Ditto CLI
Keep your work, personal, and client logins apart across your coding agents — Claude Code, Codex, opencode, Gemini CLI, Copilot, Cursor, Grok, Goose, and thirty more.
Each profile gets its own credentials and conversation history. Everything you set up once — skills, subagents, slash commands, hooks, plugins, memory files — stays shared, so a profile is the same working environment signed in as somebody else. Your existing setup keeps working as the default profile; nothing is moved, copied, or migrated.
Pick a profile, then a tool:
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Ditto CLI choose a profile, then Enter to pick a tool │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌ Profiles ──────────────┐┌ Selected profile ──────────────────────────────────┐
│ default existing ││work Isolated profile │
│ personal ││ │
│› work ★ ││★ Used when no profile is named │
│ ││ │
│ ││Sign-in status │
│ ││Claude Code ● Signed in │
│ ││Codex ○ Sign in required │
│ ││fx ● Signed in │
│ ││opencode ○ Sign in required │
│ ││OMP ● Signed in │
│ ││Prime Agent ● Signed in │
│ ││Pi ○ Sign in required │
│ ││Gemini CLI ● Signed in │
│ ││Grok ○ Sign in required │
│ ││ │
│ ││Profile directories │
│ ││Claude Code ~/.ditto/profiles/work/claude │
│ ││Codex ~/.ditto/profiles/work/codex │
│ ││fx ~/.ditto/profiles/work/fx-home/.fx │
│ ││opencode …o/profiles/work/opencode/data/opencode│
│ ││OMP ~/.omp/profiles/work/agent │
│ ││Prime Agent ~/.ditto/profiles/work/prime-agent │
│ ││Pi ~/.ditto/profiles/work/pi │
│ ││Gemini CLI …itto/profiles/work/gemini-home/.gemini│
│ ││Grok ~/.ditto/profiles/work/grok │
└────────────────────────┘└────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ c Claude Code · x Codex · f fx · o opencode │
│ p OMP · a Prime · i Pi · ⏎ any tool │
│ ↑↓ select · n new · e rename · d default │
│ l sign in · L sign out · r refresh · q quit │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Ditto CLI takes its name from the shape-shifting Pokémon: one small tool, whichever coding identity you need.
Contents
Getting going — How it works · Supported agents · Install · Update · Quick start
Everyday use — TUI controls · Command-line usage · Which profile a command uses · Workspaces · Shell integration · Knowing which profile you are in
What a profile keeps and shares — Settings a new profile inherits · Skills, subagents, and everything else you set up once · Where credentials and files are stored
Reference — Scripting and agents · Environment variables · Renaming a profile signs Claude Code out · Windows notes · Remove Ditto CLI · Development
How it works
Every coding agent keeps its configuration and login somewhere under your home directory, and every one of them can be told to look somewhere else: through a variable of its own (CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR, CODEX_HOME, GEMINI_CLI_HOME), through the XDG base directories, or, when it honours neither, through HOME itself. Ditto CLI keeps one such place per profile and starts the agent pointed at it:
Nothing is moved, copied, or swapped, and only the process Ditto CLI started is affected. The profile is the same working environment signed in as somebody else: skills, subagents, commands, hooks, plugins, and memory files are linked back to yours, and only credentials, sessions, and caches stay inside it. Which lever each agent uses is in the table below.
opencode has no single home variable; it resolves its directories the XDG way, so Ditto CLI pins the three bases that hold credentials, configuration, and session state. XDG_CACHE_HOME is deliberately left alone so profiles keep sharing opencode's downloaded tooling. Those variables are set for the launched process and anything it starts, including commands opencode's own tools run.
Prime Agent and Pi settings can name a session directory, so managed profiles set PRIME_AGENT_SESSION_DIR or PI_CODING_AGENT_SESSION_DIR explicitly. That keeps transcripts and local harness state inside the selected profile even while reusable settings and capabilities are linked to yours.
Supported agents
Ditto CLI is not tied to any one agent, vendor, or launcher: anything that runs in a terminal and can be pointed at a directory can have a profile. Every agent is launched by its own command name, and everything after -- is the agent's own:
ditto-cli --help lists them all. Three levers cover every agent:
- A variable of its own, set to a directory inside the profile —
CODEX_HOME,GROK_HOME. - The XDG bases, pinned inside the profile, for agents that follow that convention.
