Claude Code

Claude Code is the one agent whose authentication Coldtea manages for you. For every other CLI you sign in yourself, in the agent's own pane. For Claude you add and manage accounts from a settings screen, and Coldtea keeps them signed in and switches between them.

There are two places Claude credentials live, and they do different jobs:

• Local accounts: the Claude Code logins you use to run agents in visible panes on your machine.
• Cloud credentials: an API key or a subscription token stored in Coldtea so background and cloud runs can use Claude without your local login.

This page covers both.

Local Claude accounts

Open Settings, then Agents. The "Claude accounts" group lists your local Claude Code logins. If you already used Claude Code before installing Coldtea, you will see one account described as "Your existing Claude Code login". Coldtea reuses that login rather than replacing it.

Add an account

Select "Add account". Coldtea creates the account and opens a login drawer from the bottom of the window. The drawer runs claude auth login in a small terminal and shows the header "Connect" with your account name and the line "Sign in through your browser to connect this account".

Finish the sign-in in the browser tab that opens. If your browser shows a code to copy back, paste it into the field at the bottom of the drawer ("Paste the code here if your browser shows one") and select "Sign in". Most logins complete in the browser without a code, so the field is optional.

The "Add account" button is disabled until the claude binary is installed and visible to Coldtea. If it stays disabled, install Claude Code first (see Connect agents).

Manage accounts

Each account row shows its name and status. The status reads "Connected", "Disconnected", or "Status unavailable", and adds "Default" when the account is your default. The default account floats to the top of the list.

The row controls are:

• Make default: sets this account as the one new Claude panes use.
• Reconnect: reopens the login drawer to sign in again (it reads "Connect" when the account is signed out).
• Rename: give the account a label you recognize.
• Remove: delete the account after a confirmation.

Rename and Remove only appear on accounts you added. Your existing Claude Code login stays put; you cannot rename or remove it from here.

Quota switching

When a Claude pane hits a subscription usage limit mid-conversation, Coldtea shows a switch banner in that pane. It names the account that ran out and, when Claude reports one, the time the limit resets.

If you have another Claude account signed in, Coldtea can hand the conversation to it: it exports the current transcript, starts a replacement session on the other account, and continues where the first account stopped. If only one other account is signed in, the switch runs directly. If Claude is still working when you ask to switch, Coldtea holds the switch and runs it the moment Claude goes idle, so it never copies a half-finished turn.

You can also start a switch yourself. Select the account name in the pane header to open the switcher and pick another signed-in account. When no other account is signed in, the switcher offers to add one.

Cloud credentials for Claude

Background and cloud runs do not use your local Claude login. They use a credential stored in Coldtea for your TeaHouse. Choose a TeaHouse first: the connect screens show "Choose a TeaHouse before connecting subscriptions" until you do. See Cloud agent credentials for where these settings live and how they are stored.

You have two options for Claude.

API key

Paste an Anthropic API key (it starts with sk-ant-) into the Claude field under the API keys option. Coldtea uses it for Claude cloud runs. This is the simplest path if you already have a key.

Subscription token

The subscription option lets cloud runs use your Claude subscription instead of an API key. The flow trades a little friction for not needing a key, so it is worth walking through before you start.

Select Connect on the Claude row. A drawer opens with the header "Connect Claude" and the line "Authorize in your browser, then copy the printed token and paste it below to save". Inside the drawer, Coldtea runs claude setup-token in a terminal:

1. The terminal starts claude setup-token and opens your browser to authorize.
2. After you authorize, the terminal prints a token.
3. Copy the token out of the terminal.
4. Paste it into the field at the bottom of the drawer ("Copy and paste claude auth token here").
5. Select "Save token".

A coach-mark points at the field the first time through: "Copy the token above and paste here after authorising on the web". Dismiss it with "Got it".

Two things about this flow are worth knowing up front. You copy the token straight out of the terminal output, which is fussier than a normal copy button. And the paste field is masked, like a password field, with no live validation, so you will not see the token as you paste and you find out it worked only when you select "Save token". When it saves, the drawer shows "Claude connected". If the token is wrong, the field shows the error and you can paste again.

Where to go next

• Connect agents for the local-versus-cloud picture across all agents.
• Cloud agent credentials for how stored credentials work per TeaHouse.
• Launch presets to set Claude's autonomy, model, and reasoning effort.
• First-run setup for the guided path through all of this.
• Agent matrix for what each agent supports at a glance.