PDF Case Review

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Use personal and school Claude accounts ​

Many students have two Claude logins: a personal subscription and one their school provides for course material. Licensed case PDFs should only be processed under the school account, but logging out and back in for every switch is slow and easy to forget. This guide keeps both logins installed at once and gives you one command to switch. Codex is covered at the end.

Why this works (one login directory per account, and the CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR variable that selects it) is explained in How Claude Code and Codex know who you are.

1. Create the school login once ​

This guide uses ~/.claude for personal (the default, nothing to change) and ~/.claude-school for school. Run Claude Code with CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR pointing at the school directory and sign in with the school account when the browser opens:

powershell
# Windows, PowerShell
$env:CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR = "$HOME\.claude-school"; claude
bash
# macOS and Linux
CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.claude-school claude

Type /status inside the session to confirm which account is signed in, then /exit.

2. Add switcher commands to your shell ​

Paste one of the blocks below into your shell profile so four commands are always available:

  • claude-school and claude-personal start one session under that account, without changing anything else.
  • claude-which prints which account this terminal uses and which one is the computer-wide default.
  • claude-use school or claude-use personal changes the computer-wide default, which is what the Claude Code VS Code extension and the desktop app use (see step 3).

Windows (PowerShell) ​

Open your profile with notepad $PROFILE (create it if Notepad asks) and add:

powershell
$script:ClaudeSchoolDir = Join-Path $HOME '.claude-school'

function claude-school {
    $env:CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR = $script:ClaudeSchoolDir
    claude @args
}

function claude-personal {
    Remove-Item Env:CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    claude @args
}

function claude-which {
    $session = if ($env:CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR -eq $script:ClaudeSchoolDir) { 'school' }
        elseif ($env:CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR) { "custom ($env:CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR)" } else { 'personal' }
    $persistent = [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable('CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR', 'User')
    $default = if ($persistent -eq $script:ClaudeSchoolDir) { 'school' }
        elseif ($persistent) { "custom ($persistent)" } else { 'personal' }
    Write-Host "This terminal:   $session"
    Write-Host "PC-wide default: $default  (VS Code extension and desktop app use this)"
}

function claude-use {
    param([Parameter(Mandatory)][ValidateSet('personal', 'school')][string]$Account)
    $value = if ($Account -eq 'school') { $script:ClaudeSchoolDir } else { $null }
    [Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR', $value, 'User')
    if ($value) { $env:CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR = $value }
    else { Remove-Item Env:CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue }
    Write-Host "PC-wide default is now '$Account'. Fully restart VS Code or the desktop app to use it."
}

Open a new terminal (or run . $PROFILE) and try claude-which. If PowerShell refuses to load the profile, run Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned once.

macOS and Linux (bash or zsh) ​

Add to ~/.zshrc (macOS default) or ~/.bashrc:

bash
CLAUDE_SCHOOL_DIR="$HOME/.claude-school"
CLAUDE_DEFAULT_FILE="$HOME/.claude-default-account"
if [ "$(cat "$CLAUDE_DEFAULT_FILE" 2>/dev/null)" = school ]; then
    export CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR="$CLAUDE_SCHOOL_DIR"
fi

claude-school()   { CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR="$CLAUDE_SCHOOL_DIR" claude "$@"; }
claude-personal() { env -u CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR claude "$@"; }

claude-which() {
    local session=personal default=personal
    [ "$CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR" = "$CLAUDE_SCHOOL_DIR" ] && session=school
    [ -n "$CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR" ] && [ "$session" = personal ] && session="custom ($CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR)"
    [ "$(cat "$CLAUDE_DEFAULT_FILE" 2>/dev/null)" = school ] && default=school
    echo "This terminal:  $session"
    echo "Default:        $default  (new terminals, and VS Code when launched from one)"
}

claude-use() {
    case "$1" in
        school)   echo school > "$CLAUDE_DEFAULT_FILE"; export CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR="$CLAUDE_SCHOOL_DIR" ;;
        personal) echo personal > "$CLAUDE_DEFAULT_FILE"; unset CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR ;;
        *) echo "usage: claude-use school|personal" >&2; return 1 ;;
    esac
    echo "Default is now '$1'. Open a new terminal, and launch VS Code from it with: code ."
}

Run source ~/.zshrc (or ~/.bashrc) and try claude-which.