XDG_CACHE_HOMEis left shared. - A private
HOME, for agents that derive their paths from the home directory and honour nothing else. The profile's home mirrors your real one entry by entry — shell startup files, Git configuration, SSH, toolchains — except for the agent's own directory, so commands the agent runs still find your setup.
| Agent | Command | Pointed at the profile by | Sign-in state read from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | claude (cc) |
CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR |
claude auth status; on macOS the credential is in the Keychain, keyed to that directory |
| Codex | codex (cx) |
CODEX_HOME |
codex login status |
| fx | fx |
private HOME, with FX_DISABLE_KEYCHAIN=1 so the login is a file inside it |
fx status --json |
| opencode | opencode (oc) |
XDG_DATA_HOME, XDG_CONFIG_HOME, and XDG_STATE_HOME |
opencode auth list |
| OMP | omp |
omp --profile <name> and OMP_PROFILE |
credentials in its agent.db |
| Prime Agent | prime-agent (pa) |
PRIME_AGENT_CODING_AGENT_DIR and PRIME_AGENT_SESSION_DIR |
auth.json |
| Pi | pi |
PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR and PI_CODING_AGENT_SESSION_DIR |
auth.json |
| Gemini CLI | gemini |
GEMINI_CLI_HOME |
oauth_creds.json |
| Qwen Code | qwen |
QWEN_HOME |
oauth_creds.json |
| OpenClaude | openclaude |
OPENCLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR |
.credentials.json; the macOS Keychain, which it prefers, is user-wide |
| Copilot | copilot |
COPILOT_HOME |
not readable: the token is in the OS keychain, keyed by GitHub account |
| Cursor Agent | cursor-agent |
CURSOR_CONFIG_DIR, with AGENT_CLI_CREDENTIAL_STORE=file |
not readable |
| Grok | grok |
GROK_HOME |
auth.json |
| Devin | devin |
XDG bases | credentials.toml |
| Kimi Code | kimi |
KIMI_CODE_HOME |
credentials/ |
| Cline | cline |
CLINE_DIR |
data/settings/providers.json |
| Codebuff | codebuff |
private HOME (~/.config/manicode) |
credentials.json |
| Continue | cn |
CONTINUE_GLOBAL_DIR |
none: current builds have no sign-in |
| Command Code | command-code |
private HOME |
auth.json |
| Hermes Agent | hermes |
HERMES_HOME |
auth.json, .env |
| OpenClaw | openclaw |
OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR |
credentials/, secrets.json, .env |
| Mistral Vibe | vibe |
VIBE_HOME, with VIBE_TEST_DISABLE_KEYRING=1 |
.env |
| Rovo Dev | acli |
private HOME (~/.rovodev and ~/.acli) |
~/.acli |
| Amp | amp |
XDG bases | secrets.json |
| Droid | droid |
private HOME, with FACTORY_DISABLE_KEYRING=1 |
not readable |
| Goose | goose |
XDG bases, with GOOSE_DISABLE_KEYRING=1 |
secrets.yaml |
| Aider | aider |
private HOME |
oauth-keys.env; API keys come from the environment |
| Crush | crush |
XDG bases | the data directory's crush.json |
| Kilo Code | kilo |
XDG bases | auth.json |
| Kiro | kiro-cli |
private HOME |
data.sqlite3 |
| Auggie | auggie |
private HOME |
session.json |
| Antigravity | agy |
private HOME |
not readable: the Google login is in the OS keychain with no way out, so only GEMINI_API_KEY is per profile |
| MiMo Code | mimo |
XDG bases | auth.json |
| Ante | ante |
ANTE_HOME |
auth/ |
| Trae | traecli |
private HOME |
cli/auth.json; the least certain entry, since Trae's documentation names no variable |
| Autohand | autohand |
AUTOHAND_HOME |
not readable: the login shares config.json with the settings |
"Not readable" means ditto-cli status reports the agent as unavailable even when it is installed: the login is somewhere Ditto CLI has no file to check, and a keychain entry is one every profile shares besides. Sign in with the agent's own command through Ditto CLI — ditto-cli grok work -- login — or from inside it; the sign_in field of ditto-cli create --json names the right form for each.
The rule for what a profile shares is the same for every row: settings, instructions, skills, commands, and plugins are linked back to yours; credentials, sessions, and caches are not, and neither are MCP configuration files, because the ones that carry OAuth tokens are named the same as the ones that do not. Each entry's own caveats — an undocumented variable, a keychain with no switch, a fork's macOS data directory — are in the comment beside it in src/tools.rs, and DITTO_<AGENT>_BIN overrides any agent's executable (DITTO_CURSOR_AGENT_BIN=agent).
