Claude Auth Manager

Use several Claude subscriptions and several API keys from one Claude Code installation. Every saved account or key gets its own exact route in Claude Code's /model picker, so two keys that expose the same upstream model remain separate choices.

Supported credentials:

• Claude.ai subscriptions, including multiple isolated OAuth logins
• OpenRouter API keys
• Google Gemini API keys (direct, through Google's OpenAI-compatible endpoint)
• Anthropic API keys

All configured credentials can be active at the same time. One request uses one route, but foreground sessions, subagents, and background agents can concurrently use different routes and keys.

Install

Requirements: Python 3.10+ or uv. Claude Code is required to use CAM; the installer installs it from its official installer if Claude is missing.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xhluca/claude-auth-manager/main/install.sh | sh

The installer uses uv tool install when available. Otherwise it creates a private Python environment under ~/.local/share/claude-auth-manager/tool and links cam and claude-auth-manager into ~/.local/bin. It never uses sudo or modifies the system Python. PyPI is tried first; a checksum-pinned GitHub release wheel is the fallback if PyPI is unavailable. No GitHub login is required.

The final setup step registers the currently logged-in Claude account. For agents, CI, or updating an existing setup without touching accounts or model choices:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xhluca/claude-auth-manager/main/install.sh \
  | sh -s -- --install-only

Add --skip-claude-install to fail instead of installing a missing Claude Code. To inspect the script first, download it with curl -fsSLO and run sh install.sh --install-only after reviewing it.

Prefer uv directly?

uv tool install claude-auth-manager
cam account add --current

For a pinned installation: uv tool install 'claude-auth-manager==0.0.2'. Ensure ~/.local/bin is on your PATH (uv tool update-shell can help for uv installs).

Update, reset, and uninstall

cam update
cam reset
cam uninstall

cam update installs the latest stable PyPI version using the package manager that owns the running CAM installation (uv, pipx, or its private Python environment). It keeps accounts, keys, and selected models. Development checkouts are protected against replacement by an older registry version.

cam reset stops the router, restores backed-up Claude settings, and deletes CAM's saved accounts, keys, catalogs, and state; the CLI stays installed. cam uninstall performs that reset and removes the owning uv/pipx/private-environment installation. It does not uninstall Claude Code or guess at removing a development or shared-system Python install. Export anything you need before reset/uninstall.

Installer overrides: CLAUDE_AUTH_MANAGER_PYPI_INDEX_URL selects a package index; CLAUDE_AUTH_MANAGER_INSTALL_BASE_URL selects the fallback wheel directory (the pinned checksum still applies); CLAUDE_AUTH_MANAGER_TOOL_DIR selects the private environment; XDG_BIN_HOME selects its command-link directory. Standard UV_TOOL_DIR / UV_TOOL_BIN_DIR and XDG data/config locations are respected.

Add accounts and keys

Register the Claude account currently used by claude:

cam account add --current

Sign in to another Claude account without replacing the native login:

cam account add

Claude subscription names default to the authenticated email; no separate nickname is required. cam account add runs Claude Code's official login flow with an isolated CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR, where Claude asks which email to use. Add --current to register the already-active native login instead, or --name NAME to assign an optional nickname. OAuth refresh remains delegated to the installed Claude Code CLI.

Signing in to an already-saved account updates that account, keeping its route ID, nickname, and selected models. You do not need to invent a new name. If the account was registered with --current, the new login becomes an isolated managed profile; the native Claude login is left untouched. Login is staged privately, so cancelling or signing into a different account cannot overwrite the saved login.

CAM opens Claude's hosted code login, not the automatic login link that redirects the browser to localhost. Sign in and paste the complete code from Claude's page into CAM. This is the default on every machine, including SSH, containers, and WSL; it does not depend on detecting where your browser runs. If the browser does not open, open the sign-in link printed in the terminal. If no code is displayed, paste the entire hosted callback URL from the address bar instead; CAM accepts that URL directly too.

Input is masked with one * per character and checked against the current login. No port forwarding, second terminal, or extra command is needed. As a fallback, the prompt also accepts the entire URL of a failed localhost callback from an older login flow. Do not share callback URLs or login codes.

You can also add a long-lived token created with claude setup-token. Paste it at the masked prompt; no nickname is required:

claude setup-token
cam account add --token

For secret pipes, use cam account add --token-stdin. The manager derives a stable, non-secret identifier from unnamed tokens. --name NAME is available when a human nickname would be useful. Token values are deliberately never accepted as command-line arguments, where shell history and process listings could expose them.

