[BUG] VS Code Extension OAuth Auth Loop on Windows — Extension Repeatedly Loses Authentication Despite Successful Browser Authorization

[Sanaullah-Aasi]

Preflight Checklist

• I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

The VS Code extension graphical panel repeatedly shows the login screen ("How do you want to log in?") every time a message is typed, even after successfully completing the full OAuth browser flow multiple times.
The browser auth does succeed — the page shows "Build something great. You're all set up for Claude Code." — but the extension panel either:

Goes completely black after the auth code is pasted back, or
Reloads back to the login screen after a VS Code window reload

Meanwhile, the CLI in the terminal retains auth (shows "Welcome back!" and API Usage Billing) but is stuck on API Usage Billing mode instead of the Pro subscription, suggesting credentials written by the terminal and extension are conflicting.

What Should Happen?

After successfully completing the OAuth browser flow and pasting the auth code:

The extension panel should load Claude Code with the Pro subscription active
Auth should persist across VS Code reloads and sessions
The extension and CLI should share or at least not conflict with each other's credential storage

Error Messages/Logs

Login
OAuth error: timeout of 15000ms exceeded
Press Enter to retry.
Esc to cancel
Terminal /status output:
Version: 2.1.71
Auth token: ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN
Model: Default (claude-sonnet-4-6)
IDE: Connected to Visual Studio Code extension
Header reads: Sonnet 4.6 · API Usage Billing — should show Pro plan.
Browser auth success: Page shows "Build something great. You're all set up for Claude Code." — confirming OAuth itself succeeds on the browser side.

Root Cause Hypothesis
Based on related issues (#29029, #22602, #8385), this appears to be caused by:

~/.claude.json overwrite conflict: The extension rewrites ~/.claude.json on every interaction, stripping auth fields written by the CLI (and vice versa), causing credentials to be wiped in a loop.
OAuth callback localhost timeout on Windows: The local server that receives the OAuth callback is blocked by Windows Firewall or antivirus before the 15-second timeout, so the CLI never receives the token even when the browser auth succeeds.
Extension and CLI using separate/conflicting credential storage: Auth completed via the extension panel is not being persisted to the same location that the CLI reads, and the extension's own storage is being cleared on reload.


Related Issues

#29029 — VS Code extension overwrites ~/.claude.json, forcing CLI onboarding on every launch
#22602 — VS Code Extension: Expired OAuth token reused across windows without refresh
#8385 — VSCode plugin doesn't remain authenticated across chats
#14023 — I am not able to login through VSCode extension
#20756 — OAuth Authentication Broken in WSL2
#6572 — API Error (request timed out) in Claude Code in VSCode


Workarounds Attempted (All Failed)

 /logout then /login in terminal
 Manually copying OAuth URL (pressing c) and pasting code back
 Reloading VS Code window after auth
 Closing and fully reopening VS Code
 Clicking "Claude.ai Subscription" button in extension panel multiple times
 Using PowerShell terminal instead of Node terminal

Steps to Reproduce

Open VS Code on Windows 11
Open the Claude Code extension panel (graphical chat view)
Type any message — the login screen appears ("How do you want to log in?")
Click "Claude.ai Subscription" (orange button)
Browser opens — press c to copy the OAuth URL manually (auto-redirect times out with OAuth error: timeout of 15000ms exceeded)
Paste URL into browser manually, log in, click Authorize
Browser shows "Build something great. You're all set up for Claude Code."
A code/token is shown — copy it and paste into the extension panel
Extension panel goes black / blank
Reload VS Code window (Ctrl+Shift+P → "Developer: Reload Window")
Type any message in the extension panel again
Login screen reappears — back to step 3

This loop repeats infinitely regardless of how many times auth is completed.

