claude-switch-models-setup

name

claude-switch-models-setup

description

Set up and maintain multiple isolated Claude Code CLI profiles so students and power users can run different LLM providers (Kimi K3, Kimi K2.7 highspeed, MiniMax M3, MiniMax M2.7, GLM, DeepSeek, StepFun, Anthropic) in separate terminal windows at the same time. Use this skill whenever the user asks about multi-provider Claude setup, multiple Claude Code windows, switching models or the csk/csd/csg aliases, CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR, the ~/.claude-profiles directory, or running Kimi/MiniMax/GLM/DeepSeek/StepFun alongside Anthropic. It also owns profile-drift troubleshooting — a third-party profile missing skills/hooks/plugins the default profile has, claude-profiles-doctor reporting a real directory where a symlink belongs, or settings not converging — and per-provider context-window configuration (the [1m] marker or explicit CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_CONTEXT_TOKENS).

Claude Code Multi-Provider Profiles

Overview

This skill creates an isolated-but-shared profile system for Claude Code CLI. Each profile gets its own .claude.json state file (credentials and session history) while sharing skills, projects, hook scripts, agents, and installed plugin state across all profiles — and converging each profile's settings.json (hook registration, marketplaces, env feature flags, permissions, preferences) from the default profile, so the only intended difference between profiles is the model/provider.

The result: you can open one terminal with Kimi, another with DeepSeek, another with Anthropic — each running as a fully independent Claude Code process, without configuration bleed.

How It Works

• CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR tells Claude Code CLI which directory to use as its config root.
• Each profile lives in ~/.claude-profiles/<name>/ with an isolated .claude.json.
• Content directories (skills/, projects/, hooks/, agents/, settings/) are symlinked back to the main ~/.claude/ directory so you only maintain one copy. Note this shares hook scripts, not hook registration — registration lives in each profile's own settings.json (next bullet).
• Config layer — settings.json: each profile has its own settings.json (Claude Code treats it as config-dir-local), so everything stored there — hook registration, extraKnownMarketplaces, enabledPlugins, env feature flags, permissions, behavior preferences — silently drifts the moment it changes in the default profile (measured 2026-07-18: 9/9 real profiles had zero hook registrations). sync-profile-settings.py is the converger: registered as a SessionStart hook, it copies every key from the default profile's settings.json into the active profile's, except identity keys (top-level model; and env vars that carry provider routing or Anthropic-native isolation — ANTHROPIC_*, CLAUDE_CODE_SUBAGENT_MODEL, ENABLE_TOOL_SEARCH, DISABLE_GROWTHBOOK/TELEMETRY/AUTOUPDATER — which the provider settings file deliberately sets differently). Profile-only keys are preserved; the sync never deletes. This is what makes "everything except the model works in every profile" actually hold.
• Exception — plugins/: marketplace content and install state are shared, but each profile keeps its own known_marketplaces.json. Claude validates a marketplace's installLocation with path.resolve() (which does NOT resolve symlinks), so a single shared file would make every non-writing profile report "corrupted installLocation". claude-plugins-sync.py builds and maintains this per-profile structure.
• claude-plugins-sync.py also mirrors enabledPlugins from the default ~/.claude/settings.json into each profile's settings.json (sharing cache files is not enough; Claude Code treats "enabled" state as config-dir-local). The SessionStart converger above covers the same key as part of its whole-settings sync; claude-plugins-sync.py remains the owner of the per-profile known_marketplaces.json structure.
• Local source sync is automatic on maintainer machines. Installed Claude plugin cache directories and Codex/agents skill copies are symlinked to the source repos, so normal source edits are live immediately. sync-local-skill-sources.py is the idempotent repair primitive; claude-profile init/launch runs it automatically, and sync-local-skill-sources-daemon.sh --install installs a macOS LaunchAgent that watches default Claude install state plus local marketplace manifests for structural changes. When a skill is removed from a marketplace manifest, the same repair pass prunes only stale Codex/agents symlinks that point back into the managed source repos, plus superseded version-alias symlinks in the plugin cache and all but the newest KEEP_JSON_BACKUPS copies of installed_plugins.json; it never deletes real skill directories.
  • Pitfalls with daemon-owned symlinks (both observed 2026-07): ① never hand-create a symlink into a daemon-owned directory (ln -s <repo>/<skill> ~/.codex/skills/<skill>) — if the daemon already created it, BSD ln puts the new link inside the target directory, leaving a self-referential <skill>/<skill> stray that directory walks can recurse into; repair by hand only with ln -sfn, or after readlink confirms the link is missing. ② Verify symlinks with readlink, not ls -la <link> — ls follows the link and lists the target's contents, which reads as "link created" even when the actual outcome was a stray inside the target.
• Sync scripts use a shared cross-process lock. This is required because users often open several provider windows from tmux or multiple terminals at once; concurrent launches must serialize marketplace/cache rewrites while still allowing all profiles to start.
• For the full local-source architecture, read references/local-source-sync-architecture.md before changing these scripts.
• Provider routing is done via ~/.claude/settings/<name>.json, which sets ANTHROPIC_MODEL, ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL, and ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN for that window.