Add as many keys as needed. Secret input is masked by default. --key-path PATH is the preferred noninteractive form for agents and secret mounts; --key-stdin works for pipes. Inline --key KEY is also supported when convenience outweighs the risk of shell-history and process-list exposure.

cam key add personal --provider openrouter
cam key add personal --provider openrouter --key 'YOUR_OPENROUTER_KEY'
cam key add personal --provider openrouter --key-path /run/secrets/openrouter
cam key add lab --provider openrouter
cam key add google-work --provider google
cam key add google-personal --provider google
cam key add anthropic-team --provider anthropic-api

List credentials together, or select one metadata view. These commands print only metadata, never secret values:

cam list
cam list --account
cam list --key
cam list --model --account primary@example.com sonnet --json
cam list --model --key personal qwen --json
cam list --route
cam list --config
cam check

Select routes

cam select refreshes every OpenRouter key through OpenRouter's authenticated, guardrail-filtered model endpoint before resolving or displaying routes. This also updates models added or removed since the key was first indexed. A failed refresh aborts selection instead of trusting stale access. Other providers keep their explicit cam index refresh behavior. Then select any mixture of accounts and keys:

cam index
cam search gemini --tools
cam search qwen --key personal

# Start on one subscription and omit other subscriptions from this edit:
cam select --account primary@example.com

# Account filtering also disambiguates short model IDs in scripted selection:
cam select --account primary@example.com claude-sonnet-5

cam select \
  'anthropic/primary@example.com/claude-sonnet-5' \
  'anthropic/secondary@example.com/claude-sonnet-5' \
  openrouter/personal/qwen/qwen3-coder \
  openrouter/lab/qwen/qwen3-coder \
  google/google-work/gemini-3.8-flash

The interactive picker has one Source dropdown for everything: All, each Claude subscription, and each OpenRouter, Google, or direct Anthropic API key. Press Tab, type to search accounts or key nicknames, then press Enter to filter the model list. Search and Source are shown on separate lines, and selections remain selected while their source is hidden.

--account ACCOUNT is optional and always takes a value. It limits which Claude subscriptions participate in the edit and starts on that subscription when only one is supplied; API-key sources remain available in the same dropdown. Favorites from other Claude subscriptions are preserved, while visible API-key favorites remain editable. Account IDs and labels are both accepted, and --account can be repeated. Routes no longer exposed by refreshed provider catalogs are removed.

Then run normal Claude Code and use /model:

claude

There is no single global active profile. Every selected route remains active. A Claude process starts with its saved default (or --model), and /model hot-switches the live conversation beginning with its next request while also saving that choice as the default for new sessions. CAM routes every request from its current model field; it does not pin a session to its launch model. Earlier turns remain in the conversation and were still produced by their earlier models. To choose before launch, pass the exact managed route to Claude directly:

claude --model cam/openrouter/personal/qwen/qwen3-coder
claude --model 'cam/anthropic/primary@example.com/claude-sonnet-5[1m]'

Starting a second Claude process with another route does not switch or stop the first one. cam select changes which routes are allowed and restarts the local router, so avoid changing the selection during an in-flight request: retained routes reconnect and continue, while a removed route is rejected on its next request instead of falling back to another credential. Existing Claude processes are not killed. Reopen /model to refresh its picker; reopen /agents when you want Claude Code to refresh generated subagent definitions.

Both cam select and Claude's /model picker keep labels compact: each row starts with only the model name, such as Gemini 3.8 Flash, Sonnet 5, or Opus 4.8. For Sonnet and Opus routes configured for 1M, the name includes (1M context) to distinguish the extended window, matching Claude Code's picker. Fable keeps its plain name because its 1M window is standard. Picker selections and generated presets include Claude's [1m] annotation where needed; the router still receives the same account/key route and upstream model ID. Fable also opts into 1M internally for gateway sessions, without adding the suffix to its visible name. See Claude Code's context configuration. Every custom description uses one compact provenance convention:

Claude · Max 20x (account@example.com) via claude-auth-manager
Google · Gemini API (google-work) via claude-auth-manager
Z.AI · OpenRouter (personal) via claude-auth-manager · 0.075 in / 0.25 out / 0.015 cached ($/M) · z-ai/glm-5.3-flash

The first field is the model maker, followed by the credential type and its email or nickname. The subscription multiplier comes from saved login metadata; when it is unavailable, the description does not guess it. Other reported plans, such as Plus, are shown as-is, and token-only accounts with no plan metadata show Subscription. Pricing is included only when the catalog publishes input and output rates; — marks an unpublished cached-input rate. The exact model slug is appended only for OpenRouter. Prices are rounded to at most three decimals for input/output and four for cached input, with redundant trailing zeroes removed. Tools and context stay out of descriptions. Full credential IDs and cam/... routes stay out of the interactive selector and its save confirmation. The confirmation uses the same short model name and provenance as the picker.

