Auto-detect API billing and skip OAuth and CLI plan-usage

[gruberb]

When using API billing, I am running into the following error:

Claude OAuth credentials not found. Run `claude` to authenticate.

Running claude or any other workaround didn't work.

[clawsweeper]

Codex review: this still needs some work. Reviewed September 23, 2026, 7:44 AM ET / 11:44 UTC.

Summary
Keep open for a bounded product decision. Configured Admin API keys already bypass subscription probes, but ordinary API-billing detection remains missing; the reported setup is not detailed enough to establish a regression. Repository policy also disables automatic closure.

Reproducibility: no. high-confidence reproduction of the reported setup is established: version, source selection, and credential type are missing. Source confirms the diagnostic and missing billing classification; no live credential probes were run.

Maintainer decision needed

Question	Recommendation
Should Claude Auto detect API-only billing and suppress subscription probes, or retain explicit Admin API setup and improve the diagnostic?	Approve narrowly scoped API-only detection: Use a verified billing signal to show an informational API-only state while retaining local costs and existing subscription behavior.

Why: Automatic suppression changes provider-auth selection, requires a trustworthy billing signal, and needs sign-off under VISION.md.

Next step
Confirm the reporter's version, source mode, and credential category without requesting secrets, then settle the API-only detection policy before implementation.

Review details

Best possible solution:

Provide an inline API-only state with local cost history and Admin API setup guidance, suppressing subscription probes only when billing identity is reliable and preserving explicit source choices.

Do we have a high-confidence way to reproduce the issue?

No high-confidence reproduction of the reported setup is established: version, source selection, and credential type are missing. Source confirms the diagnostic and missing billing classification; no live credential probes were run.

Is this the best way to solve the issue?

Unclear until the billing signal is defined. Reusing existing Admin API and local-cost presentation is appropriate, but missing OAuth credentials alone must not disable subscription probes.

AGENTS.md: found and applied where relevant.

Remaining risk / open question:

• The report does not establish whether an ordinary API key, configured Admin key, or explicit OAuth selection produced the error.
• Automatic suppression needs a reliable API-only signal that does not hide valid subscription usage for users with both billing methods.

Codex review notes: model internal, reasoning medium; reviewed against fd4859f4a4d0.

Label changes

Label changes:

• add P2: This is a limited Claude billing-selection improvement; an existing in-product Admin API setup path prevents establishing a general setup blocker from the supplied evidence.
• add impact:auth-provider: The request concerns selecting API billing versus OAuth and subscription-usage sources.
• add impact:ux-friction: The reported authentication instruction did not help and does not explain the separate Admin API setup path.
• add issue-rating: 🦪 silver shellfish: Current issue advisory state selects this label.
• add clawsweeper:no-new-fix-pr: Current issue advisory state selects this label.
• add clawsweeper:needs-maintainer-review: Current issue advisory state selects this label.
• add clawsweeper:needs-product-decision: Current issue advisory state selects this label.

Label justifications:

• P2: This is a limited Claude billing-selection improvement; an existing in-product Admin API setup path prevents establishing a general setup blocker from the supplied evidence.
• impact:auth-provider: The request concerns selecting API billing versus OAuth and subscription-usage sources.
• impact:ux-friction: The reported authentication instruction did not help and does not explain the separate Admin API setup path.

Evidence reviewed

What I checked:

• Reported failure and missing setup details: The supplied issue body reports the exact OAuth-credentials error while using API billing and says running Claude did not help. It does not identify the CodexBar version, selected usage source, or whether the credential is an ordinary API key or an Admin API key. No human discussion was supplied.
• Existing Admin API bypass: The provider returns only the Admin API strategy for an explicitly selected Admin account, explicit API source, or Auto with a configured Admin key. Otherwise it builds the subscription-source plan; its planning inputs do not include API-billing status. (Sources/CodexBarCore/Providers/Claude/ClaudeProviderDescriptor.swift:262, fd4859f4a4d0)
• Authentication probe does not classify billing: The CLI auth-status decoder reads only loggedIn. CLI probe launch also removes ANTHROPIC_* environment variables, so the existing subscription probe cannot be assumed to detect the user's ordinary API-key environment. (Sources/CodexBarCore/Providers/Claude/ClaudeCLIAuthStatusProbe.swift:10, fd4859f4a4d0)
• Exact diagnostic exists on main: The notFound OAuth error still instructs users to run Claude to authenticate, without distinguishing an API-only setup. (Sources/CodexBarCore/Providers/Claude/ClaudeOAuth/ClaudeOAuthCredentialModels.swift:278, fd4859f4a4d0)
• Supported setup and existing tests: docs/claude.md documents Preferences → Providers → Claude → Admin API key and separately describes local cost history. ClaudeAdminAPIUsageTests checks that Auto selects only claude.admin-api for a configured Admin key; ClaudeSourcePlannerTests preserves OAuth → CLI → Web for app Auto. These contracts cover explicit Admin configuration, not ordinary API-billing detection. (docs/claude.md:38, fd4859f4a4d0)
• Release boundary checked: The v0.65.0 source retains the subscription Auto ordering and recognizes only ANTHROPIC_ADMIN_KEY / ANTHROPIC_ADMIN_API_KEY in the Admin settings reader. The existing Admin integration is not evidence that ordinary API-billing detection has shipped. (Sources/CodexBarCore/Providers/Claude/ClaudeAdminAPISettingsReader.swift:4, 20a70d955d47)

Likely related people:

• steipete: Suggested for follow-up; no historical authorship or introduction is verified. (role: unverified routing candidate; confidence: low)
• ratulsarna: Suggested for follow-up; no historical authorship or introduction is verified. (role: unverified routing candidate; confidence: low)

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[steipete]

Thanks @gruberb. Claude already selects its Admin API billing strategy in Auto when an Anthropic Admin API key is configured. Codex Auto prefers a Codex personal access token, then OAuth/CLI quota sources; OpenAI Platform billing is a separate provider and needs billing-capable credentials. Gemini currently supports OAuth quota only and rejects API-key authentication.

There is still a distinction to resolve for API-only setups: detecting an inference key does not establish access to organization billing data. In particular, Codex can still attempt quota fetching from an API-key auth file. Skipping those paths without a billing source changes the resulting behavior rather than simply fixing the order. Keeping this open for that product decision. For billing available today, configure the OpenAI provider with an Admin key or Claude Auto with an Anthropic Admin key.