Install
Ditto CLI is useful once at least one supported agent is installed.
Take whichever channel you already use. They all install the same binary, and the command is ditto-cli either way:
| Channel | Command | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Homebrew | brew install reyanshgupta/tap/ditto-cli |
macOS and Linux. Prebuilt, so no Rust toolchain. |
| npm | npm install -g @reyanshgupta/ditto-cli |
macOS, Linux, and Windows. The same prebuilt binaries. |
| binstall | cargo binstall ditto-cli |
Takes the released binary rather than compiling one. |
| Cargo | cargo install ditto-cli |
Builds from source; needs Rust 1.85 or newer. |
If you installed Claude Code or Codex with npm, npm is already here. You can also try Ditto CLI without installing it:
The npm package is scoped because plain ditto-cli on npm belongs to an unrelated project. The command it installs is still ditto-cli.
cargo binstall is a good deal quicker than cargo install, because a source build compiles a bundled SQLite before it links anything. To build from the latest source, or from a checkout:
After a Cargo install, make sure Cargo's binary directory is on your PATH:
On Windows, cargo install already writes into %USERPROFILE%\.cargo\bin, which rustup puts on your PATH, and an npm install needs nothing further either.
Ditto CLI installs as ditto-cli, not ditto: macOS already uses that name for its built-in file-copy utility at /usr/bin/ditto.
macOS, Linux, and Windows are all supported, and every command below behaves the same on each. A few smaller things differ on Windows — see Windows notes.
Update
A Homebrew install updates through Homebrew:
An npm install updates through npm:
A Cargo install updates itself:
update runs cargo install for you, so it needs Rust on your PATH. It stops early when you already have the newest release. During a build it shows a compact animated status instead of Cargo's full compilation log; if the build fails, it prints that log so the error is not hidden. Asking crates.io for the published version needs a network connection; without one it says so and installs anyway.
update only replaces a copy in Cargo's own bin directory. Run it against a Homebrew install, or a binary from the releases page, and it says so before it starts, then leaves that copy alone: a cargo install would land in a different directory and shadow the existing binary rather than replace it. Use brew upgrade ditto-cli or the newer archive instead.
Against an npm install it does not start at all. npm keeps its copy inside its own tree, so update names the npm command and stops rather than leaving you with two copies and whichever PATH reaches first. Pass --git if a source build is what you actually want.
Quick start
Open the picker:
- Make a profile. Press
nand name it, such aswork. - Sign in. With the profile selected, press
land choose Claude Code, Codex, fx, opencode, or Prime Agent; Prime Agent opens straight onto its/logindialog. Every other agent signs in from inside itself — launch it in step 3 and run/login, or its own login command, there. - Launch a tool. Press
Enterfor a list of every installed agent, filtered as you type, or a key directly:cClaude Code,xCodex,ffx,oopencode,pOMP,aPrime Agent,iPi.
Each tool keeps its own credentials. Signing in to one does not copy credentials into another.
Or skip the picker entirely — every one of those steps has a command:
TUI controls
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
↑ / ↓ or k / j |
Select a profile |
c |
Launch Claude Code |
x |
Launch Codex |
f |
Launch fx |
o |
Launch opencode |
p |
Launch OMP |
a |
Launch Prime Agent |
i |
Launch Pi |
Enter or t |
Launch any installed agent: a list of them all, filtered as you type |
l |
Sign in with Claude Code, Codex, fx, opencode, or Prime Agent |
L |
Sign out, with confirmation |
n |
Create a profile |
e |
Rename the selected profile |
d |
Mark the selected profile ★ as the default, or unset it |
r |
Refresh sign-in status |
q, Esc, or Ctrl+C |
Quit or close a dialog |
Sign-in status is checked in the background, so the list stays responsive while each CLI is asked. A spinner marks the tools still being checked.