Picker IDs are fail-closed and credential-specific:

cam/anthropic/primary@example.com/claude-sonnet-5
cam/openrouter/personal/qwen/qwen3-coder
cam/openrouter/lab/qwen/qwen3-coder
cam/google/google-work/gemini-3.8-flash

If only one credential exposes a model, cam select qwen/qwen3-coder is accepted. When several keys expose it, cam reports the ambiguity and asks for an exact provider/key/model route.

Model-specific subagent definitions are generated alongside the picker entries. This allows a parent on one credential to invoke a named subagent pinned to a different credential. The pre-tool hook prevents Claude Code from silently replacing that exact subagent model with sonnet.

Commands

Automatic fallback

Each selected model route can have one fallback to another selected route, even on a different account, key, or provider. In cam select, highlight a selected model and press Ctrl-F. Type to search the other selected models, then press Enter to apply a fallback or choose No fallback. The edit is saved with s; cancelling the picker discards it. Models hidden by an account filter remain available as fallback destinations. Self-links and cycles are excluded.

For example, link an Opus subscription to another account's Sonnet, then link that Sonnet to an OpenRouter model. You configure each next step separately:

cam select --fallback \
  'cam/anthropic/primary@example.com/claude-opus-5' \
  'cam/anthropic/backup@example.com/claude-sonnet-5'
cam select --fallback \
  'cam/anthropic/backup@example.com/claude-sonnet-5' \
  'cam/openrouter/personal/z-ai/glm-5.3-flash'
cam list --config --json
cam select --clear-fallback 'cam/anthropic/primary@example.com/claude-opus-5'

Use cam list --route --json to discover your exact selected routes. Link-only edits take effect on the running router's next request; no service or Claude restart is needed. Removing a favorite removes its incoming and outgoing links. Fallback is opt-in: CAM never chooses another paid key or account by itself.

When a route returns insufficient credits (402), a usage limit (429), a temporary server error (500/502/503/504/529), a timeout (408), or a connection failure, CAM tries its next link with that route's credentials. It can walk through several unavailable accounts in one request. Authentication, permission/guardrail, and invalid-request errors are returned directly. No undeclared route is tried.

Provider Retry-After and rejected Anthropic limit-reset headers determine when to try a route again. Without a reset hint, defaults are 60 seconds for outages, 5 minutes for usage limits, and 15 minutes for exhausted credits. Cooldowns are saved across router restarts. Each request starts from its originally selected route, skips routes still cooling down, and automatically returns to an earlier route once it succeeds again. Other Claude sessions retain their own selection.

While fallback is in use, CAM inserts a visible CAM fallback active banner in the response and updates the original /model entry's description with the actual destination. The selected row remains the primary so recovery remains automatic; the upstream response and routing notice identify the model that really answered. Claude's settings watcher may take a few seconds to refresh the description. cam list --config --json exposes configured links, current activations, failure reasons, and retry deadlines for agents. The picker annotation is shared across sessions using that primary route; the banner describes each actual response.

Early errors inside an HTTP-200 stream can also fall back. Once any content or tool call has reached Claude, CAM does not replay it: it reports the interrupted stream, marks that route unavailable, and uses the fallback on Claude's next retry or request. This avoids duplicating tool work. A chain with no healthy destination returns an explicit error after at most one attempt per route. Fallback does not silently truncate a conversation to fit a smaller model's context or remove user images; the destination must support the request. Built-in aliases such as opus are not tied to a saved account link; choose the account-specific CAM picker row.

Every public command, argument, and option is listed below. Run bare cam, cam account, or cam key to see the corresponding help without an error.

General

cam [-h] [--version] COMMAND ...

• -h, --help — show help for the current command and exit.
• --version — print the installed CAM version and exit.

cam list

cam list [QUERY...] [--model] [--account [ACCOUNT] | --key [KEY]]
         [--provider PROVIDER]... [--tools] [--offline] [--json]
cam list [--route | --config] [--check-confirmation {ask,never}] [--json]

• No view flag — list non-secret metadata for all saved accounts and provider keys.
• --account without --model — list only Claude subscription accounts.
• --key without --model — list only provider API keys.
• --model — statically list available credential-scoped model routes; refreshes each OpenRouter key's current guardrail-filtered catalog first.
• QUERY... — with --model, filter IDs, names, descriptions, providers, and source names using case-insensitive terms or glob patterns; any query may match.
• --model --account — list models across all Claude subscriptions; add ACCOUNT to select one account by ID, email, or label.
• --model --key — list models across all API keys; add KEY to select one key by ID or label.
• --provider PROVIDER — with --model, keep anthropic, anthropic-api, google, or openrouter; repeat to include several.
• --tools — with --model, keep only models advertising tool support.
• --offline — with --model, use saved catalogs without network refresh.
• --route — list only the currently selected /model favorites.
• --config — show the default model, router port, check-confirmation mode, and routes.
• --check-confirmation ask|never — with --config, require or disable confirmation for billable route checks.
• --json — emit the selected view as JSON instead of a table.

