Helper script for consultants or anyone juggling multiple client projects who wants to launch VS Code with a client-specific profile—keeping settings, Copilot access, and AI subscriptions cleanly isolated.

code-client

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

# code-client: launch VS Code with per-client user-data-dir based on
# ~/projects/{client}/{project} hierarchy.

PROJECTS_ROOT="${PROJECTS_ROOT:-$HOME/projects}"
CODE_BIN="${CODE_BIN:-code}"

usage() {
  cat <<'EOF'
Usage:
  code-client [path] [--no-isolation] [--client NAME] [--project-root]
Examples:
  cd ~/projects/acme/app1 && code-client
  code-client ~/projects/acme/app1
  code-client --no-isolation .
  code-client --client acme ~/projects/acme/app2

Env:
  PROJECTS_ROOT   defaults to ~/projects
  CODE_BIN        defaults to "code"
EOF
}

NO_ISOLATION=0
FORCE_CLIENT=""
OPEN_PROJECT_ROOT=0

ARGS=()
while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
  case "$1" in
    -h|--help) usage; exit 0 ;;
    --no-isolation) NO_ISOLATION=1; shift ;;
    --client) FORCE_CLIENT="${2:-}"; shift 2 ;;
    --project-root) OPEN_PROJECT_ROOT=1; shift ;;
    --) shift; ARGS+=("$@"); break ;;
    *) ARGS+=("$1"); shift ;;
  esac
done

TARGET_PATH="${ARGS[0]:-.}"
TARGET_PATH="$(cd "$TARGET_PATH" 2>/dev/null && pwd || true)"
if [[ -z "$TARGET_PATH" ]]; then
  echo "Could not resolve path: ${ARGS[0]:-.}" >&2
  exit 2
fi

if [[ "$NO_ISOLATION" -eq 1 ]]; then
  exec "$CODE_BIN" "$TARGET_PATH"
fi

# Normalize root for matching
PROJECTS_ROOT="$(cd "$PROJECTS_ROOT" && pwd)"

# Determine client/project from path
# Expected: $PROJECTS_ROOT/<client>/<project>/...
rel="${TARGET_PATH#"$PROJECTS_ROOT"/}"

client=""
project=""
if [[ "$TARGET_PATH" == "$PROJECTS_ROOT"* && "$rel" != "$TARGET_PATH" ]]; then
  client="$(cut -d'/' -f1 <<<"$rel")"
  project="$(cut -d'/' -f2 <<<"$rel")"
fi

if [[ -n "$FORCE_CLIENT" ]]; then
  client="$FORCE_CLIENT"
  # If forcing client, open whatever target path user gave (unless --project-root)
fi

# If we can't determine a client, just open normally.
if [[ -z "$client" || "$client" == "." || "$client" == ".." ]]; then
  exec "$CODE_BIN" "$TARGET_PATH"
fi

CLIENT_DIR="$PROJECTS_ROOT/$client"
USER_DATA_DIR="$CLIENT_DIR/.vscode-user-data"

mkdir -p "$USER_DATA_DIR"

OPEN_PATH="$TARGET_PATH"
if [[ "$OPEN_PROJECT_ROOT" -eq 1 && -n "$project" && "$project" != "$client" ]]; then
  OPEN_PATH="$PROJECTS_ROOT/$client/$project"
else
  # If inside a client tree and we detected a project, default to project root.
  if [[ -n "$project" && "$project" != "$client" ]]; then
    OPEN_PATH="$PROJECTS_ROOT/$client/$project"
  fi
fi

exec "$CODE_BIN" --user-data-dir="$USER_DATA_DIR" "$OPEN_PATH"