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Moving an existing setup

You already have a ~/.claude and maybe a ~/.claude-work, each with its own commands, hooks and settings, and an alias to switch between them. This guide moves both into swipe without logging out or losing anything.

1. Back up

swipe import checks everything before it changes anything, but these are your working configs. Take a copy first:

tar -czf ~/claude-config-backup.tgz -C ~ .claude .claude-work

Compress-Archive -Path $HOME\.claude, $HOME\.claude-work -DestinationPath $HOME\claude-config-backup.zip

2. Describe your profiles

Install swipe and write profiles.json as in Install. Use the same config directories you use today, spelled the way your alias spells them. On macOS the login is tied to that exact path:

{
  "default": "personal",
  "profiles": {
    "personal": { "config_dir": "~/.claude" },
    "work": { "config_dir": "~/.claude-work", "paths": ["~/code/acme"] }
  }
}

At this point claude already picks the right account. Steps 3 and 4 are only needed if you want swipe to manage your files as well.

3. Import each profile

swipe import personal
swipe import work

For each profile, import takes the files you wrote yourself:

CLAUDE.md · settings.json · keybindings.json · agents/ · commands/ · hooks/ · output-styles/ · skills/

It copies them into profiles/<name>/ in the source tree, then syncs: each original that is identical to its new copy is swapped for a link to it, so Claude Code sees exactly what it saw before. Everything else in the config directory stays where it is: the login, history, projects, plugins and caches.

$ swipe import work
import /Users/you/.claude-work/CLAUDE.md
import /Users/you/.claude-work/commands
import /Users/you/.claude-work/settings.json
work (/Users/you/.claude-work)
  link /Users/you/.claude-work/CLAUDE.md -> /Users/you/.config/swipe/profiles/work/CLAUDE.md
  …

What makes it safe:

  • Nothing is deleted. An original is only ever replaced by a link to an identical copy. If the sync stops partway, for any reason, every file you haven't seen replaced is still there.
  • Before copying, it checks that your settings.json is valid JSON and a real file (not a symlink), and that nothing it would create in the source tree already exists. A broken symlink or unreadable file stops the copy. In every one of these cases nothing is changed at all.
  • Links to files stay links to the same file. Links to folders, such as a skill linked from another repo, are left exactly where they are, so they stay live. The import lists them as "left in place".
  • Git repos (any folder with a .git inside) are left in place too, so git keeps working.
  • A link from one of your files to another one in the same config directory is pointed at the imported copy. A link to something that isn't imported, such as history.jsonl, is left in place.
  • It refuses a profile that swipe has already placed files in.

When shared/settings.json already exists

If you import a profile after creating shared/settings.json, the merged result differs from the profile's current settings.json, so the sync reports a conflict and keeps the current file. Your settings are already safe in profiles/<name>/settings.json: delete the config directory's settings.json and run swipe sync to write the merged version. Importing every profile before creating shared/settings.json avoids this.

4. Share what's identical

After importing, both profiles have their own copy of everything. Move what's the same into shared/. This lists the files that are byte-for-byte identical in both:

cd ~/.config/swipe/profiles/personal
find . -type f -exec sh -c 'cmp -s "$1" "../work/$1" && echo "$1"' _ {} \;
cd ..

For each one, move a copy to shared/, delete both profile copies, then sync:

mkdir -p ../shared/commands
mv personal/commands/review.md ../shared/commands/review.md
rm work/commands/review.md
swipe sync

Files that differ stay in each profile. That's the right home for anything tied to one account, such as a hook that writes to a work-only folder.

5. Remove your old aliases

Delete alias claude-work=... and similar lines from your shell startup file and open a new terminal. Check both accounts:

cd ~/code/acme && claude    # swipe: work (...)
cd ~ && claude              # swipe: personal (...)

6. Keep the source tree somewhere safe

The source tree is now where your commands and settings live. Putting it under version control is a good idea:

cd ~/.config/swipe && git init && git add . && git commit -m "Claude Code profiles"

Before committing, check that no file contains secrets (API keys in settings.json env, for example).

Undoing it

Restore the backup from step 1:

rm -rf ~/.claude-work && tar -xzf ~/claude-config-backup.tgz -C ~ .claude-work

Or keep the files and stop syncing, as described in Sharing files between accounts.