Enter puts every installed agent in one list, narrowed as you type:
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Ditto CLI choose a profile, then Enter to pick a tool │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌ Profiles ──────────────┐┌ Selected profile ──────────────────────────────────┐
│ default existing ││work Isolated profile │
│ personal ││ │
│› work ★ ││★ Used when no profile is named │
│ ││ │
│ ││Sign-in status │
│ ││Claude Code ● Signed in │
│ ││Codex ○ Sign in required │
│ ┌ Launch in 'work' ────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │› ▏ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │Claude Code ● Signed in │ │
│ │Codex ○ Sign in required │ │
│ │fx ● Signed in │ │
│ │opencode ○ Sign in required │ │
│ │OMP ● Signed in │ │
│ │Prime Agent ● Signed in │ │
│ │Pi ○ Sign in required │ │
│ │Gemini CLI ● Signed in │ │
│ │Grok ○ Sign in required │fx │
│ │ │pencode│
│ │type to filter · ↑↓ · Enter launches · Esc │ │
│ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘nt │
│ ││Pi ~/.ditto/profiles/work/pi │
│ ││Gemini CLI …itto/profiles/work/gemini-home/.gemini│
│ ││Grok ~/.ditto/profiles/work/grok │
└────────────────────────┘└────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ c Claude Code · x Codex · f fx · o opencode │
│ p OMP · a Prime · i Pi · ⏎ any tool │
│ ↑↓ select · n new · e rename · d default │
│ l sign in · L sign out · r refresh · q quit │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The selected profile is remembered for the next run. The ★ default is separate and stays put: it is the profile every command uses when you leave the name out, and running ditto-cli claude personal once does not move it. Any profile can be the default, including the built-in default one. See which profile a command uses.
Renaming keeps the profile's settings, session history, and its logins. Claude Code is the exception, and the rename dialog says so before you commit to it: see renaming a profile signs Claude Code out. The built-in default profile cannot be renamed.
Command-line usage
The TUI is optional. Everything it does works directly from the shell.
Manage profiles
Launch a tool
| Command | Alias | Pass arguments through with -- |
|---|---|---|
ditto-cli claude client-a |
cc |
ditto-cli cc client-a -- --model opus |
ditto-cli codex client-a |
cx |
ditto-cli cx client-a -- --search |
ditto-cli fx client-a |
— | ditto-cli fx client-a -- login |
ditto-cli opencode client-a |
oc |
ditto-cli oc client-a -- --model anthropic/claude-opus-5 |
ditto-cli omp client-a |
— | ditto-cli omp client-a -- --model opus |
ditto-cli prime-agent client-a |
pa |
ditto-cli pa client-a -- --model claude-opus-4-1 |
ditto-cli pi client-a |
— | ditto-cli pi client-a -- --model anthropic/claude-opus-4-6 |
ditto-cli gemini client-a |
— | ditto-cli gemini client-a -- --model gemini-2.5-pro, and so on for every supported agent, by its command name |
Everything after -- goes to the tool untouched, so any flag it accepts works. ditto-cli --help lists every agent; the table says how each is isolated.
Bind a directory, so launches from it need no profile name
Choose the profile used when a command names none and no directory is bound
Put Ditto in front of the tools' own names, and show the profile inside Claude Code
The native authentication commands can be called through a profile too:
OMP and Pi expose login only inside their interfaces. Launch the selected profile, then run /login or /logout there:
Deleting is the one command that destroys something, so it asks to be meant. Without --yes it lists the directories it would remove and stops. The built-in default profile cannot be deleted; it is your own configuration, which Ditto CLI never created.
Profile names use lowercase letters, numbers, ., - and _, start with a letter or number, and are at most 32 characters. Uppercase names are rejected because OMP accepts only lowercase profile names.
Which profile a command uses
When the profile name is omitted, Ditto CLI takes the first answer it finds:
- The directory's binding (see Workspaces).
- The profile pinned as the default, with
din the TUI orditto-cli default <profile>. - The last profile selected in the TUI.
- Failing all of those, and before your first selection,
default.
ditto-cli list marks the last selection with * and the default with a trailing default.
Workspaces
A project usually belongs to one profile for its whole life. A workspace records that once, so every launch from the project uses the right profile without being told:
ditto-cli workspace use writes a .ditto.toml at the project root:
# Written by ditto-cli. Names the profile this directory launches with.
= "client-a"
It is a normal file: readable, editable by hand, and safe to commit if everyone on the project uses the same profile. Add it to .gitignore if they do not.
Directories are bound automatically
Launching from a directory that nothing yet answers for binds it to the profile that launch used:
$ cd ~/code/new-project
$ ditto-cli cc client-a
Bound this directory to 'client-a' (~/code/new-project/.ditto.toml).
The next ditto-cli cc from that project needs no name. Two directories are never bound this way: your home directory and the filesystem root, since a file at either would capture every project underneath it. Turn the behaviour off with ditto-cli workspace auto off.
How a directory is resolved
Ditto walks from the current directory towards the filesystem root and stops at the first binding it finds, so the nearest one wins and a subdirectory can overrule the repository it sits in. A directory already answered for by an ancestor is left alone, which is what stops every subdirectory of a bound project from collecting a file of its own.
