How to Switch Gemini CLI Accounts

Gemini CLI keeps its credentials and local configuration together under ~/.gemini, so switching accounts by hand means backing up and swapping that whole directory. aisw does this as one profile switch.

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 Gemini CLI is already signed in, 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 gemini work --from-live

Re-running aisw init later is safe — it re-detects live accounts and reports current state without touching profiles you’ve already saved.

2. Add a second account.

aisw add gemini personal

Or with an API key:

aisw add gemini personal --api-key "$GEMINI_API_KEY"

3. Switch between them.

aisw use gemini work
aisw use gemini personal

4. Confirm the active profile.

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 Gemini profile flow below.

1. Open AI Switcher Desktop and go to Overview.
2. In the Gemini CLI column, select the profile you want and click Activate.
3. The state-mode badge always reads Isolated for Gemini — this is expected.

Common problems

If aisw add gemini <name> --from-live reports nothing to import, confirm Gemini CLI has actually completed a sign-in first — aisw can only capture credentials that already exist on disk.

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

If add fails with “profile already exists” instead, that’s a plain name collision — pick a different name, or re-run with --yes to overwrite the existing profile.