Persona: Keep your work contexts separate

Switch Cursor accounts without signing out

Persona is a Cursor account switcher for the parts of your life that shouldn't bleed together: work, clients, side projects, and more. Each persona is an isolated window with its own sign-in already in place, so you can run multiple Cursor accounts at the same time.

Persona — Personal

Switch persona or open a project

  • Switch persona
  • Personal Current window Switch to this persona — opens example-project · [email protected]
  • Work New window Switch to this persona — opens work-project-example · [email protected]
  • Open folder Pick a project folder — Persona chooses the right account
  • This window's cost Estimated Cursor spend for the open project
  • Assign projects Map a folder of repos, then select ones that should use a different persona
  • Cursor Insights Per-project costs, roll-ups, and Pro features
  • Advanced Manage personas, defaults, and power-user options

Getting started

Install Persona from the Open VSX marketplace, run the setup wizard, and start switching between accounts from the status bar. For every menu and Pro feature, see the usage guide. For how-to pages on switching accounts, Profiles vs accounts, and --user-data-dir, see the guides.

  1. 1

    Install from Open VSX

    Persona is published on the Open VSX Registry. Cursor uses Open VSX by default, so you can install it like any other extension.

    From the Extensions view

    1. Open Extensions ( on macOS, on Windows/Linux)
    2. Search for Persona
    3. Click Install

    From the command line

    cursor --install-extension beyourselflabs.persona

    Or open the marketplace page directly and click Install.

    Open on Open VSX
  2. 2

    Run the setup wizard

    On first launch, Persona prompts Set Up Persona. You can also click Set up Persona in the status bar, or run Persona: Set Up from the Command Palette. Later, use Re-run setup wizard under Advanced (then Start setup).

    • Start setup: register this window with an id (used in .cursor/persona.json) and a display name
    • Add Work persona (recommended), Add custom persona, or Skip for now
    • Optionally Add folder rule for Work so projects under a path open in Work
    • Keep theme status bar for all personas, or Customize status bar per persona
    • Optionally Yes — set persona for this project if a folder is open
    • Optionally Install launchers: Cursor - Work apps and Persona Helper for cursor:// links

    Sign into Cursor in each persona window on first use.

  3. 3

    Use the status bar

    After setup, click Persona in the status bar to switch accounts, open folders in the correct account, or manage personas.

    • Switch persona: pick a persona at the top of the menu (current window stays put; others open a new window)
    • Open folder: pick a project folder — Persona chooses the right account
    • This window's cost: estimated Cursor spend for the open project
    • Assign projects: map a folder of repos, then select ones that should use a different persona
    • Cursor Insights: Insights Dashboard, trial/license, and Agents Window costs
    • Advanced: manage personas, defaults, launchers, and power-user options
    Personal
    $4.82
    main
    Ln 12, Col 4

Map projects to personas

Scan a folder, filter by persona or source, and assign projects in bulk. Persona remembers repo files, folder rules, and git-remote heuristics.

Project Persona Source From
0 selected

Interactive preview · sample data

Persona Pro

Attribute Cursor costs to projects, not the seat

Agencies, consultancies, and freelancers need Cursor usage by repository, not just by user, model, or day.

Without repo-level numbers, AI spend becomes overhead instead of a billable project cost. Cursor still reports usage by seat and model, not by the repository doing the work. Persona already knows which repositories belong to each project. Pro turns that mapping into a per-project cost ledger, which Cursor Teams still does not provide.

  • Free Persona shows estimated spend for the project open in the current window.
  • Upgrade to Pro for the per-repo cost view Cursor's dashboard still lacks: breakdown by repository, persona roll-ups, and exports for job codes.
  • Pro + is coming soon: team-wide sync for token counts and costs.
Compare Free, Pro, and Pro +

Common questions

How do I switch Cursor accounts without signing out?
Install Persona from Open VSX, run the setup wizard, and click Persona in the status bar. Each persona opens a new Cursor window already signed into that account, with no sign-out dance. Under the hood each persona uses an isolated --user-data-dir userdata directory. Step-by-step: switch Cursor accounts.
Can I run work and personal Cursor accounts at the same time?
Yes. Persona keeps each account in an isolated userdata profile, so work, personal, and client windows stay signed in in parallel. Chat history, settings, and subscriptions stay separate. Details: work and personal Cursor.
Do Cursor Profiles give me a separate account?
No. Cursor Profiles can separate themes and settings, but they still share one sign-in and one subscription. Persona isolates the account, chat history, and editor state using Cursor's native --user-data-dir boundary. Full comparison: Profiles vs accounts.
How do I open the right account from the Dock?
Install launchers from Advanced. Each persona gets a Cursor - Work-style app. Persona Helper keeps cursor:// sign-in links on that account. The real Cursor app still opens the default account.
How does Persona pick the right Cursor account for a project?
Mark a repo with .cursor/persona.json or add a folder rule in ~/.cursor/persona/rules.json. When a project opens in the wrong persona, Persona can relaunch it in the correct account.
Can Persona tell me what a client project cost in Cursor?
Cursor does not publish billed dollars per repository, and Team exports still do not break usage out by repo. Free Persona shows an estimate for the folder open in the current window. Persona Pro adds the per-project ledger and exports so you can allocate spend to clients and job codes. See plans and pricing.