Naming a profile explicitly always wins, for that run only:
$ cd ~/code/client-a # bound to client-a
$ ditto-cli cc work
ditto-cli: using 'work' for this run; ~/code/client-a/.ditto.toml still names 'client-a'
The binding is untouched. Use ditto-cli workspace use work to change it for good.
Where no directory answers, the launch says which profile it fell back to and why, since nothing in the command or the directory pointed at it:
$ cd ~/scratch
$ ditto-cli omp
ditto-cli: using 'work'; nothing binds this directory, and it is pinned as the default
Bound this directory to 'work' (~/scratch/.ditto.toml).
Reporting commands stay quiet about it: for them a fallback is the ordinary case, and they are run in loops.
Directories you cannot leave a file in
For a repository that is not yours to add a file to, record the binding in Ditto's own registry instead:
That writes ~/.ditto/workspaces.json rather than a file in the project. ditto-cli workspace list prints everything recorded there. Files cannot be listed, because they are found by walking up from wherever Ditto runs — ditto-cli workspace reports the one in effect where you are.
Where a directory has both, the file wins, so a project can carry a binding that overrides whatever this machine recorded for it. Between two directories, distance decides first: a nearer registry entry beats a further file.
Clearing a binding
$ ditto-cli workspace clear
Removed ~/code/client-a/crates/core/.ditto.toml.
~/code/client-a/crates/core now inherits 'client-a' from ~/code/client-a/.ditto.toml.
Clearing touches only the directory you name, never its ancestors, and reports what the directory falls back to.
Shell integration
A binding decides something only for a launch that goes through Ditto. Typing the tool's own name runs the tool, which has never heard of .ditto.toml:
$ cd ~/code/client-a # bound to client-a
$ omp # OMP's own default profile, not client-a
Nothing Ditto does at launch time can catch that, because Ditto is not in the process. The shell is the only place the bare name can be intercepted, so Ditto writes the functions that do it:
# ~/.zshrc
bash, fish, and zsh are all written for, and ditto-cli shell-init with no shell named reads SHELL. Fish loads it by piping into source:
# ~/.config/fish/config.fish
ditto-cli shell-init fish | source
From then on the tool's own name uses the directory's profile, and arguments pass straight through to the tool:
$ cd ~/code/client-a
$ omp --model opus # the same as: ditto-cli omp -- --model opus
A function is written for every supported agent, so gemini, copilot, or goose typed in a bound directory go through Ditto too.
Two ways back out, both printed in the script itself: command omp runs OMP with Ditto out of the way, and ditto-cli omp <profile> launches another profile for that one run.
A function named after a tool cannot loop back into itself. Ditto starts a tool through execvp, which searches PATH and never looks at shell functions. And if ditto-cli cannot be found at all, each function falls through to the tool, so a half-finished update cannot take claude with it.
Knowing which profile you are in
Once a tool has taken over the terminal, nothing on screen says which profile it is running as. Ditto CLI answers that in the window title for every tool, and inside Claude Code's own interface as well.
Claude Code gets a status line along the bottom of its interface:
⬖ client-a · you@example.com
Launching Claude Code through Ditto CLI installs it, and ditto-cli indicator turns it on or off by hand. The rest of settings.json is written only when a profile is created or synced, described in settings a new profile inherits.
If the profile already has a statusLine of its own, Ditto CLI leaves it alone and says so. Claude Code renders one status line, and replacing the one you configured would quietly take it away. To have both, ask:
$ ditto-cli indicator client-a --keep-mine
client-a: status line on, drawn in front of the one you already had
Ditto CLI then runs your status line itself and prints the profile in front of what it says:
⬖ client-a · you@example.com │ ⎇ main ✓ ~/code/client-a 12.4k
Your command keeps the payload Claude Code sends it, every line it prints, and the settings it was written with. If it fails or prints nothing, you get the profile on its own rather than a broken line. ditto-cli indicator --off puts your original entry back exactly as you wrote it, and a later launch never changes the arrangement on its own — drawing over someone's status line is a thing to be asked for.
A status line set for a project (.claude/settings.json, .claude/settings.local.json) or by your administrator outranks the profile's, so Ditto CLI's would be installed and never seen. Rather than claim otherwise, ditto-cli indicator reports that:
$ ditto-cli indicator client-a
client-a: installed, but a status line that outranks it is showing instead
The status line reads DITTO_PROFILE, so a claude you started yourself still reports the right profile as long as CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR points at one.
