You do not need Terminal for any of it, though Claude Code itself must be installed.

Headroom is a free Mac menu bar app from Everyday Mac Tools, independent of Anthropic and not made, endorsed or supported by it. It shows session and weekly use for every Claude Code account signed in on your Mac. If you are not sure why you would keep two accounts, start with How to use several Claude Code accounts on one Mac.

Before you start

• Claude Code must be installed. Headroom runs Claude Code's own sign-in for a new folder, so there is nothing to add without it.
• The account must be one you may use. A personal plan, or a seat that your employer or client issued to you. The terms are quoted in Is it allowed to have more than one Claude account?.
• Know which browser account is open. The sign-in happens in your browser. If it is signed in to a different Claude account, you will need to switch accounts on that page first.

Add the account from the menu

1. Click the Headroom icon in the menu bar to open the panel.
2. Open the "…" menu and choose "Add an Account…".
3. A window titled "Add an Account" opens, headed "Add a Claude Code account". Type a short name in the Name field, for example work. Under the field Headroom says where it will keep the account, such as ~/.claude-work, "the way Claude Code keeps each account".
4. Optionally type the email in the Email field. It fills in the sign-in page, so you sign in as the right account.
5. Click "Sign In with Claude…".
6. The window changes to "Finish signing in in your browser". Sign in as the account you want to add. If your browser is signed in to a different Claude account, switch accounts on that page first.
7. When it finishes, the window says "Added" followed by the email, and "It shows in Headroom's panel now."

That is all. The new account is a row in the panel with its own session and weekly meters.

If the browser shows a code

Sometimes the browser shows a code instead of finishing. The waiting window has a link, "The page shows a code?", that opens a field where you paste it. If you closed the browser tab by mistake, use "Open the Sign-In Page Again". "Cancel" closes the window.

Claude Code's own terminal sign-in has the same fallback: if the browser shows a code, you paste it at "Paste code here if prompted" (authentication).

If no account is signed in at all

If Claude Code has no signed-in account on this Mac, the window offers to make the new one the main account, the one a plain claude uses. Otherwise the new account lives in its own folder and a plain claude is not affected.

Using the account in Claude Code afterwards

When the account is added, the window shows the line to use it in Claude Code, with a Copy button:

CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.claude-work claude

If your name was work, that is the line you see. Paste it in Terminal to start Claude Code as that account. For a permanent shortcut, add Anthropic's alias form to ~/.zshrc:

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

Anthropic's documentation gives that same alias as the way to stay signed in to several accounts at once (authentication). Headroom does not switch accounts for you: you pick the account by the command you start.

The Terminal way

You can get the same result without the window. Start Claude Code with a folder for the new account, then sign in inside it:

CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.claude-work claude

The first time Claude Code starts with a new folder it walks you through login and setup (authentication); if it does not, or the folder is signed out, run /login inside Claude Code. Finish in the browser. Headroom finds every folder in your home folder named .claude, or starting with .claude-, that holds a signed-in account, so the new account appears in the panel without any extra step. The check runs every five minutes and when you open the panel, and the refresh button checks now.

Naming the folder

The name you type becomes the folder: work gives ~/.claude-work. Use a short name without spaces, and one that tells you what the account is for. Because Headroom looks for .claude and .claude- folders in your home folder, a folder with any other name, or one outside your home folder, is not one of the folders Headroom looks for.

What you see in the panel

The new account gets its own row, with a status dot, the email, a status such as "Ready" and its own meters. Opening the row shows the folder it lives in, such as ~/.claude-work, so you can tell two similar accounts apart. Everything else a row and the panel show is covered in See every Claude Code account's limits in the menu bar, and the statuses in Headroom's statuses explained.

Taking an account out of the panel

In an opened row, "Stop Tracking" hides an account. It stays signed in to Claude Code, and it remains in the panel as a short "Not tracked" row with a "Track Again" link, which is also in the "…" menu. It does not sign the account out. If you want that, run Claude Code's own /logout in a session started with that account's folder. Logging out "removes all stored credentials, including the plaintext file's contents, saved MCP server logins, and plugin sensitive values" (troubleshooting), so read Switch Claude Code accounts without logging out first.

If something goes wrong

• The account never appears. Check the sign-in finished in the browser. If the window is still waiting, use "Open the Sign-In Page Again".
• Later a row says "Sign-in lapsed." See Headroom says Sign-in lapsed.

Headroom is free, has no trial, no account and no ads, and has no limit on the number of accounts. Download it from the Headroom home page. It needs macOS 13 or later.