One-Click Setup Workflow

When the user says something like "set up Claude Code profiles" or "I want to use Kimi and DeepSeek in different windows":

1. Check prerequisites

   • claude CLI is installed: which claude
   • Shell is zsh or bash: detect via $SHELL
   • python3 is available

2. Install the profile manager scripts — symlink them, do not copy

   On a machine that has this repo checked out (the maintainer case), run the bundled installer — it does exactly what the manual form below does:

   <absolute-path-to-this-repo>/daymade-claude-code/claude-switch-models-setup/scripts/setup.sh
   

   Or link them by hand. REPO must be an absolute path: with a relative one every command below still succeeds and exits 0, leaving five dangling links that break csk and the LaunchAgent with no error to trace.

   REPO=<absolute-path-to-this-repo>/daymade-claude-code/claude-switch-models-setup
   DST=~/.config/claude-switch-models-setup
   mkdir -p "$DST"
   for f in scripts/claude-profiles.sh \
            scripts/claude-plugins-sync.py \
            scripts/sync-local-skill-sources.py \
            scripts/sync-local-skill-sources-daemon.sh \
            scripts/sync-profile-settings.py; do
     ln -sf "$REPO/$f" "$DST/$(basename "$f")"
   done
   

   The five paths are spelled out rather than globbed so that reading this file tells you which scripts exist and where — scripts/*.sh would not. No chmod step: all five are committed executable, so setting the bit again would only dirty the checkout with mode changes that then ride into somebody else's commit.

   Why symlinks and not cp: ~/.config/… is what actually runs — the LaunchAgent and claude-profile invoke scripts by that path — while this repo holds their source. Copies drift, and nothing about a deployed copy looks different from its source, so "am I editing the SSOT?" is not a judgement anyone reliably makes. Measured on one machine before the switch: a lock-placement fix sat in the repo for 26 days while the deployed copy kept running the bug it fixed, and two cleanup routines written straight into the deployed copy never reached version control at all — A link removes both, — an atomic-save editor, an or a stray turns one back into a real file without saying so, which is why this is worth re-checking rather than declaring solved. It also lets locate its own source repo by resolving its own path, instead of falling back to guessing.

Commands

After setup, the user can run:

claude-profiles-init          # Re-scan settings/*.json, create missing profiles;
                               # reports symlink drift (real dirs that should be symlinks).
                               # Add --repair to archive drift and replace with symlinks.
claude-profile <name>         # Launch a specific profile
claude-profiles-ls            # List profiles
claude-profiles-doctor        # Check symlink health
claude-profile-rm <name>      # Remove a profile's isolation directory
python3 ~/.config/claude-switch-models-setup/claude-plugins-sync.py
                               # Repair per-profile plugin structure and enabledPlugins
python3 ~/.config/claude-switch-models-setup/sync-profile-settings.py --all
                               # Converge every profile's settings.json from the default
                               # profile (hooks, marketplaces, env flags, permissions,
                               # preferences); --check --all audits without writing
python3 ~/.config/claude-switch-models-setup/sync-local-skill-sources.py --apply
                               # Maintainers: one-shot repair for Claude/Codex source symlinks
~/.config/claude-switch-models-setup/sync-local-skill-sources-daemon.sh --install
                               # Maintainers: install automatic macOS watcher

These are not day-to-day commands. Normal source edits are live through symlinks. The one-shot commands are for repair, bootstrap, or non-macOS environments without the LaunchAgent watcher.

Provider Templates

Templates live in assets/templates/:

• minimax.json — MiniMax-M3, global endpoint, 1M context, adaptive or disabled thinking
• minimax-cn.json — MiniMax-M3, China endpoint, 1M context, adaptive or disabled thinking
• minimax-m2-7.json — MiniMax-M2.7, global endpoint, 204800-token context, always-on thinking
• minimax-m2-7-cn.json — MiniMax-M2.7, China endpoint, 204800-token context, always-on thinking
• kimi.json — Kimi K3 (1M context via the [1m] marker — see "Configuring Context Window Size" below)
• kimi-highspeed.json — Kimi K2.7 highspeed (legacy 200K context)
• glm.json
• deepseek.json
• stepfun.json
• anthropic.json

Every template uses the <API_KEY> placeholder. Templates for configurable gateways also use <BASE_URL>; the MiniMax templates pin the documented regional endpoint. Ask the user for every real placeholder value; do not guess or reuse values from the current machine unless the user explicitly provides them.

