Authentication issues on WSL
Issues the maintainers labelled both platform:wsl and area:auth.
57 issues · 14 open · 43 resolved (75%) · first seen Feb 25, 2026
Is this getting better or worse?
This class of problem is converging. 12 new reports in the last 90 days vs 20 in the 90 before — -40%. The open backlog peaked at 16 in 2026-08 and sits at 14 today.
Derived by counting each matching issue from its creation date until it closed. First-party
computation over the anthropics/claude-code tracker — the trend is not published
anywhere upstream.
Which builds report this
49 of these reports name the Claude Code build they were running, spanning 37 releases. Heaviest reporters:
- Claude Code v2.1.83
- Claude Code v2.1.296
- Claude Code v2.1.251
- Claude Code v2.1.246
- Claude Code v2.1.207
- Claude Code v2.1.201
- Claude Code v2.1.114
- Claude Code v2.1.121
Report volume, not a defect count: an issue can mention a build without that build having caused the failure. Versions come from the version string in the bug-report template, matched against real published tags.
Do these get fixed?
Median time to close is 31 days across 43 closures. Of the 43 closures with a recorded reason, 23% were closed as completed and 33 as not-planned or duplicate. The most recent completed fix landed in 2026-08.
Workarounds reported by the community
22 of these issues post a workaround someone says worked. The highest-engagement ones:
- [BUG] Cannot paste auth code into "Paste code here if prompted >" during /login in Dev Container (v2.1.105)
- I have a solution that works for me. WSL workaround when paste is broken during /login If you're on WSL, have no browser, and can't paste the token, install wslu so WSL can open your Windows browser for the OAuth flow: R…
Found in the thread of #47699 · resolved - Remote Control not enabled despite Pro subscription
- …ion and don't see any way to enable it. The [logout + login workaround]( did not work for me.
Found in the thread of #28792 · still open - [BUG] claude auth login WSL2 stdin does not accept OAuth code — cannot authenticate to Claude Max
- …nv -i HOME=$HOME PATH=... claude auth login — same result ✅ Workaround Install Claude Code on Windows natively, run from PowerShell, then copy to . This works but requires manual intervention every time the token expires…
Found in the description of #44136 · resolved - [BUG] Bedrock "Session token not found or invalid" on interactive requests despite valid, confirmed-working credentials
- …request object) rather than a permissions or region issue. Workaround observed: an already-running/warm Claude Code session continues to work; only fresh/cold claude process starts hit this.
Found in the thread of #76701 · still open - [BUG] claude login paste not working in code input field (regression in 2.1.105+)
- …e back to 2.1.104 fixes the issue without any other changes Workaround Downgrade to 2.1.104 (binary is still present after auto-update) ln -sf ~/.local/share/claude/versions/2.1.104 ~/.local/bin/claude What Should Happen…
Found in the description of #47799 · resolved
Excerpts are quoted from the linked issue so you can judge relevance before opening it. Threads that only ask for a workaround, or report that there is none, are excluded. These are community suggestions, not official guidance from Anthropic — read the full thread before applying one.
Matching issues 1–57
Ranked by community engagement (reactions weighted over comments).