Model JSON includes an exact route value that can be passed directly to cam select; it also retains the upstream id, provider, credential, and model metadata.

cam account

cam account add [--current | --token | --token-stdin] [--name NAME]
cam account remove NAME

• cam account add — open Claude's hosted OAuth flow, or renew the matching saved account.
• --current — register the native login currently used by Claude without copying its refresh token.
• --token — securely prompt for a long-lived value generated by claude setup-token.
• --token-stdin — read a setup token from standard input for a pipe or agent workflow.
• --name NAME — assign an optional nickname; hosted and native logins otherwise use their email.
• cam account remove NAME — remove an account by ID or nickname; selected accounts must first be removed with cam select.

The three add-mode flags are mutually exclusive. Setup tokens are intentionally not accepted as command-line values.

cam key

cam key add NAME --provider PROVIDER
            [--label LABEL]
            [--key KEY | --key-path PATH | --key-stdin]
            [--no-validate]
cam key remove NAME

• NAME — required unique key nickname used in credential-scoped model routes.
• --provider, -p — required provider: openrouter, google, or anthropic-api.
• --label LABEL — set a display label distinct from the route nickname.
• No secret-input flag — read the key from a masked interactive prompt.
• --key KEY — take the key inline; this can expose it in shell history and process listings.
• --key-path PATH — read the key from a file, the preferred form for agents and secret mounts.
• --key-stdin — read the key from standard input.
• --no-validate — store without validation or model indexing; use cam index --key NAME later.
• cam key remove NAME — remove a named key; selected keys must first be removed with cam select.

The three secret-input flags are mutually exclusive. Without --no-validate, CAM validates the credential and immediately indexes the models available through it.

cam index

cam index [--key NAME] [--json]

• No --key — refresh every saved provider-key catalog and include subscription routes.
• --key NAME — refresh only the catalog belonging to that named provider key.
• --json — emit indexed model metadata as JSON instead of a table.

cam search

cam search QUERY... [--key NAME] [--tools] [--offline] [--json]

• QUERY... — search case-insensitive terms or glob patterns across model IDs, names, providers, and credential labels; any query may match.
• --key NAME — search only models belonging to one named provider key.
• --tools — keep only models that advertise tool support.
• --offline — search saved catalogs without refreshing them over the network.
• --json — emit matching model metadata as JSON instead of a table.

Without --offline, cam search refreshes the applicable catalogs before searching.

cam select

cam select [ROUTE...] [--account ACCOUNT]... [--port PORT]
           [--fallback FROM TO]... [--clear-fallback FROM]...

• No ROUTE — open the interactive multi-select picker.
• ROUTE... — run non-interactively and select exact cam/... routes, provider/credential/model specs, or unambiguous model IDs.
• --account ACCOUNT — include only this Claude subscription in the edit and initially filter to it when singular; API keys remain in the Source menu, and other subscription favorites are preserved; repeatable.
• --port PORT — save and use a local router port from 1–65535; otherwise reuse the configured port or 9427.
• --fallback FROM TO — set one next-hop link between selected routes; repeatable; alone edits links without opening the picker or refreshing catalogs.
• --clear-fallback FROM — remove a selected route's fallback link; repeatable; applies before --fallback edits.

Interactive picker keys:

• Typing — filter model IDs, names, and descriptions within the active source.
• Tab, Shift-Tab — open the searchable Source dropdown containing All, subscriptions, and API keys.
• In the Source dropdown, type to filter account labels, emails, key nicknames, or providers; use ↑/↓ and Enter to apply, or Esc to return.
• ↑, ↓ or k, j — move through results; moving above the first result returns to search.
• Enter, Space — toggle the highlighted model; Enter from search enters result browsing.
• Ctrl-F — while browsing a selected model, open its searchable fallback menu; Enter applies and Esc returns; save the main picker to commit.
• Esc — return to search; / clears the search and returns to it from result browsing.
• s or S — save while browsing; in search, use Ctrl-S or Shift-S because lowercase s is searchable text.
• q or Ctrl-C — cancel without changing favorites.

