OAuth token expires daily, no way to re-auth over SSH — locked out for 6 days while traveling

[gardel]

Problem

I use Claude Code over SSH (Mosh from iPad to Mac via Tailscale) and have a Max 5x subscription. The OAuth access token expires roughly every 12-24 hours. When I'm physically at my Mac this is fine — Claude Code refreshes the token or I can re-run claude auth login in a browser.

But when traveling with only an iPad, there's no way to complete the OAuth browser flow remotely. I was locked out of Claude Code for 6 days on a recent trip because the token expired on day 1 and I had no way to re-authenticate.

This was completely unexpected. I didn't realize my access could just vanish overnight while away from my machine.

Current workaround

I've set up macOS Screen Sharing + RealVNC over Tailscale so I can remote into the Mac's desktop from my iPad and complete the OAuth flow through the browser. It works, but it's a lot of infrastructure for what should be a simple credential refresh.

What would help

Any of these would solve it:

1. Longer-lived refresh tokens — if the refresh token lasted 30+ days and could renew silently without a browser, remote SSH usage would just work
2. Headless re-auth flow — a claude auth login --headless or device-code flow that doesn't require a local browser (just a URL + code to enter on any device)
3. Allow API key to use Max subscription billing — if I could generate a long-lived API key that drew from my Max plan instead of separate API billing, the problem disappears entirely

Environment

• macOS (Mac Mini M4) as the Claude Code host
• iPad connecting via Mosh over Tailscale
• Max 5x subscription ($100/mo)
• Claude Code CLI (latest)

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[github-actions]

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. Support device-code authentication flow (RFC 8628) for Pro/Max subscription users in headless environments #22992
2. [BUG] OAuth token expires excessively — multiple times per day #36911
3. OAuth token expires every ~10 minutes (was ~1 week) #37804

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[christophercrouzet]

Also ran into a similar issue when calling claude auth login --console over SSH. Since the remote machine has a display, it opens a browser and the command blocks, waiting for the auth to complete in the browser.

A workaround is to start Claude Code, type /login, choose the “Anthropic Console account” auth option, and then it correctly prints “Browser didn't open? Use the url below to sign in (c to copy)”, letting you input the code returned from a browser on the local machine. However, this isn't ideal for writing a tool to seamlessly set up a VM.

[github-actions]

Closing for now — inactive for too long. Please open a new issue if this is still relevant.

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically locked since it was closed and has not had any activity for 7 days. If you're experiencing a similar issue, please file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant.