To the Anthropic team,
Claude Pro and Claude Max subscribers have been using their subscriptions with third-party clients — OpenClaw, OpenCode, NanoClaw, custom agents, the Agent SDK. OAuth worked. The tooling was public, documented, discussed across developer channels, and visibly integrated into the workflows of the customers buying those subscriptions.
In February 2026 you updated your Claude Code documentation with this clause: "Using OAuth tokens obtained through Claude Free, Pro, or Max accounts in any other product, tool, or service — including the Agent SDK — is not permitted and constitutes a violation of the Consumer Terms of Service."
In the days after, developers asked what the change meant. Thariq Shihipar, an Anthropic engineer on the Claude Code team, replied publicly: "Apologies, this was a docs clean up we rolled out that's caused some confusion. Nothing is changing about how you can use the Agent SDK and MAX subscriptions!" Anthropic's statement to the press said the same: "Nothing changes around how customers have been using their account and Anthropic will not be canceling accounts." Six weeks later, on April 4, 2026 at 12pm PT, you enforced the ban.
The stated reason was capacity. The announcement email said
"these tools put an outsized strain on our systems."
Boris Cherny, head of Claude Code, said
"our systems are highly optimized for one kind of workload."
That workload is Claude Code — a harness that consumes subscription
quota aggressively through long-running agent features like
/loop.
The rule isn't about strain. It's about which client gets to produce
it.
Compensation was a one-time credit equal to one month's subscription price, redeemable through April 17 — thirteen days after the announcement — with up to 30% off pre-purchased extra-usage bundles for customers continuing on metered billing. Workflows built on Pro or Max either stop working or move to metered API billing, at a multiple of the subscription price. That isn't a migration path — it's a price hike disguised as a documentation update.
We are not asking for free Claude. We are asking you to honor the deal we signed up under. A subscription whose rules change mid-stream — with the actual enforcement arriving weeks after the docs edit, and the compensation window closing thirteen days after the announcement — is not a subscription. It's a lease on your roadmap.
We are the customers who care enough to build on Claude. Many of us recommended you to our teams, our clients, our employers. You have our trust. Don't burn it on a quiet docs edit.