How to Switch Codex CLI Accounts

Codex CLI keeps one active account in auth.json or a system keyring, with no built-in concept of saved, named accounts. Switching normally means manually backing up and restoring that file. aisw wraps that process in a single command.

Before you start

Install aisw if you haven’t already:

brew tap burakdede/tap && brew install aisw

CLI method

1. Capture the account you’re currently signed into.

aisw init

If Codex CLI is already signed in when you run this, init detects it and offers to import it as a named profile right in the prompt — accept it and skip the next command. Otherwise, or if you already ran init on this machine before, capture it explicitly:

aisw add codex work --from-live

Re-running aisw init later is safe; it just re-detects live accounts and reports current state without touching profiles you’ve already saved. For a durable Codex profile that survives future ChatGPT-managed token refreshes cleanly, sign in directly into the named profile instead of relying on --from-live long-term — see the next step.

2. Add a second account.

Interactively, using Codex CLI’s own OAuth flow:

aisw add codex personal

Or from an API key already in your environment:

aisw add codex ci --from-env

3. Switch between them.

aisw use codex work
aisw use codex personal

4. Confirm which account is active.

aisw status

Desktop method

AI Switcher Desktop v0.2.0 is publicly available, and the current release assets cover macOS, Windows x64, and Linux x64. Download the matching build from /download/, then follow the same switch flow below.

1. Open AI Switcher Desktop and go to Overview.
2. In the Codex CLI column, select the profile you want active and click Activate.
3. Or press ⌘K for Quick Switch and type the profile name.

Common problems

If aisw add codex <name> --from-live fails to read the current credentials, Codex CLI may be using a keyring backend aisw doesn’t have permission to read yet — re-run the command after granting keyring access when your OS prompts for it. For anything else, aisw doctor diagnoses common environment issues.

If add fails with an error naming a different existing profile, that Codex account is already saved under that name — aisw checks the underlying OpenAI identity, not just the profile name, and won’t create a duplicate. Use the existing profile or remove it first if you actually want to re-add it under a new name.

If add fails with “profile already exists” instead, that’s a name collision rather than an account duplicate — pick a different name, or re-run with --yes to overwrite the existing profile’s stored credential.