aimux

Local AI workspace orchestrator — manage multiple AI CLI subscriptions with shared knowledge and isolated authentication.

Problem

You have multiple Claude Code subscriptions (personal, work, client) each in separate ~/.claude-* directories. You maintain symlinks manually, duplicate settings, and juggle bash functions to switch between them.

Solution

aimux treats your AI CLI configs like tmux treats terminals: one shared brain, multiple isolated sessions.

• Shared layer: agents, skills, commands, rules, memory, plugins, settings — symlinked from a single source of truth
• Private layer: credentials, rate limits, session state — isolated per profile
• Zero duplication: add a skill once, available everywhere

Install

npm install -g @digital-threads/aimux

Getting Started

You have ~/.claude + extra directories (~/.claude-work, etc.)

npm install -g aimux
aimux init              # auto-detects all ~/.claude* dirs
aimux status            # verify profiles, auth, symlinks
aimux run w             # launch work profile (prefix matching)

You have only ~/.claude (one subscription)

npm install -g aimux
aimux init              # creates config with main profile
aimux profile add work  # add a new profile
aimux auth login work   # OAuth for the new account
aimux profile update w -m claude-opus-4-6
aimux run w

You want to connect a 3rd-party / self-hosted API endpoint

aimux profile add myapi --api
# Configure API endpoint (leave blank to use default):
#   Base URL:                          https://api.your-provider.com/v1
#   Auth token:                        [hidden]
#   Default model [claude-sonnet-4-6]:
#   Opus model    [claude-opus-4-6]:
#   Sonnet model  [claude-sonnet-4-6]:
#   Haiku model   [claude-haiku-4-5]:
# ✓ Credentials saved to ~/.aimux/profiles/myapi/.env (chmod 600)
aimux run myapi

See Per-profile environment variables for the declarative alternative (.env file / env: block) used by power users and CI.

Fresh machine (nothing installed)

# Install Claude CLI first, then:
claude auth login       # creates ~/.claude
npm install -g @digital-threads/aimux
aimux init
aimux profile add work
aimux auth login work

Day-to-day usage

aimux run               # interactive picker (↑↓ + Enter)
aimux run w             # prefix match → work
aimux run o -m claude-sonnet-4-6  # one-time model override
aimux run w --resume    # flags pass through to Claude CLI
aimux status            # dashboard
aimux usage             # token usage by profile for the last 7 days
aimux usage --all       # all known transcript usage

# Set default model per profile (quote model names with special chars)
aimux profile update w -m claude-opus-4-6
aimux profile update o -m "claude-opus-4-6[1m]"

# Set a fallback model, tried automatically when the primary is overloaded/unavailable
aimux profile update w --fallback-model claude-sonnet-4-6
aimux profile update w --unset-fallback-model   # remove it

Commands

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | aimux init | Auto-detect Claude dirs, create config, migrate profiles | | aimux init --source <path> | Initialize with explicit source directory | | aimux status | TUI dashboard — profiles, auth, auto-mode posture, symlink health | | aimux usage | Show token usage by profile from Claude transcript metadata | | aimux usage --profile work --since 24h | Show usage for one profile over a recent window | | aimux run [profile] | Launch AI CLI with correct env and model | | aimux run | Interactive picker — history pre-selects last used profile | | aimux run w | Prefix matching — launches work if unambiguous | | aimux run work -m claude-sonnet-4-6 | Launch with model override | | aimux agents | Multi-profile agent view — see and manage claude background sessions across all profiles in one TUI | | aimux profile add <name> | Create new profile with symlinks | | aimux profile add <name> --api | Create a 3rd-party API profile (interactive endpoint + token prompt) | | aimux profile add <name> --cli codex | Create a profile for another AI CLI (e.g. Codex) | | aimux handoff <sessionId> --to <profile> | Continue a session under another profile/CLI via summary handoff | | aimux profile update <name> | Update model/cli settings | | aimux profile update <name> --fallback-model <model> | Set a fallback model, used when the primary is overloaded/unavailable | | aimux profile update <name> --unset-fallback-model | Remove the fallback model | | aimux profile update <name> -e KEY=VALUE | Set an env var in the profile .env file | | aimux profile update <name> --unset-env KEY | Remove an env var from the profile .env file | | aimux profile list | List all profiles | | aimux profile remove <name> | Remove profile and clean up | | aimux profile clone <src> <name> | Clone profile with private files | | aimux rebuild [profile] | Sync symlinks and surface local shared-file conflicts | | aimux doctor | Health check — broken symlinks, missing shared entries, conflicts | | aimux auth login <profile> | Launch OAuth flow for a profile | | aimux auth status | Show auth file status per profile | | aimux setup-shell | Auto-install shell completions (bash/zsh/fish) | | aimux migrate isolate | One-time migration: convert per-profile jobs/, daemon/, projects/ symlinks into real private dirs so each profile gets its own supervisor and sessions. Safe — no data is deleted. Add --dry-run to preview. |

All profile commands support prefix matching: aimux run w → work, aimux profile update o → own.

How It Works

~/.claude/          ← source of truth (your main profile)
  agents/
  skills/
  commands/
  memory/
  settings.json
  .credentials.json  ← private, stays here

~/.aimux/
  config.yaml        ← aimux config
  profiles/
    work/
      agents/ → ~/.claude/agents      ← symlink (shared)
      skills/ → ~/.claude/skills      ← symlink (shared)
      memory/ → ~/.claude/memory      ← symlink (shared)
      plugins/                        ← real dir (shared content, per-profile metadata)
        marketplaces/ → ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces   ← symlink (shared)
        cache/        → ~/.claude/plugins/cache           ← symlink (shared)
        known_marketplaces.json       ← real file (paths point inside this profile)
        installed_plugins.json        ← real file (paths point inside this profile)
      .credentials.json               ← real file (private)
      .claude.json                    ← real file (private)
    own/
      ...same pattern...

