shannoncoat/README.md

Run multiple isolated * Claude profiles on macOS from a menu-bar item — each its own Claude Desktop and paired Claude Code setup, its windows tagged to tell them apart. Your normal install is untouched.

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Note

shannoncoat started as the shell script in the first commit, written by hand. Claude built the GUI app out of it — most of the Swift, the icon, and this README — working from human direction, review, and dogfooding.

Install

macOS 13+, Claude Desktop.

1. Download shannoncoat.app.zip from the latest release, unzip, and move to /Applications or ~/Applications.
2. First launch is blocked (not notarized): System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.
3. Grant Accessibility when prompted; the tags need it.

Everyday use

With nothing running, shannoncoat offers a checklist and starts whichever profiles you tick. The menu bar shows a dot per running profile in its colour, plus the name when only one is up; hover for the rest.

• Click a profile — switch to it; the others are quit, even if it's already running.
• Shift-click — open it alongside them, or focus it if already up.

Settings → Click a profile to swaps the two. ⇆ marks the last one you switched to. Close Profile quits one, Quit Claude all (shannoncoat stays), Manage Profiles… opens the main window.

Each managed window carries a tag in its profile's colour — drag it anywhere, and each profile remembers its spot.

Profiles

default is your real Claude install: start/stop only, never managed, so it gets no tag and can't be deleted.

Manage Profiles… → + adds one. Directories are optional — blank gives ~/.shannoncoat/data/<name>/{app,code}. Two profiles may not share a directory; that would silently merge their sessions, so shannoncoat refuses to start and names the collision.

Profiles are JSON files in ~/.shannoncoat/. Deleting one quits it and removes just that file — the Claude data stays on disk, so recreating it resumes where you left off.

Settings

• Launch at Login
• Click a profile to — switch or open alongside; Shift-click does the other.
• Window tag — name chip or coloured dot.
• Automatically check for updates — once a day at most, against the latest GitHub release, or Check for Updates… on demand. It never self-updates; download and swap the app in yourself.

Troubleshooting

Tags don't appear. Almost always Accessibility. If shannoncoat is listed and ticked under Privacy & Security → Accessibility, remove it with − and re-add — a differently-signed build leaves the old entry visible but inert, and toggling won't help.

A profile restarts into the default one. Claude's auto-updater relaunches the app with no profile flags. Turn auto-updates off with the disableAutoUpdates policy, then update by hand and restart from shannoncoat:

OS	Where
macOS	/Library/Managed Preferences/com.anthropic.claudefordesktop.plist — <key>disableAutoUpdates</key><true/>
Windows	HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Claude — disableAutoUpdates (DWORD 1)
Linux	/etc/claude-desktop/managed-settings.json — {"disableAutoUpdates": true}

A profile won't quit. Claude declined — usually its "unsaved work" or "still generating" dialog. shannoncoat waits rather than killing it.

Build from source

Needs the Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install).

./build.sh

Lands in .build/shannoncoat.app. Unsigned builds get a new code identity each time, silently voiding Accessibility on every rebuild; .env.example covers a one-off self-signed certificate that avoids it.

Isolation

Important

Isolation isn't perfect. Claude and Claude Code can have effectively full disk access from any profile, default config folders included, and some integrations — skills, plugins — hardcode ~/.claude and write there.