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Vexa agent workers run the official claude CLI (interactive turns via the harness, one-shot completions via claude -p). The credential that powers them is chosen per deployment and per user (Settings → Models, resolved user > global > deployment env). Which credential you pick determines which Anthropic terms you operate under.

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The primary sources

DocumentLink
Claude Code — Legal and compliance (the authentication rules quoted below)code.claude.com/docs/en/legal-and-compliance
Consumer Terms of Service (Free / Pro / Max subscriptions)anthropic.com/legal/consumer-terms
Commercial Terms of Service (API / Team / Enterprise)anthropic.com/legal/commercial-terms
Anthropic Usage Policyanthropic.com/legal/aup
Use Claude Code with your Pro or Max planHelp Center article
Use the Claude Agent SDK with your Claude plan (Agent SDK credit rules)Help Center article
The load-bearing sentences, from the Claude Code legal page (retrieved 2026-07-09):
OAuth authentication is intended exclusively for purchasers of Claude Free, Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise subscription plans and is designed to support ordinary use of Claude Code and other native Anthropic applications.
Developers building products or services that interact with Claude’s capabilities, including those using the Agent SDK, should use API key authentication through Claude Console or a supported cloud provider. Anthropic does not permit third-party developers to offer Claude.ai login or to route requests through Free, Pro, or Max plan credentials on behalf of their users.
Advertised usage limits for Pro and Max plans assume ordinary, individual usage of Claude Code and the Agent SDK.

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How Vexa’s credential modes map

Subscription mode (“Claude subscription (deployment credentials)”):
  • Workers invoke the official claude binary — never the raw HTTP API with an OAuth token. The credential file (~/.claude/.credentials.json) is bind-mounted read-only into worker containers at the CLI’s own standard path; only the official client consumes it. The token is never extracted into headers, third-party clients, or proxies.
  • claude -p completions are plain subprocess calls of the compiled CLI. Per the Agent SDK help article, third-party apps authenticating with your subscription through the Agent SDK are a covered, credit-metered use: programmatic usage draws a per-user monthly Agent SDK credit (plan-dependent; overage at API rates when enabled). Nothing simulates a terminal to disguise programmatic calls as interactive use.
Custom mode (API key / OpenAI-compatible gateway):
  • Raw-API auth (ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL/ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN, or the OpenAI-compatible VEXA_LLM_* set) is only ever brokered when the deployment or user supplied an API key — Commercial Terms, no consumer authentication restrictions.

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The boundary: one human, one subscription, one beneficiary

A consumer subscription is a personal license. The moment a deployment serves other users’ turns on the operator’s Pro/Max credential, it becomes “routing requests through plan credentials on behalf of their users” — the explicitly disallowed case.
  • Self-host, single user — your machine, your subscription, your turns: subscription mode as the deployment default is ordinary individual use.
  • Any multi-user or hosted deployment — the deployment default must be an API key (Settings → Models → Custom endpoint, or ANTHROPIC_API_KEY in the deployment env), or each user brings their own credential via user-level settings. Never default tenants onto anyone’s consumer OAuth.

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Operator checklist

  1. Exactly one human benefits from a mounted subscription credential. If HOST_CLAUDE_CREDENTIALS is set and more than one active user runs turns, switch the deployment default to an API key.
  2. Never move the OAuth token out of the credentials file — no proxies, no header injection, no gateway re-serving. API-style env vars are for API keys only.
  3. Expect claude -p usage to draw the Agent SDK credit separately from interactive limits — exhaustion is a billing event, not a bug (it surfaces as a model-inference failure in the worker).
  4. When in doubt for a new topology: use an API key — the Commercial Terms path has no authentication-shape restrictions.
Terms evolve (the Agent SDK credit rules changed during 2026 and the help article notes pending updates). Re-verify the primary sources before relying on this page for a new deployment class. This page is engineering compliance guidance, not legal advice.