3. Make VS Code and the desktop app follow ​

The Claude Code VS Code extension and the Claude desktop app read CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR from the environment they were launched with, so they follow the default, not the terminal you happen to have open.

  • Windows: claude-use school stores the variable at the user level. Quit VS Code completely (File > Exit, not just the window or a reload) and reopen it; the extension's chat panel now uses the school login.
  • macOS and Linux: apps launched from the Dock or a launcher do not see shell variables. After claude-use school, open a new terminal in your case folder and start VS Code from it with code . so it inherits the variable. (If code is not found, run Shell Command: Install 'code' command in PATH from the Command Palette once.)

Run /status in the extension's chat to check which account it is using.

4. Let the extension choose the account for you ​

For the built-in executive summary you do not need to switch at all. Register the school directory in PDF Case Review's settings and add a rule saying which documents must use it; the extension then runs the CLI with CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR set for that run only and verifies the signed-in email before anything is sent:

jsonc
// settings.json
"pdfCaseReview.ai.accounts": [
  { "id": "school", "provider": "claude-cli", "configDir": "~/.claude-school" }
],
"pdfCaseReview.ai.requiredAccount": [
  { "when": { "protected": true }, "email": "you@school.edu", "use": "school" }
]

The Configure... gear in the viewer's title bar has an Add an AI Account... flow that writes both settings, creates the login directory and opens a sign-in terminal. Details, including rules by folder or by the document's own authorization line, are in Use Claude Code or Codex as your reviewer.

5. Optional: make the personal account ask before reading school files ​

If your school cases live in one folder, tell the personal login to ask before reading anything in it. Then a slip (running claude in the wrong terminal and asking about a case) prompts instead of silently sending licensed text under the wrong account. In the personal profile's ~/.claude/settings.json:

jsonc
{
  "permissions": {
    "ask": ["Read(/Users/you/School/**)"]
  }
}

On Windows write the path with forward slashes: Read(C:/Users/you/School/**). The school profile has its own ~/.claude-school/settings.json and needs no rule.

Codex ​

Codex works the same way with CODEX_HOME, which relocates its ~/.codex directory. Unlike Claude Code, Codex does not create the directory for you, so when signing in by hand make it first:

bash
# macOS and Linux
mkdir -p ~/.codex-school && CODEX_HOME=~/.codex-school codex
powershell
# Windows, PowerShell
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force "$HOME\.codex-school" | Out-Null
$env:CODEX_HOME = "$HOME\.codex-school"; codex

Register it for the extension under the same id as the Claude entry, "school", with "provider": "codex-cli" and "configDir": "~/.codex-school" in pdfCaseReview.ai.accounts. An id is unique per provider, so the rule from step 4 keeps working: use: "school" picks the entry for whichever provider is active, and switching pdfCaseReview.ai.provider (click the AI status bar item, or run Choose AI Provider...) moves the run to the matching login directory without editing the rule. The guided Add an AI Account... flow does the same: pick Codex, enter school, and it creates the directory before opening the sign-in terminal, skipping the "when should this account be used?" question because the existing rule already covers the id. If your Codex login has a different email from your Claude login, drop email from the rule and rely on use alone. The switcher functions above translate directly: replace CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR with CODEX_HOME and claude with codex.

Troubleshooting ​

  • The consent dialog names the wrong email. Nothing has been sent. Click Wrong account? Show how to switch, or add the rule from step 4 so the extension picks the account itself.
  • VS Code still shows the old account after claude-use. A window reload is not enough; quit the application fully and reopen it. On a Mac, launch it from a terminal with code ..
  • Not sure which account a terminal is using. Run claude-which, or /status inside a session.
  • The switcher commands are not on this machine. Run claude, type /logout, then claude again and sign in with the account you need. This changes the login inside whichever directory is active.