[DOCS] CLI reference missing `claude auth` subcommands (`login`, `status`, `logout`)

Documentation Type

Missing documentation (feature not documented)

Documentation Location

https://code.claude.com/docs/en/cli-reference

Section/Topic

"CLI commands" table and the Authentication page

Current Documentation

The CLI commands table lists only these top-level commands:

| Command | Description |
|---------|-------------|
| claude | Start interactive REPL |
| claude "query" | Start REPL with initial prompt |
| claude -p "query" | Query via SDK, then exit |
| claude update | Update to latest version |
| claude mcp | Configure MCP servers |

No claude auth entry exists.

The Authentication page (https://code.claude.com/docs/en/authentication) covers Teams/Enterprise, Console, and cloud provider setup but does not mention any CLI auth subcommands.

What's Wrong or Missing?

v2.1.41 added three new CLI subcommands:

• claude auth login — Log in to Claude Code from the command line
• claude auth status — Check current authentication status
• claude auth logout — Log out of Claude Code from the command line

These are completely absent from:

1. CLI reference (cli-reference.md) — The CLI commands table has no claude auth entry
2. Authentication page (authentication.md) — No mention of CLI-based auth management
3. Interactive mode (interactive-mode.md) — The built-in commands table lists /login and /logout inconsistently (they appear in quickstart.md and troubleshooting.md but are missing from the built-in commands table itself)

The relationship between the interactive slash commands (/login, /logout) and the new CLI subcommands (claude auth login, claude auth logout) is also unclear — users don't know which to use when.

Suggested Improvement

1. Add claude auth to the CLI commands table in cli-reference.md:

| Command | Description | Example |
|---------|-------------|---------|
| claude auth login | Log in to Claude Code | claude auth login |
| claude auth status | Check authentication status | claude auth status |
| claude auth logout | Log out of Claude Code | claude auth logout |

1. Add a "CLI authentication management" section to authentication.md explaining these subcommands and when to use them vs. the interactive /login and /logout commands.

1. Consider adding /login and /logout to the built-in commands table in interactive-mode.md for completeness, since they are referenced in quickstart.md and troubleshooting.md but missing from the canonical command list.

Impact

High - Prevents users from using a feature

Additional Context

• Added in v2.1.41 (released 2026-02-13)
• The interactive /login and /logout slash commands are disabled when using cloud providers (Bedrock, Vertex, Foundry), making the CLI claude auth subcommands potentially important for those users as well
• claude auth status appears to be new functionality with no interactive equivalent (the closest is /status which opens the Settings UI)