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

No response

Claude Code Version

v2.1.71

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

VS Code integrated terminal

Additional Information

Additional Context

Account is confirmed active Claude Pro subscriber
Internet connectivity is working normally
Issue is 100% reproducible on every VS Code session
The CLI in terminal works for basic interactions but is incorrectly using API billing mode instead of Pro subscription

[github-actions]

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. [BUG] I am not able to login through VSCode extension #14023
2. [BUG] Failed to retrieve auth status after login. #28074
3. Claude Code OAuth loop — Max subscriber cannot authenticate on Windows 11 with multiple Google accounts #31124

This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[laniakea001]

This OAuth loop issue is a known pain point. Based on the symptoms (CLI works, extension doesn't, ~/.claude.json conflict), here's a more robust solution:

Root cause: The extension and CLI write to the same config file without coordination, causing a race condition.

Solution approaches:

1. Isolated config paths: Extension should use ~/.claude/extensions/auth.json separate from CLI's ~/.claude.json
2. File locking: Use flock or similar to prevent concurrent writes
3. Event-based sync: CLI broadcasts auth changes via filesystem watcher or IPC

Immediate workaround: Create a backup of your auth tokens before using the extension:

cp ~/.claude.json ~/.claude.json.backup

Then restore after extension overwrites it:

cp ~/.claude.json.backup ~/.claude.json

Long-term: This seems like a design issue worth fixing in the extension — separating credential storage from config storage would eliminate the conflict entirely.

[Sanaullah-Aasi]

Thanks for the detailed breakdown! The race condition theory makes sense given what I'm seeing — the extension seems to be wiping auth on every reload.
I tried the backup/restore workaround:
cp ~/.claude.json ~/.claude.json.backup
But on Windows the path is C:\Users<name>.claude.json — for anyone on Windows the equivalent is:
copy %USERPROFILE%.claude.json %USERPROFILE%.claude.json.backup
And to restore:
copy %USERPROFILE%.claude.json.backup %USERPROFILE%.claude.json
Will test this and report back. The isolated config path suggestion (+1 on this) — having the extension use a separate auth file from the CLI would cleanly solve this without any locking complexity. Would love to see this prioritized given how many duplicates this issue has.

[alkanen]

This OAuth loop issue is a known pain point. Based on the symptoms (CLI works, extension doesn't, ~/.claude.json conflict), here's a more robust solution:

Root cause: The extension and CLI write to the same config file without coordination, causing a race condition.

Solution approaches:

1. Isolated config paths: Extension should use ~/.claude/extensions/auth.json separate from CLI's ~/.claude.json
2. File locking: Use flock or similar to prevent concurrent writes
3. Event-based sync: CLI broadcasts auth changes via filesystem watcher or IPC

Immediate workaround: Create a backup of your auth tokens before using the extension:

cp ~/.claude.json ~/.claude.json.backup
Then restore after extension overwrites it:

cp ~/.claude.json.backup ~/.claude.json
Long-term: This seems like a design issue worth fixing in the extension — separating credential storage from config storage would eliminate the conflict entirely.

CLI doesn't work either anymore. I got automatically logged out in the middle of a response from Claude and when I run /login I get the address to the website, it takes FOREVER for the page to actually give me a new token and when I paste the token into the CLI tool it again takes forever and finally it responds with the 15000ms timeout error.

There's an entire reddit thread about this issue started about an hour ago, so it seems like it's a server-side issue.

(the thread in question, in case you want to ask users to provide more feedback or test things: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1rqvio7/login_timing_out/)

[acardielf]

Same issue on Fedora and Claude Code 2.1.72. Imposible to login

[starkindustries]

I'm also seeing this same issue on MacOS using claude code CLI in iterm2. This is the first result that pops up when I google the error: "Claude code OAuth error: timeout of 15000ms exceeded". From what I've noticed, it seems like the oauth endpoint https://claude.ai/oauth/authorize takes forever to load, much longer than this 15000ms timeout.

[Mali-Salmon]

Same on windows

[TimZander]

experiencing this on windows in claude code console app now