Codex Account Switcher

Switch between multiple OpenAI Codex accounts on Windows with one click. No need to redo the OAuth login every time.

Codex Account Switcher is a fast, native Windows desktop app (WinUI 3 / .NET 10) that manages several Codex logins in an encrypted local vault and swaps the active one instantly. It keeps every account alive in the background by refreshing tokens before they expire, so you never have to sign in again just to switch.

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Contents

• Why
• Features
• How it works
• Requirements
• Getting started
• Building
• Configuration
• Security
• Project structure
• Tech stack
• License

Why

The Codex CLI, desktop app and IDE extension all read a single credential file: %USERPROFILE%\.codex\auth.json. If you work with more than one Codex account, switching means re-running the whole OAuth flow every time. This app turns that into a one-click swap while treating your tokens like passwords.

Features

• Encrypted vault. Every auth.json is encrypted at rest with Windows DPAPI (CurrentUser scope), and tokens are never logged.
• One-click switch. Writes the chosen account into the active slot atomically, with an automatic encrypted backup and full rollback if anything fails.
• Never lose a login. Before overwriting, the current active account is written back to the vault, preserving tokens the Codex CLI rotated while you were using it.
• Clean-session login. Adding an account opens a disposable, incognito-style WebView2 session with no shared cookies or history. The OAuth URL comes from the codex app-server login flow and is opened only inside that clean WebView2, never the system browser, so one account never contaminates another and no ChatGPT "device code" security setting is required.
• Built-in 2FA code generator. A small tool (RFC 6238 TOTP) that turns a pasted 2FA secret key into a rotating 6-digit code with a live expiry countdown; the key stays in memory only.
• Background refresh. A scheduled task renews each account before the ~8-day expiry window, isolated through a temporary CODEX_HOME that never touches the real active slot.
• Closes and reopens Codex apps. Detects running Codex desktop/CLI processes, asks for confirmation, closes them for the swap, and reopens the desktop app afterward.
• Automatic language. Portuguese on Brazilian/pt systems, English everywhere else.
• Native Fluent UI. Mica, dark/light, rounded corners, relative dates, health badges.

How it works

Switching accounts = swapping the contents of %USERPROFILE%\.codex\auth.json. The app keeps an encrypted copy of each account's auth.json in its vault (the source of truth) and performs the swap as a reversible transaction: confirm → close Codex apps → write-back current → backup → write new slot (atomic) → update metadata → reopen apps. If any step fails, the original slot is restored from the backup and the apps are reopened on the original account.

Requirements

• Windows 10 / 11 (x64)
• .NET SDK 10 (to build)
• codex CLI on PATH (for login/refresh/reopen)
• WebView2 Evergreen Runtime (bundled with modern Windows; used only during login)

Getting started

Grab a build, or produce one using the steps below, and run CodexSwitcher.exe. On first launch the app offers to import the account already logged into Codex on your machine, or to add a new one via a clean OAuth session.

Building

Option A: Command line (.NET CLI)

# Build everything
dotnet build CodexSwitcher.slnx

# Run the tests (66)
dotnet test CodexSwitcher.slnx

# Run the app
dotnet run --project src/CodexSwitcher.App/CodexSwitcher.App.csproj -r win-x64

Option B: Visual Studio Code

1. Install the C# Dev Kit extension.
2. Open the project folder. The repo ships a .vscode/launch.json and tasks.json.
3. Press F5 (runs the build task, then launches the app). Or run the publish-single-exe task from Terminal → Run Task.

Option C: Visual Studio 2022

Open CodexSwitcher.slnx, set CodexSwitcher.App as the startup project, choose the x64 configuration and press F5.

Option D: Single self-contained .exe

Produces one file (no .NET required on the target, nothing else alongside):

dotnet publish src/CodexSwitcher.App/CodexSwitcher.App.csproj -c Release -r win-x64 `
  -p:PublishSingleFile=true `
  -p:IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract=true `
  -p:DebugType=none -p:DebugSymbols=false

Output: src/CodexSwitcher.App/bin/Release/net10.0-windows10.0.19041.0/win-x64/publish/CodexSwitcher.exe (~210 MB, self-contained). Don't rename the file after publishing: this unpackaged WinUI 3 app ties its resource/manifest lookup to the exe's own filename, and renaming it breaks activation.

Configuration

Environment variable	Effect
CODEXSWITCHER_LANG	Force UI language: pt or en (otherwise auto-detected).
CODEXSWITCHER_HOME	Override the app data folder (vault, profiles, backups). Useful for testing/portability.

Security

• Tokens are treated like passwords: encrypted at rest (DPAPI CurrentUser), never logged, kept in memory as briefly as possible.
• DPAPI CurrentUser ties decryption to the same Windows user on the same machine, so the vault is not portable across machines/users (by design).
• The only places a token exists in plaintext are the active slot required by Codex and the short-lived ephemeral login/refresh folders.
• The app never requires administrator privileges.

Project structure

src/
  CodexSwitcher.Core     Models, services (Vault, Switch, Refresh, Reconciliation, Profiles)
  CodexSwitcher.Infra    DPAPI, atomic file system, config.toml, Codex CLI, process manager, scheduler
  CodexSwitcher.App      WinUI 3 UI (views, view models, ephemeral login, DI, localization)
tests/
  CodexSwitcher.Core.Tests   xUnit: vault, atomic writes, switch/rollback, refresh, reconciliation

Tech stack

Windows · .NET 10 · C# · WinUI 3 · Windows App SDK · WebView2 · DPAPI · CommunityToolkit.Mvvm · xUnit

Keywords

OpenAI Codex account switcher, switch Codex accounts, multiple Codex accounts, Codex auth.json manager, Codex multi-account, Codex login switcher, Windows WinUI 3 app, .NET 10 desktop app, manage Codex CLI credentials, no re-login.

Suggested GitHub topics: openai-codex codex account-switcher windows winui3 dotnet csharp webview2 dpapi desktop-app.

License

MIT