Claude accounts

nodeterm can run several logged-in Claude identities at once, so different nodes on the same canvas can be signed in as different accounts. This is a Claude-only feature.

Why multiple accounts

Some people have more than one Claude login — a personal Max plan and a work organization, say. Managed accounts let you keep both signed in at the same time and pick which one a given node runs under, instead of logging out and back in whenever you switch context.

How isolation works

Each account gets its own configuration directory. The Claude CLI owns everything about that account — login, credential storage, and token refresh all happen inside its directory. nodeterm never writes or stores your credentials; it only points the CLI at the right directory.

Note

Keeping accounts truly separate on macOS needs Claude Code ≥ 2.1, which scopes each account’s stored credentials to its own config directory. On older versions the accounts share one credential store and collide, so nodeterm warns you when you add an account on a CLI that’s too old.

Adding an account

Go to Settings → Accounts → Add. nodeterm creates the account and drops a login node on the canvas that runs claude /login. Sign in there as usual; when the login completes, nodeterm captures the account’s email automatically and uses it as the default label.

Choosing an account per node

Which account a node uses is decided once, when the node is created — either by picking it from the account submenu when you add the node, or from the project’s default account. After that it’s immutable: a node stays on the account it was born with.

• Branch and chat forks inherit the account of the node they came from.
• The System account option means plain ~/.claude — the default Claude login, exactly as if account management weren’t involved.
• A pending account — one you’ve added but haven’t finished logging into — resolves to the system default until its login completes.

See Branch conversations and Chat nodes for the actions that inherit an account.

SSH projects

Accounts belong to the host they were added on. An SSH project lists only the accounts that live on that project’s host, plus the System account. Local accounts don’t appear there — their credentials aren’t on the remote host — so you add accounts for a host from Settings → Accounts while the project is connected.