anthropics / anthropics/claude-code

Feature request: store MCP OAuth tokens separately from the Claude account credential (multi-account machines)

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#92,748 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
area:auth area:mcp enhancement
Dominant language
Python
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145k
Forks
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PR merge metrics
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Description

### What feature would you like?

Separate storage (or native partitioning) of MCP OAuth tokens from the Claude account login credential.

Today `~/.claude/.credentials.json` holds both `claudeAiOauth` (the Claude login itself) and `mcpOAuth` (every MCP server sign-in) in one file. For users who run multiple Claude accounts on one machine (e.g. switching between subscription accounts by swapping config/credentials, or via `CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR` layouts), MCP sign-ins get forked into whichever account context was live at the time: sign in to an MCP server under account A, switch to account B, and B has no memory of that sign-in — the user must re-authenticate every MCP server per account, even though the MCP identity is the same human.

Requested: store `mcpOAuth` in its own file (e.g. `~/.claude/.mcp-credentials.json`), or provide a supported setting to point MCP credential storage at a shared location independent of the account credential. Either would let MCP sign-ins survive account switches without third-party tooling having to rebuild a mixed credentials file.

### Additional context

Multi-account users currently have no supported way to split the two credential families; the whole config dir relocates as one unit via `CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR`, and the credentials file moves as one unit within it. A native split would also reduce the blast radius of any tooling that snapshots/restores account credentials.

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

Research direction

Start by tracing how ~/.claude/.credentials.json is read and written, especially claudeAiOauth and mcpOAuth, and how CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR changes its location. Compare the requested storage approaches and verify that MCP sign-ins remain available after switching account credential contexts without duplicating credentials.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
authentication, security
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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