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Tracking multiple accounts

Most providers in OpenUsage support more than one account. The pattern is the same everywhere: give each account a unique id in settings.json and point api_key_env at a different environment variable.

When you need it​

Common scenarios:

  • Personal vs work API keys for the same vendor.
  • Two Cursor profiles (personal account, team account).
  • A primary and a fallback OpenRouter key with different rate limits.
  • Splitting team credit pools across distinct keys for attribution.

Step 1: pick a unique env var per account​

OpenUsage reads keys from your shell environment at fetch time, never from settings.json. So each account needs its own variable name. Conventionally:

# in ~/.zshrc / ~/.bashrc / direnv / 1Password CLI
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-...personal..."
export OPENAI_WORK_KEY="sk-...work..."

Both can coexist in the same shell.

Step 2: declare the accounts​

Edit ~/.config/openusage/settings.json (%APPDATA%\openusage\settings.json on Windows):

{
  "auto_detect": true,
  "accounts": [
    {
      "id": "openai-personal",
      "provider": "openai",
      "api_key_env": "OPENAI_API_KEY",
      "probe_model": "gpt-4.1-mini"
    },
    {
      "id": "openai-work",
      "provider": "openai",
      "api_key_env": "OPENAI_WORK_KEY",
      "probe_model": "gpt-4.1-mini",
      "base_url": "https://corp-gateway.example.com/v1"
    }
  ]
}

Notes:

  • The id is yours to invent; just keep it stable. It's used as the row key.
  • auto_detect can stay on. Manual entries take precedence over detected ones, but other providers still get auto-detected.
  • base_url is optional — useful when one of the accounts goes through a corporate gateway, an Azure endpoint, or a regional API.

Step 3: relaunch the dashboard​

$ openusage

Both accounts render as separate tiles. The status badge, gauges, time-window filter, and detail panel all apply per account.

Per-provider gotchas​

OpenAI​

probe_model defaults to gpt-4.1-mini. If your work key doesn't have access to that model, override per account.

Anthropic​

Supports base_url overrides for proxies or Bedrock front-ends.

Cursor​

The Cursor provider reads local SQLite databases, not env vars. To track multiple Cursor profiles you need to point each account at a different tracking_db and state_db path:

{
  "accounts": [
    {
      "id": "cursor-personal",
      "provider": "cursor",
      "account_config": {
        "tracking_db": "/Users/me/Library/Application Support/Cursor/...tracking.db",
        "state_db":    "/Users/me/Library/Application Support/Cursor/...state.db"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "cursor-team",
      "provider": "cursor",
      "account_config": {
        "tracking_db": "/Users/me/Library/Application Support/Cursor-Team/...tracking.db",
        "state_db":    "/Users/me/Library/Application Support/Cursor-Team/...state.db"
      }
    }
  ]
}

This is rarer, since the Cursor app itself only runs one profile at a time, but it's how you'd compare snapshots from different macOS user accounts.

Claude Code​

Same idea — account_config.claude_dir lets you point at a non-default Claude config directory.

OpenRouter​

If you have a management key that can list other keys, the provider can auto-discover them. For separate billing scopes use distinct keys with their own id.

Switching the active "current" account​

The TUI shows all configured accounts simultaneously; there is no concept of a single "current" account. You navigate with arrow keys / j/k and view a detail panel per row.

If you want the Analytics screen to focus on one account, use / to filter to its provider/id.

Disabling without deleting​

You can keep an account in settings.json and toggle it off in the dashboard:

  1. Press , to open Settings.
  2. Tab to the Providers sub-tab.
  3. Highlight the row, press Space to disable.

The setting persists until you re-enable it.

See also​