MiniMax model behavior

Templates	Model	Context configuration	Thinking behavior
minimax.json, minimax-cn.json	MiniMax-M3	Append [1m] to every routed model value and set CLAUDE_CODE_AUTO_COMPACT_WINDOW to 1000000.	Supports adaptive or disabled thinking. Keep ANTHROPIC_REASONING_MODEL on the same model.
minimax-m2-7.json, minimax-m2-7-cn.json	MiniMax-M2.7	Set CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_CONTEXT_TOKENS and CLAUDE_CODE_AUTO_COMPACT_WINDOW to 204800; do not append [1m].	Thinking is always on; do not claim a template-level disable path.

Configuring Context Window Size

Every provider template sets the model's context window one of two ways — get this wrong and Claude Code doesn't know how much context the model can actually hold. Undershoot and it compacts (summarizes, drops old detail) far earlier than the provider actually requires; overshoot and it won't compact until the real limit is already blown past.

The full client-side mechanism of the [1m] marker — what it strips off the model field, what it adds to the anthropic-beta header, and why a missing [1m] does not mean the provider can't hold a big prompt — is documented in references/context-window-config.md. Reach for it when a context number looks wrong, not at template-writing time.

Decision rule

When writing a new provider's settings/<name>.json, pick based on the provider's real, verified context window — not the model's marketing name, and not by copying whatever the nearest template happens to do:

Provider's real context window	What to set	Example template
~1M tokens, explicitly confirmed (not assumed from the model's tier/name)	[1m] suffix on every ANTHROPIC_MODEL / ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_*_MODEL / CLAUDE_CODE_SUBAGENT_MODEL value. Must be the exact 4 characters [1m] — Claude Code matches this literal string, not a made-up marker like [1million] or [max].	kimi.json
A known, smaller size (e.g. 200K)	Explicit CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_CONTEXT_TOKENS and/or CLAUDE_CODE_AUTO_COMPACT_WINDOW set to the real number — no [1m].	kimi-highspeed.json (200000)
Unknown / not yet verified	Don't guess, and don't copy another provider's number just because a template needs something there. Ask the user to check the provider's own docs/console first. An unverified [1m] or an unverified large CLAUDE_CODE_AUTO_COMPACT_WINDOW just moves the failure from "compacts too early" to "doesn't compact until well past the real limit" — worse, because it's silent until a request actually fails.

deepseek.json and glm.json set both [1m] and an explicit CLAUDE_CODE_AUTO_COMPACT_WINDOW: "1000000". That's belt-and-suspenders, not redundant filler to strip out — the exact precedence between the marker and the explicit override hasn't been independently reverse-engineered, so if you're copying one of those two templates, keep both rather than dropping one.

The MiniMax-M3 templates use the same 1M marker plus an explicit 1000000 auto-compact value. The MiniMax-M2.7 templates use explicit 204800 limits with no marker.

The full step-2-16k template-correctness war-story (why an internally-consistent-looking context value is not the same as a currently-correct one — cross-check the model name against the provider's live docs, not just the numbers around it), plus a reusable recipe to verify whether any env var actually changes the bytes sent over the wire (a local http.server capture, since --debug api only shows internal state), live in references/context-window-config.md.

Common base URLs (verify with your provider)

Provider	Typical base URL
Kimi	https://api.moonshot.cn or OpenRouter-compatible endpoint
GLM	https://open.bigmodel.cn/api/paas/v4 or OpenRouter-compatible endpoint
DeepSeek	https://api.deepseek.com or OpenRouter-compatible endpoint
StepFun	https://api.stepfun.com or OpenRouter-compatible endpoint
MiniMax	Global: https://api.minimax.io/anthropic; China: https://api.minimaxi.com/anthropic
Anthropic	https://api.anthropic.com

Important: The exact endpoint depends on whether the user is calling the provider directly or through a compatibility gateway (e.g., OpenRouter). Always ask.