Every tool also names the profile in the window and tab title:
ditto:client-a — Codex — my-repo
The tools write their own titles and keep updating them as you work, so a title set once before handing over is overwritten within moments. Instead, Ditto CLI runs the tool in a pseudoterminal and rewrites the title sequences on their way to the terminal, adding ditto:<profile> in front of whatever the tool called itself. You keep the tool's own title and gain the profile.
Everything else is forwarded byte for byte. Colours, hyperlinks, clipboard writes, mouse reporting, and anything the tool draws are untouched, and the tool still gets a real terminal, the right window size, and your keystrokes as it always did. Ditto CLI exits with the tool's own exit status.
To turn it off, set DITTO_NO_PROXY=1 and Ditto CLI hands the terminal straight to the tool as it used to. The title stops naming the profile, and the Claude Code status line still works. Ditto CLI also steps aside on its own when output is redirected, or if the pseudoterminal cannot be opened. The pseudoterminal is a macOS and Linux feature; see Windows notes.
Under herdr
herdr works out which agent is in a pane, and what that agent is doing, by reading the pane's foreground process and the title the tool writes. Sitting between the tool and the terminal costs it both answers: the foreground process becomes ditto-cli while the tool moves to a pseudoterminal of its own, and a title with ditto:<profile> in front of it no longer matches the rules herdr reads state from. The pane stops listing an agent, and herdr agent stops seeing it.
So Ditto CLI steps aside on its own inside a herdr pane, exactly as DITTO_NO_PROXY=1 does, and reports the profile to herdr instead:
herdr pane report-metadata <pane> --source ditto --token profile=<profile>
herdr shows it as a pane token, and detection, agent state, and the Claude Code status line all keep working. Nothing needs configuring — it keys off HERDR_PANE_ID, which herdr sets in every pane it opens. If herdr is not running or its CLI is not on PATH the report is skipped and the launch carries on.
Scripting and agents
Add --json to any reporting command and it prints one JSON object on stdout. The flag is global, so it reads correctly on either side of the subcommand:
The remaining agents follow in the order --help lists them, each unavailable unless it is installed, so the shape is the same on every machine. The human report shows only the ones you have.
list, status, paths, create, rename, delete, sync, default, workspace, and indicator all answer in JSON. Errors become {"error": "..."} on stderr, and every failure exits 1. shell-init prints a script for a shell to read rather than a report, so --json has nothing to do there.
Running ditto-cli with no subcommand opens the picker, which needs an interactive terminal. Without one it exits 1 and names the commands to use instead, rather than failing on a terminal that was never there.
# Any tool needing a sign-in?
|
The tool, status, and indicator outcome strings are stable identifiers meant to be matched on; the label beside them is display text and may be reworded. AGENTS.md documents the full contract and has more recipes, along with how to edit Ditto CLI itself.
Settings a new profile inherits
Claude Code reads its settings from the configuration directory it is pointed at, and Ditto CLI points it somewhere else. Left alone, a new profile would start with none of the permission mode, model, effort level, or hooks you set up once and expect everywhere.
So creating a profile copies ~/.claude/settings.json into it. What Ditto CLI isolates is accounts, and none of those live in that file — Claude Code keeps credentials in the Keychain and the signed-in account in .claude.json — so your preferences travel and your logins stay apart. The status line travels too: the entry names the profile it was installed for, so what is copied is the status line underneath it, with the new profile's own indicator drawn in front of yours.
From then on the profile's settings are its own. Change the model in one profile and the others keep theirs; a later ditto-cli sync fills in settings the profile has never answered and leaves the ones it has:
Naming a profile preserves configuration for that profile only; --all makes the scope every managed profile. sync is also how profiles created before this behaviour existed catch up, including tool directories added by a newer Ditto release.
Skills, subagents, and everything else you set up once
A profile exists to be signed in as somebody else, not to be a different working environment. Skills, subagents, slash commands, hooks, plugins, and the memory file each tool reads are not accounts, so a profile does not get its own copy of them — it reads yours:
| Tool | Read from your own configuration |
|---|---|
| Claude Code | skills, agents, commands, hooks, plugins, output-styles, CLAUDE.md |
| Codex | skills, rules, prompts, plugins, config.toml, hooks.json, AGENTS.md, instructions.md |
| opencode | the whole configuration directory |
| OMP | config.yml, extensions |
| Prime Agent | settings.json, keybindings.json, instructions, prompts, skills, extensions, themes, packages, and the global harness |
| Pi | settings.json, keybindings.json, project trust, instructions, prompts, skills, extensions, themes, packages, and managed tools |
| Every other agent | its settings, instructions, skills, commands, and plugins — the entry in src/tools.rs names them |
These are symbolic links, so a skill you write tomorrow is in every profile the moment you save it, with nothing to sync and no copies to drift apart. Everything else — .claude.json, auth.json, sessions, session artifacts, history, agent.db — stays inside the profile, which is the whole of what a profile keeps to itself. Prime Agent and Pi keep models.json private too, because custom provider definitions may contain literal API keys and secret headers.