- [BUG] Cannot paste auth code into "Paste code here if prompted >" during /login in Dev Container (v2.1.105)
- Remote Control not enabled despite Pro subscription
- [BUG] claude auth login WSL2 stdin does not accept OAuth code — cannot authenticate to Claude Max
- [BUG] Account reinstated by Trust & Safety but authentication system still blocking login — needs engineering fix
- [BUG] Bedrock "Session token not found or invalid" on interactive requests despite valid, confirmed-working credentials
- [BUG] claude login paste not working in code input field (regression in 2.1.105+)
- [BUG] OAuth timeout loop
- [BUG] [1M] Opus 4.6 1M context unavailable on Max 5x — works on another machine with same account
- [BUG] /autofix-pr fails with "Claude GitHub app must be installed" despite app being installed
- [BUG] v2.1.121: CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_EXPERIMENTAL_BETAS=1 + Opus 4.7 causes 401 "OAuth authentication is currently not supported" retry-loop
- Remote MCP OAuth: prompt=consent hardcoded on every authorize request breaks Entra tenants with user-consent disabled
- [BUG][WSL2] Paste broken at OAuth prompt in v2.1.105 (regression from v2.1.104)
- [BUG] CLI caches subscriptionType and rateLimitTier indefinitely — plan upgrades not reflected
- [BUG] CIMD redirect_uri validation fails against MCP servers that support DCR (v2.1.81)
- [BUG] All paste methods fail silently during OAuth prompt only
- [Bug] OAuth refresh token not auto-refreshing on WSL — requires manual re-login daily
- MCP OAuth callback uses random port, breaks in WSL2 environments
- org_level_disabled error with active Pro subscription as personal org admin
- [BUG] MCP HTTP OAuth: refresh token never used; multi-session sharing broken
- [BUG] claude auth login input completely frozen in WSL - cannot paste auth code
- [BUG] rateLimitTier set to "default_claude_ai" instead of "default_claude_pro" — CLI treating Pro subscription as API token auth, immediate "API Error: Rate limit reached" with zero usage
- [BUG] rateLimitTier assigned "default_claude_ai" instead of "default_claude_pro" for Pro subscribers on WSL — API Error: Rate limit reached on every request
- HTTP MCP OAuth: valid token silently corrupted by status check (wrong redirectUri, empty accessToken)
- VS Code extension: /design-login "isn't available in this environment" — no path to grant user:design scopes, /design-consent dead-ends with 403
- [BUG]
- [BUG] Cannot paste authentication code in WSL Ubuntu - keyboard input intercepted
- [BUG] OAuth authentification fails on WSL2
- [BUG] Official Meta Ads MCP (mcp.facebook.com/ads) fails OAuth with "redirect_uris are not registered for this client"
- Credential writes replace symlinks and clobber shared state: concurrent instances sharing .credentials.json cascade each other (and the user) to logged-out
- [BUG] WSL2: --bg-pty-host injects BROWSER=true into shell sessions, silently breaking all browser-based auth
- Opus 4.6 1M context window unavailable on Max plan — ongoing regression
- [BUG] vscode extension "Switch Account" doesn't
- [BUG] Non-interactive Claude Code (-p) cannot use existing Claude Pro login
- [BUG] CLI hangs silently on WSL2 - streaming response never processed
- [BUG] Authorization header not sent when ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN is set.
- OAuth login fails with 'Invalid OAuth Request - Unknown scope: user:i' when logging into second Max account
- [BUG] [Desktop 3P / Bedrock] WSL-folder Code sessions fail with "Bedrock credentials are managed by the desktop app, but none are available" — remote spawn path does not deliver credentials for any credential kind
- Stale OAuth refresh token causes persistent 401 "Invalid authentication credentials" that `/login` does not recover from (manual deletion of ~/.claude/.credentials.json required)
- [BUG] NO API KEY, API Billing occurring and draining my account
- [DOCS] Auth login troubleshooting missing pasted OAuth code fallback for localhost callback failures
- /login OAuth flow: unable to paste code in WSL2 terminal
- [BUG] CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR does not isolate credentials on Linux/WSL2 (no Keychain)
- [BUG] vscode + ssh + wsl + claude code plugins loading error!
- [BUG] Opening session sidebar wipes API key auth for current session
- Need Oauth to test reimplmentation of Claude code to submit PR.
- [Workaround] remote-control "not enabled" error caused by stale Statsig cache when DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC was set
- login Session bug
- [BUG] Weekly limit stays at 99% after Pro → Max 20x re-login; rateLimitTier now correct but counter not recalculated
- VS Code extension: in-app 'Log in' fails with 400 on claude_oauth_callback after refresh-token expiry
- [BUG] Remote Control registration: orphans on OAuth access-token rotation (~8h), dead session names never re-register, CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN in env silently blocks registration
- OAuth session dropped repeatedly (subscription auth, WSL2) — latest logout coincided with auto-update 2.1.197 -> 2.1.206 mid-session
- [BUG] "Paste code here" field pre-fills with stale/unrelated text across multiple login flows (login, setup-token, design-login) — WSL2
- M365 MCP OAuth flow broken: duplicate 'prompt' parameter causes AADSTS900971
- [BUG] Removing whitespace from an MCP server's `url`, as the config warning suggests, loses its OAuth sign-in (token key is a hash of the raw URL)
- [BUG] VS Code WSL authentication fails without actionable error when Windows and WSL have different effective internet connectivity
- [Bug] Anthropic API Error: Model access denied for approved security testing account
- Interactive session correctly authenticated via Pro subscription, but usage is billed against Console API balance instead — no identifiable local cause after full diagnostic