The dependency-free fallback picker uses result numbers to toggle, f to search accounts and keys, b NUMBER to edit that selected model's fallback, / to search models again, s to save, and q to cancel.

cam check

cam check [ROUTE] [-y | --yes] [--json]

• No ROUTE — perform a non-billable local check of configuration, credentials, and router health.
• ROUTE — send a real, potentially billable request and verify a complete Glob tool round-trip.
• -y, --yes — send the live route probe without its confirmation prompt.
• --json — emit health or live-probe details as JSON.

Use cam list --config --check-confirmation ask|never to change the default confirmation behavior for future live checks.

Service and lifecycle

cam serve [--host HOST] [--port PORT]
cam reset
cam uninstall
cam update

• cam serve — run the credential router in the foreground instead of through CAM's user service.
• --host HOST — bind cam serve to 127.0.0.1, localhost, or ::1; non-loopback hosts are rejected.
• --port PORT — make cam serve listen on a port from 1–65535; the default is 9427.
• cam reset — stop the router, restore pre-CAM Claude settings, and delete CAM accounts, keys, catalogs, and state while preserving native Claude credentials.
• cam uninstall — run cam reset, then remove CAM when the current uv, pipx, or fallback installation can be identified safely.
• cam update — update CAM in place using the package manager that owns the current installation, then restart configured routing.

Security and behavior

• The router binds only to 127.0.0.1 (default port 9427) and requires a random local header token.
• Provider credentials, managed OAuth profiles, the registry, and backups are stored with owner-only permissions under the XDG config/state directories.
• Registering the current Claude account records a reference to its native credential file; it does not copy its refresh token.
• Every managed model is checked against the selected route allowlist. Incoming Authorization and X-Api-Key values are stripped before the exact route's credential is injected.
• Provider keys never appear in Claude settings, model labels, generated agents, or diagnostics. They appear in command-line arguments only when you explicitly use --key KEY; the masked prompt, --key-path, and --key-stdin avoid that exposure.
• cam reset stops the service, restores the pre-manager Claude settings, and removes manager-owned accounts, keys, catalogs, and state. A referenced native Claude credential is never deleted.

Claude Code connectors and account-scoped UI features still belong to its native login. Changing the inference route does not impersonate a second account for those features.

Development and testing

uv run --with pytest pytest -q
uv run --with ruff ruff check .

The local integration suite uses fake upstreams to verify credential isolation, streaming, tool translation, duplicate models across multiple keys, and concurrent routing. The optional Docker check uses real Claude, OpenRouter, and Gemini credentials from read-only secret mounts:

scripts/live-docker-check.sh \
  /path/to/openrouter-key \
  /path/to/gemini-key \
  ~/.claude

The live test copies the native Claude OAuth file into a temporary container home and removes that home when it exits.

Fallback tests use a separate fault-injecting HTTP upstream, never a hidden production debug endpoint. tests/test_fallback.py exercises five synthetic accounts/keys, credits and quota exhaustion, outages, recovery, streaming errors, tool indexes, concurrent requests, persistent cooldowns, and cyclic/removed links. scripts/test-fallback-tui.py tests the real Claude TUI in Docker with only synthetic credentials. docker/Dockerfile.fallback extends the existing UI test image with pytest, pexpect, and pyte; mount this checkout at /src and the Claude binary at /usr/local/bin/claude, then run the script with network disabled. Pass --late to test Claude's automatic retry after a partial streamed response.

uv run python scripts/test-fallback-live.py is billable: it uses each selected credential as a real destination for a Claude Code Glob tool round-trip, with synthetic exhausted predecessors in a separate loopback router. It prints only redacted test results and leaves production routing choices unchanged. An expired credential is reported as blocked rather than counted as a successful live test.

uv run python scripts/test-install-lifecycle.py checks the published curl installer, direct PyPI installation, checksum-verified GitHub fallback, update, and uninstall in disposable homes and tool stores. It uses no real Claude login and does not modify the caller's installed CAM or settings.

Publishing a release

Update the version in pyproject.toml, __init__.py, uv.lock, and install.sh; run the tests, then bash scripts/build-release.sh. Copy the wheel's SHA-256 into install.sh and rebuild so the source archive includes the correct pin. Commit and tag the release, upload the wheel, source archive, and SHA256SUMS to GitHub, and publish the same package files with uv run --with twine twine upload dist/*.whl dist/*.tar.gz. Supply publishing credentials through your local PyPI configuration or a secure credential store, never repository files. Re-run the public lifecycle smoke test after publication. Published package versions must not be replaced.

License

MIT