Conversation history is not linked: chats can contain account- or client-specific work, and shared writable session stores would make every profile's future activity visible to every other profile. Existing conversations, from any agent, can instead be copied once, without replacing anything already in the destination. Choose one profile explicitly or all managed profiles explicitly:
After the copy, every tool keeps writing to that profile's own history store.
What is shared is a named list rather than everything-but-the-credentials. Ditto CLI learning about a new extension directory late costs you a missing feature; sharing a new credential file by accident would cost you the isolation the tool exists for.
Profiles created before this have real directories where the links go. sync reports those and leaves them alone; --adopt points them at yours, moving what was there aside as <name>.before-ditto rather than deleting it:
Downloaded skills
Sharing a directory by linking it has one cost, and Ditto CLI pays it for you.
A skill installer — npx skills add, and anything else that installs into more than one agent — puts the skill somewhere central and then records it in each agent's skills directory as a relative link, computed from the directory the agent was pointed at. Under a profile that directory is one of the links above, so the operating system writes the record into your own configuration instead, where the same relative path leads somewhere else. The skill lands on disk intact and is readable from nowhere, in every profile at once.
Ditto CLI is what moved the directory, so Ditto CLI is what can say where those links meant to point. Launching a tool repairs its own, which is the moment before it reads them, and says so:
ditto-cli: repaired claude/skills/apple-design; it was installed pointing at nothing
ditto-cli sync <profile> does the same for every tool at once and reports them under repaired. A link is only rewritten when reading it against the path the installer was given names something that exists, so a link that is relative and broken for reasons of its own is left exactly as it is.
Where credentials and files are stored
Ditto CLI does not ask for passwords, parse OAuth tokens, or keep credentials in its state file. Signing in still happens through the agent itself — its own login command, or /login inside it — and each agent stores the result wherever it normally would, under the directory Ditto CLI pointed it at:
- Claude Code uses the selected
CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR. On macOS the credentials themselves stay in the system Keychain, keyed to that directory's path, which is what keeps two profiles from sharing one login — and why renaming a profile signs Claude Code out. - Codex keeps its auth state under the selected
CODEX_HOME. - fx keeps its login and sessions under
.fxin the profile's private home; the macOS Keychain, which it would otherwise use, is refused because it is user-wide. - opencode writes
auth.jsoninto the selected data directory. - OMP keeps auth, settings, sessions, and caches under
~/.omp/profiles/<name>/agent. - Prime Agent keeps ordinary provider credentials in the selected agent directory's
auth.json; its sessions and session artifacts stay below the same profile. - Pi keeps provider credentials in the selected agent directory's
auth.json;PI_CODING_AGENT_SESSION_DIRkeeps its transcripts below the same profile. - Every other agent stores its login under the directory or home it was handed; the Supported agents table says which file, and which agents keep it in a keychain instead.
Prime Inference login uses the Prime CLI credential at ~/.prime/config.json, for which Prime Agent exposes no path override; that one provider therefore remains shared across Ditto profiles. PRIME_API_KEY and other API-key environment variables are shared for the same reason any inherited environment credential is.
Prime Agent also uses one user-wide background-service socket, so its agents, list, and attach views can see running agents from other profiles even though each agent receives its selected auth and session roots.
Ditto's status report counts provider credentials in the isolated auth.json, not these ambient sources.
Ditto CLI's own files are laid out like this:
~/.ditto/
├── state.toml
├── workspaces.json # directories bound without a file of their own
└── profiles/
├── work/
│ ├── claude/
│ ├── codex/
│ ├── opencode/
│ │ ├── config/opencode/
│ │ ├── data/opencode/ # auth.json lives here
│ │ └── state/opencode/
│ ├── grok/ # one directory per other agent, named after it
│ ├── droid-home/ # or a private home, for the agents that need one
│ ├── prime-agent/ # auth.json and sessions live here
│ └── pi/ # auth.json and sessions live here
└── personal/
├── claude/
├── codex/
├── opencode/
├── prime-agent/
└── pi/
The nested opencode/ directory is opencode's own doing: it appends its name to every XDG base it is given. OMP profiles are the one thing kept outside this tree, since OMP manages its own profile directory.