When you run aimux run work, it sets CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.aimux/profiles/work and launches the CLI. Claude sees a complete config directory — shared content via symlinks, private auth locally.

Plugins are shared too, but Claude validates that a marketplace's installLocation lives inside the active config directory. So each profile gets a real plugins/ directory: the heavy content (marketplaces/, cache/) is symlinked to the shared ~/.claude/plugins, while known_marketplaces.json and installed_plugins.json are real, path-rewritten copies. ~/.claude stays the source of truth — install or update plugins from your main profile (or with CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.claude claude plugin …) and every profile picks them up on its next run. A plugin installed from inside a profile is merged back into the shared source automatically.

Multiple AI CLIs (Codex)

aimux isn't claude-only. A profile's cli field selects which AI CLI it runs, so you can keep claude and Codex subscriptions side by side — same shared brain, isolated auth — and even hand a live conversation from one to the other when a limit hits.

aimux profile add codework --cli codex   # a Codex profile
aimux auth login codework                # runs `codex login` under an isolated CODEX_HOME
aimux run codework                        # launches Codex with the right model flag
aimux agents                              # claude + codex sessions in one view (CLI-badged)

• Isolation per CLI. Each CLI gets its own config-dir env (CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR / CODEX_HOME), so subscriptions never collide.
• Per-CLI source-of-truth. shared_sources maps each CLI to its source (claude → ~/.claude, codex → ~/.codex); the legacy shared_source stays as the claude alias.
• Per-CLI sharing. claude shares everything except private; Codex shares a knowledge allowlist (skills, rules, memories) and keeps auth.json / config.toml / sessions/ private. (Codex plugin sharing is a planned follow-up.)
• claude is untouched. Multi-CLI is strictly opt-in — without a non-claude profile nothing changes.

Cross-CLI handoff (limit failover)

Hit a subscription limit mid-session? Continue it under another CLI:

aimux handoff <sessionId> --to codework

The two CLIs' transcripts are mutually unreadable, so this is a summary handoff, not a native resume: aimux reads the source transcript, summarizes it with the target profile (self-contained — the target CLI does the summarizing), then launches the target seeded with that summary. Same-CLI continuation (claude↔claude, codex↔codex) still uses native resume (aimux run <profile> --resume <id>). Note: the conversation context carries over, not the model — the target continues with its own model.

Other models via a provider preset

Many providers expose an Anthropic-compatible endpoint, so they run on the claude CLI itself — just a different base URL + token. A provider profile is therefore a claude profile: it shares the full claude brain (skills, plugins, settings, memory, transcripts) and you can even --resume a claude session under it natively (same CLI, same model swap).

One command, prompts only for the token:

aimux profile add ds --provider deepseek   # fills base URL + model mapping
aimux run ds

Built-in presets: deepseek, kimi, glm, qwen, minimax, mimo. Base URLs are verified; model names drift — update with aimux profile update <name> -e ANTHROPIC_MODEL=….

For anything else (local models via Ollama/LM Studio, a proxy, Bedrock/Vertex), use the generic aimux profile add <name> --api and point ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL at it (see below). Costs shown by aimux usage are estimated against claude pricing and will be off for non-claude models.

Per-profile environment variables

Some Claude Code modes (3rd-party proxies, self-hosted gateways, Bedrock, Vertex) are activated by environment variables rather than OAuth. aimux injects per-profile env into the spawned claude process (and into aimux auth login <profile>) from two sources, merged in this order:

1. <profile>/.env — a dotenv file inside the profile directory. Best for secrets. Written with chmod 600 when aimux creates it; aimux run warns if it becomes group/other-readable.
2. env: block under the profile in config.yaml — best for non-secret toggles you want versioned. Overrides .env on key conflict.

The fastest way to set up an API profile is the interactive prompt:

aimux profile add myapi --api      # prompts for Base URL, hidden token, models
aimux profile update myapi -e ANTHROPIC_MODEL=claude-opus-4-6   # edit later

…which writes something like:

# ~/.aimux/profiles/myapi/.env — do not commit
ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://api.your-provider.com/v1
ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN=sk-your-token...
ANTHROPIC_MODEL=claude-sonnet-4-6
ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL=claude-opus-4-6
ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL=claude-sonnet-4-6
ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL=claude-haiku-4-5

The .env parser supports KEY=value, export KEY=value, comments, and single/double-quoted values (with \n/\t escapes inside double quotes). It does not do ${VAR} interpolation or multi-line values — it's a secrets loader, not a full dotenv-expand. .env is always private (never symlinked to the shared source).

Config

# ~/.aimux/config.yaml
version: 1
shared_source: /home/user/.claude

profiles:
  main:
    cli: claude
    path: /home/user/.claude
    is_source: true
  work:
    cli: claude
    model: claude-opus-4-6
    path: /home/user/.aimux/profiles/work
  myapi:
    cli: claude
    model: claude-sonnet-4-6
    path: /home/user/.aimux/profiles/myapi   # secrets live in this dir's .env
    # Optional non-secret env injected into the spawned CLI (overrides .env).
    # env:
    #   ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL: claude-opus-4-6

private:
  - .credentials.json
  - .env                  # API credentials — never symlinked, never committed
  - .claude.json
  - policy-limits.json
  - mcp-needs-auth-cache.json
  - remote-settings.json
  - settings.local.json
  - stats-cache.json
  - statsig
  - telemetry

Requirements

• Node.js 22+
• Claude Code CLI installed

License

MIT