Shared vs. Isolated

Data	Location	Shared?
Session history	~/.claude-profiles/<name>/.claude.json	Isolated per profile
Auth tokens/cache	~/.claude-profiles/<name>/.claude.json	Isolated per profile
Skills	~/.claude/skills/	Shared via symlink
Plugin content	~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces, cache, data, ...	Shared via symlink
Plugin install registry	~/.claude/plugins/installed_plugins.json	Shared via symlink
Enabled plugin map	~/.claude/settings.json -> <profile>/settings.json	Converged by sync-profile-settings.py (also mirrored by claude-plugins-sync.py)
Plugin marketplace index	<profile>/plugins/known_marketplaces.json	Per-profile (installLocation is config-dir-specific; can't be shared)
Projects/memory	~/.claude/projects/, ~/.claude/memory/	Shared via symlink
Hook scripts	~/.claude/hooks/, ~/.claude/commands/	Shared via symlink (scripts only — NOT registration)
settings.json config: hook registration, marketplaces, env flags, permissions, preferences	<profile>/settings.json	Converged from default profile by sync-profile-settings.py at session start (identity keys like model and provider-routing/isolation env vars are never synced)
Provider settings	~/.claude/settings/<name>.json	Shared source, loaded per profile

Troubleshooting

A profile directory exists but claude-profiles-doctor reports it as an "orphan profile"

Symptom: claude-profiles-doctor reports WARN: orphan profile — no settings/<name>.json; claude-profile <name> fails. Run: claude-profile-rm <name>.

Cause: the profile isolation directory exists under ~/.claude-profiles/ but the corresponding ~/.claude/settings/<name>.json provider config file is missing. claude-profiles-init only scans settings/*.json, so an orphan profile's symlinks are never created or maintained, and claude-profile <name> will fail to launch with "Error: Settings file not found." The profile directory may still contain useful per-profile data (history.jsonl, .claude.json with provider credentials, settings.json, skill workspaces).

Fix:

• If the profile is no longer needed: claude-profile-rm <name> — this safely removes the isolation directory (it checks for unexpected files first).
• If you want to revive it: recreate the settings file at ~/.claude/settings/<name>.json (use a provider template from assets/templates/), then run claude-profiles-init.

A shared directory (skills/projects/hooks/agents/...) shows as a real directory, not a symlink

Symptom: claude-profiles-doctor reports <name> is a real directory (expected symlink to ~/.claude/<name>) — drift; run: claude-profiles-init --repair.

Cause: the profile was created before the symlink-convergence design landed (or was hand-created), so a shared content directory ended up as a real per-profile directory instead of a symlink. That profile's copy now silently diverges from the main ~/.claude/ copy — its skills/projects/hooks/agents are not the same as every other profile's. The broken-symlink check cannot see this (a real directory is not a broken link); on a real machine this drift went undetected for months until the dedicated real-directory check was added (2026-07-21: legacy profiles created before this check existed carried real projects/ dirs for months, undetected).

Fix (reversible — data is archived, never deleted):

claude-profiles-init --repair

For each drifted directory this archives the real dir to <name>.pre-symlink-bak-<timestamp> inside the profile directory, then creates the symlink that should have been there. Run claude-profiles-doctor again to confirm a clean bill. If an archive turns out to hold data you need, it is sitting right there — nothing was destroyed.

Note on what gets shared: after repair, that directory points at the main ~/.claude/<name> copy, so the profile sees the same skills/projects/etc. as the default profile — which is the entire point of the shared-symlink design. The per-profile state that must stay isolated (.claude.json, settings.json identity keys like model/provider env, plugins/known_marketplaces.json) is never one of these symlinked dirs, so repair never touches it. Inspect the archive before discarding it if the profile held session/history data you care about — those would now resolve to the shared copy.

Marketplace says "corrupted installLocation"

Symptom: /plugin or claude plugin marketplace update reports corrupted installLocation ... expected a path inside <config-dir>/plugins/marketplaces.

Cause: known_marketplaces.json ended up shared across profiles (or hand-edited). Its installLocation is config-dir-specific because Claude validates with path.resolve() (symlinks NOT resolved), so one shared copy cannot satisfy multiple profiles.

Fix: claude-plugins-sync.py rebuilds each profile's own copy + the shared-content symlinks. It runs automatically at claude-profile init/launch; to run manually:

python3 ~/.config/claude-switch-models-setup/claude-plugins-sync.py

Skill exists in default Claude but is missing in Kimi/GLM/DeepSeek

Symptom: the default Anthropic profile can see a skill, but a third-party profile cannot.

Cause: Claude Code stores enabledPlugins in each config directory's settings.json. Sharing plugins/cache only makes files available; it does not enable them.

Fix:

python3 ~/.config/claude-switch-models-setup/claude-plugins-sync.py

Then restart the affected Claude Code window.

Local source edits do not show up in Claude Code or Codex

Symptom: you edit a skill in a local source repo, but Claude Code or Codex still loads an old installed copy.

