Profiles

Create the profile directory, then point projects at it via a marker file.

Creating a profile

# --default sets the global default;
# --statusline adds the in-session statusLine indicator.
claude-shim profile new personal --default
claude-shim profile new work --statusline
claude-shim profile new client-acme

Claude Code initializes the profile contents (settings, credentials, history) on first launch. profile new fails loud rather than overwrite an existing profile — remove the old profile directory before retrying.

TIP

profile new seeds a CLAUDE.md into the profile directory. Because the shim points CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR there, Claude Code loads it as user memory and learns its config lives in the profile dir — not in ~/.claude (which is overridden). A project's own .claude/ is unaffected.

See statusLine indicator to show the active profile in Claude Code's status bar (enable at creation with --statusline).

See Effort level to pin a Claude Code effort level per profile or per project.

Binding a directory

# Point a single project at a profile (writes .claude/claude-shim.json):
cd ~/Workspace/my-project
claude-shim profile use work

# Or, for a whole workspace of projects (writes .claude-shim.json in the root):
cd ~/Workspace/work
claude-shim profile use work --workspace

profile use fails loud rather than overwrite an existing marker — remove the old marker file before retrying.

Listing profiles

claude-shim profile list prints every profile directory one per line, appending (default) for the global default and (active) for the one that would resolve in the current directory:

$ claude-shim profile list
client-acme
personal (default, active)
work

claude-shim profile current in a directory with a valid profile prints the name and exits 0; without a profile, it prints nothing and exits 0; if a project or workspace marker points at a non-existent profile directory, it warns on stderr and exits 2.

Deleting a profile

claude-shim profile delete <name> removes a profile directory. It is irreversible, so it requires an explicit --yes; without it, the command prints what would be removed and exits non-zero, changing nothing. Deleting a missing profile fails loud. If the deleted profile was the global default, the default-profile marker is cleared too. Resolution markers in other directories are left untouched. A directory still bound to the deleted profile fails loud on the next claude launch — its profile directory is gone — until you recreate the profile or rebind with claude-shim profile use.

$ claude-shim profile delete work
would remove profile 'work' at …/claude-shim/profiles/work
hint: re-run with `claude-shim profile delete work --yes`

$ claude-shim profile delete work --yes
deleted profile 'work' at …/claude-shim/profiles/work

macOS: the Keychain entry is left behind

Deleting a profile removes its directory, but not its macOS Keychain login entry — that entry is keyed by a hash of the profile's CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR path, which claude-shim never manages. Once the directory is gone the orphaned entry is unreachable and harmless — the same Keychain limitation noted for migration.

Profile resolution

Which marker a directory resolves to — and how the global default is chosen when there is none — is covered in Profile resolution.