Using Claude Code has been a game-changer for my workflow, but managing multiple projects at once was initially cumbersome. While vibe coding saves time compared to manually writing code line by line, it still requires careful context management. Over the past few months, I’ve been developing two apps for Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch—one of which is already in testing, while the other remains in early development. Both projects share a parent directory, which I soon realized could be leveraged to simplify my setup.
Initially, I relied on a single Terminal window for each session. Claude Code treats the current working directory as the root of your project, using the CLAUDE.MD file to understand the context. For me, /Users/david/Documents/Development/xcode contains both app projects, MyFilamentStash and MySewingPatternStash. Before optimizing my workflow, I would cd into one project folder, launch Claude, and feed it startup commands to bring it up to speed on my prior work. Switching between projects meant quitting Claude, cd-ing to another directory, and repeating the setup—a process that was slow and error-prone.
I realized that juggling multiple terminal windows was technically possible, but it often left me confused about which project was active. Each instance of Claude Code is tied to the directory it’s launched from, so managing context across multiple projects required constant mental tracking. Even with only three directories to handle, this became tedious and slowed down development significantly.
To streamline the workflow, I set up a single iTerm2 command that could launch Claude Code in all three project contexts with one click. By scripting the launches and organizing each project session in dedicated iTerm2 tabs, I could instantly access all my working directories without repeatedly quitting and restarting Claude. This setup not only reduces context-switching friction but also ensures each project is properly isolated while still being accessible from a unified interface—a simple trick that saved me hours each week.