Expected design: normal edits to existing source files are live immediately because the installed locations are symlinks. Existing Claude Code/Codex sessions may still need a restart because skill metadata is loaded at session start.

If the edit is structural (new plugin, new skill entry, version bump, install/uninstall, or marketplace manifest change), the macOS LaunchAgent should run automatically. Check:

launchctl print gui/$(id -u)/ai.daymade.claude-skill-source-sync

Repair manually only if the watcher is not installed or you are on a non-macOS machine:

python3 ~/.config/claude-switch-models-setup/sync-local-skill-sources.py --apply

This moves existing real copies into timestamped .source-sync-backups/ folders, replaces them with symlinks to the source repos, and prunes stale managed symlinks after a skill is removed from the manifest.

It also cleans up after itself, which earlier versions did not:

• Version-alias symlinks. Each cache link is named after the marketplace's current version, so every version bump left the previous link behind pointing at the very same source directory. One plugin had six version directories, four of them aliases for one source. The pass now removes sibling links that resolve to the same source; real directories are never touched, since Claude Code installs those and a live session may still hold them through .in_use.
• installed_plugins.json backups. Every run that changes the JSON writes one, and nothing removed them — a month of runs left 453 files behind. The KEEP_JSON_BACKUPS constant in the script caps the retained set; the names end in a YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS stamp, so lexical order is chronological.

Both are visible in a dry run before --apply touches anything.

A profile is missing hooks, marketplaces, env flags, or other default-profile settings

Symptom: the default profile has hook guards, marketplaces, or feature flags configured, but a third-party profile behaves as if they don't exist (no PreToolUse guards fire, claude plugin marketplace list is empty, a feature enabled in the default profile is off).

Cause: those live in each profile's own settings.json, which is config-dir-local — symlinking directories does not cover the config layer, and it drifts silently the moment the default profile changes.

Fix:

python3 ~/.config/claude-switch-models-setup/sync-profile-settings.py --all

Then restart the affected window. Once the converger is registered as a SessionStart hook (setup step 6), every profile self-converges at session start, so this should only be needed after a manual settings edit you want propagated immediately.

Third-party profile tries to use Anthropic-specific features

Symptom: WebSearch or other Anthropic-native tools fail with 400 errors. Fix: Ensure the profile's settings.json sets:

{
  "env": {
    "ENABLE_TOOL_SEARCH": "false",
    "DISABLE_GROWTHBOOK": "1",
    "DISABLE_TELEMETRY": "1",
    "DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER": "1"
  }
}

Subagent calls fall back to a different model

Symptom: Subagents inside a Kimi window call claude-opus-4-7. Fix: Set CLAUDE_CODE_SUBAGENT_MODEL to the same value as ANTHROPIC_MODEL in the profile's settings.json.

A huge-context provider compacts/summarizes way too early, or the statusline context number looks wrong

Symptom: a provider whose own docs claim ~1M tokens of context gets auto-compacted by Claude Code well below that — long sessions get summarized when there's clearly no real need to yet, or the context percentage in the statusline tracks like it's looking at a ~200K model instead of the real ceiling.

Cause: the profile's ANTHROPIC_MODEL (and its ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_*_MODEL / CLAUDE_CODE_SUBAGENT_MODEL siblings) is missing the [1m] marker. Claude Code has no other way to learn the provider's real context size — the request itself succeeding with a huge prompt doesn't tell Claude Code anything, since that's a property of the upstream provider, not of the client. See references/context-window-config.md for the full mechanism.

Fix: add the literal [1m] suffix to ANTHROPIC_MODEL, every ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_*_MODEL, and CLAUDE_CODE_SUBAGENT_MODEL in the profile's settings.json (match kimi.json's pattern). Restart the affected window.

Adding a New Provider Later

1. Create ~/.claude/settings/<new-provider>.json using a template.
2. Check the provider's real, verified context window and configure it — [1m] marker or explicit CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_CONTEXT_TOKENS/CLAUDE_CODE_AUTO_COMPACT_WINDOW, see "Configuring Context Window Size" below and references/context-window-config.md. Don't skip this because the template you copied from happened not to need it.
3. Run claude-profiles-init.
4. Add an alias to the shell rc file if desired.

Security Notes

• API keys are written to ~/.claude/settings/<provider>.json in plain text, the same way Claude Code stores ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN. This matches Claude Code's own security model.
• This skill never uploads keys or settings anywhere.
• For public distribution, the bundled scripts contain no hardcoded secrets, endpoints, or user-specific paths.

Next Step

After setup, the user can immediately test by opening two terminals and running csk (Kimi K3) in one and csd in the other. Each window is independent.