What Changed — The Specific Update
Claustrophobic is a new open-source tool that turns every Claude Code subscription into a "room." When you type c, it opens Claude Code in the room with the most rate limit remaining. If that account runs dry, you exit, type cr, and the same session resumes under a fresher account.
It's a single bash script, verified by checksum before install. The installer keeps your current login as room 1 and adds more rooms through the official claude login command. It's safe to re-run.
What It Means For You — Concrete Impact on Daily Claude Code Usage
If you've ever hit Claude Code's rate limits mid-session—especially during long refactoring sessions or multi-file edits—you know the frustration. You either wait, or you manually log out and log in with another account, losing your session context.
Claustrophobic eliminates that friction. It symlinks sessions, settings, skills, and plugins from each room to your main ~/.claude directory. So when you switch accounts with cr, your session history, conversation state, and custom instructions carry over. The only thing that changes is which API key is being billed.
The statusline is the sensor. Every render snapshots that room's rate limits for cl and the auto-picker. Idle rooms show their last known air, so you always know which accounts are ready.
Try It Now — Commands, Config, and Workflow
Install
curl -fsSL https://claustrophobic.xyz/install | bash
This adds a claustrophobic block to your shell rc file (bash or zsh) and creates ~/.claustrophobic/.
Add Accounts
After install, your current login is room 1. To add room 2:
claude login
The official CLI handles the OAuth flow. Claustrophobic detects the new profile and adds it as a room.
Commands
c— Open Claude Code in the room with the most rate limit remainingcw— Switch to a different room manuallycr— Resume the current session under a different account (preserves context)cl— Show statusline for all rooms
Configuration
Default launch flags include --dangerously-skip-permissions. To change them, edit ~/.claustrophobic/config.
Uninstall
Remove the claustrophobic block from your rc file, run claustrophobic statusline uninstall, then delete ~/.claustrophobic/.
Fine Print
- Requires macOS or Linux, bash 3.2+, the
claudeCLI, and python3 or node - Accounts must be distinct emails
- Whether multiple subscription accounts sit within Anthropic's consumer terms is between you and Anthropic—read them first
Community Sentiment
The Hacker News discussion is light (2 points, 1 comment), but the author notes: "I've been using the c, cw, and cr shortcuts for a long time but today I wished to switch to another account and wanted to keep the simplicity so I built this." The code was mostly written by Fable 5 with strong guidance from the author, who vetted the code for safety.
Source: claustrophobic.xyz
[Updated 13 Jun via devto_claudecode]
A separate open-source tool, claude-swap, takes a different technical approach: it backs up OAuth credentials for each account and swaps them in and out of Claude Code's credential store on demand [per dev.to]. Unlike Claustrophobic's session-preserving room system, claude-swap requires restarting Claude Code after each switch. It installs as a Python package with 27+ releases and uses OS-native secure storage (macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager). The tool is MIT-licensed and built by the community, not Anthropic.