Directories are created with user-only permissions on macOS and Linux; see Windows notes for the difference there.
The default profile points to ~/.claude, ~/.codex (or CODEX_HOME when set), opencode's own ~/.local/share/opencode and ~/.config/opencode (or wherever your XDG_* variables already send them), OMP's native ~/.omp/agent profile, Prime Agent's ~/.prime/agent directory (or PRIME_AGENT_CODING_AGENT_DIR when set), and Pi's ~/.pi/agent directory (or PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR when set); every other agent's default is likewise wherever it keeps its files when nothing points it elsewhere, its own variable included. It exposes your existing setup without copying or migrating anything. For opencode the default profile resolves the same XDG bases opencode would pick on its own, so pointing at it changes nothing.
Environment variables
| Variable | Purpose |
|---|---|
DITTO_HOME |
Move Ditto CLI's state and profile directory from ~/.ditto |
DITTO_CLAUDE_BIN |
Override the claude executable |
DITTO_CODEX_BIN |
Override the codex executable |
DITTO_FX_BIN |
Override the fx executable |
DITTO_OPENCODE_BIN |
Override the opencode executable |
DITTO_OMP_BIN |
Override the omp executable |
DITTO_PRIME_AGENT_BIN |
Override the prime-agent executable |
DITTO_PI_BIN |
Override the pi executable |
DITTO_<AGENT>_BIN |
Override any other agent's executable, named from its command: DITTO_CURSOR_AGENT_BIN |
DITTO_PROFILE |
Selected profile name exported to every launched tool, and what Claude Code's status line reports |
DITTO_NO_PROXY |
Hand the terminal straight to the tool, leaving the title to it (macOS and Linux) |
HERDR_PANE_ID |
Read, not set: herdr names the pane it opened, and Ditto CLI steps aside and reports the profile to herdr. See Under herdr |
NO_COLOR |
Draw the Claude Code status line without colour |
Example:
DITTO_HOME="/.config/ditto"
API-key variables such as ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, OPENCODE_API_KEY, and PRIME_API_KEY are inherited by launched tools. They may override a saved subscription login, so Ditto CLI warns when it sees an *_API_KEY, ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN, or HF_TOKEN in the environment.
Renaming a profile signs Claude Code out
Claude Code stores credentials against the configuration directory it was pointed at, so moving that directory loses the sign-in. Renaming a profile moves ~/.ditto/profiles/<name>/claude, and the credentials do not follow it.
Ditto CLI warns before the rename and tells you how to get back in:
Every other agent keeps its credentials in files inside the profile, so they survive a rename untouched — apart from the few the Supported agents table marks as keeping theirs in an OS keychain, which was never per profile to begin with.
Windows notes
Profiles, launching, sign-in status, the Claude Code status line, and every command above work the same as they do elsewhere. Three things are worth knowing:
- Window titles. Naming the profile in the title means sitting between the tool and the terminal, which needs a pseudoterminal; Ditto CLI opens one on macOS and Linux only. On Windows the title is set once before the tool starts, and the tool then paints over it with its own. Claude Code's status line is unaffected, and is the better indicator anyway. Ditto CLI still waits on the tool and exits with its status, and Ctrl-C goes to the tool rather than ending Ditto CLI out from under it.
- Directory permissions. Profile directories are created owner-only on macOS and Linux. Windows has no equivalent mode to set, so profiles inherit the access control of the directory they are created in. That is enough under
%USERPROFILE%; if you pointDITTO_HOMEsomewhere else, put it somewhere private. - Finding the CLIs. On Windows they are usually installed by npm, which writes
claude.cmdrather thanclaude.exe. Windows itself only ever looks for.exe, so Ditto CLI searchesPATHthe way a command prompt does, honouringPATHEXT. A nativeclaude.exeis preferred when both are present.
Remove Ditto CLI
Uninstall the binary:
Profiles are deliberately left alone. If you no longer need their settings, sessions, or credentials, remove ~/.ditto and any matching ~/.omp/profiles/<name> directories yourself.
Development
AGENTS.md has the module layout, the conventions this codebase holds to, and step-by-step recipes for adding a subcommand or a tool. CLAUDE.md points at the same file.
License
Ditto CLI is available under the MIT License.
Ditto CLI is an independent project. It is not affiliated with Anthropic, OpenAI, Prime Intellect, Nintendo, or The Pokémon Company.