Use a Claude subscription

If you pay for a Claude Pro or Max plan, Thermite’s agents can work on that plan instead of a paid API key. Anthropic allows a subscription only in its own program, so these agents run inside Claude Code. You make a token on your own computer, paste it into the dashboard, and give a rig one of its models.

A subscription is for your own Thermite only. A Thermite that several people use takes API keys.

Tested with stand-ins

Subscriptions are built, but Thermite’s tests so far use a stand-in for Claude Code. A test with a real subscription is planned in goal 009.

Before you start

• A Claude Pro or Max plan, and Node.js on your own computer.
• A rig whose images have Claude Code in them. Thermite’s images leave it out unless you build them with it: see step 2. The published images, which a release’s compose.yaml runs, never carry it, so the local stack must run from the source code (Running Thermite locally).

1. Make a token

On your own computer, not on the rig:

1. Install Claude Code, if it is not installed:

   npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

2. Run claude setup-token and sign in with your Claude account in the browser.

3. Copy the token it prints. It starts with sk-ant- and is good for one year.

Control cannot open Anthropic’s sign-in page for you, which is why you make the token yourself.

2. Build the images with Claude Code

Claude Code is not open source, so Thermite’s images carry it only when you build them with the build option CLAUDE_CODE_VERSION. The harness image needs it for the workers and the planner. The supervisor image needs it for advisors on the subscription.

1. Find the newest version of the package the build downloads:

   npm view @anthropic-ai/claude-code-linux-x64 version

   On an arm64 machine the build downloads @anthropic-ai/claude-code-linux-arm64 instead.

2. On the local stack built from the source code, put the option in an override file next to the repository’s compose.yaml, with that version:

   compose.claude.yaml

   services:
     harness:
       build:
         args:
           CLAUDE_CODE_VERSION: "<version>"
     supervisor:
       build:
         args:
           CLAUDE_CODE_VERSION: "<version>"

3. Build the images and start the stack with both files:

   docker compose -f compose.yaml -f compose.claude.yaml up -d --build   # or: podman compose -f … -f … up -d --build

Name this file in every later up --build, also when you update Thermite (Stop, start and update), together with any other override file you use. A build without it leaves Claude Code out: compose.yaml has no setting for it yet (goal 061).

For rigs that control sets up on your machines or clusters, build the images with the option and push them to a registry that is not public, since Claude Code is not open source. Control gives rigs no registry login, so the machines’ Podman, or the cluster’s nodes, must be able to pull from that registry on their own. See Push the images to your own registry.

3. Add the subscription

1. Press the cog icon, Settings, at the foot of the sidebar. The Providers page opens.
2. In Add a provider, set Type to Claude subscription (Pro or Max).
3. Enter a Name, for example claude-max.
4. Paste the token into Token from claude setup-token. Its ⓘ says: “The long-lived token that Claude Code prints. Control seals it at once and never shows it again. Only Claude Code, Anthropic’s own program, uses it on the rigs: Anthropic does not allow other programs to use a subscription.”
5. Press Add the subscription.

The page shows "claude-max" is saved: its 5 models run only in Claude Code. Choose one for a rig below. Control makes no call to Anthropic with the token. Its list of models is fixed. opus-5.5 and opus-5.5[1m] are the same model with the same context, so either one will do:

Model	Context
claude-code:opus-5.5	1M tokens
claude-code:opus-5.5[1m]	1M tokens, the same model
claude-code:sonnet-5.5	1M tokens
claude-code:haiku-5.5	200k tokens
claude-code:fable-5.1	1M tokens

4. Give a rig one of its models

1. In Harness and model for each rig, find the rig’s row.
2. Choose a model from the group “claude-max (Claude subscription: runs in Claude Code)”. Thermite sets the worker harness, the program the agents run in, to Claude Code for you.
3. Press Use.

The page shows rig-1 takes sonnet-5.5 from "claude-max" under Claude Code within a minute, and checks it. After a minute, press refresh in the status bar, the line along the bottom of the page. The model check’s result shows below the rig’s row, for example “Its model check passed 1m ago: claude-sonnet-5-5 answered with a correct tool call in 6.1 s (Claude Code)”.

To give the planner or an advisor the subscription, and to set an effort, use Edit rig: see Give each agent its own model.

Control gives a rig the token only while one of its agents uses the subscription.

Watch the usage windows

A Claude plan has a 5-hour window and a weekly window. Open the subscription’s row on Providers to see them: “5-hour window” and “Weekly window”, each with how much is used and when it resets, as Claude Code on a rig last reported it. Before any agent uses the subscription, the row says “No usage reported yet”.

When a window is full, the trial (one worker’s session) that hit it ends, and the rig’s agents wait until the window resets. No new trial or plan starts on that rig until then. Live in the sidebar, the dashboard’s view of the agents at work (glossary), shows “agents wait for the subscription’s usage window to reset at” and the time. Nothing pays for more: the agents simply continue after the reset.

Many agents can share one plan, and so can several rigs. On Edit rig, a note says how many of the rig’s agent sessions at a time can use the subscription. More workers at a time fill a window faster.

Replace or remove the token

• Replace it: run claude setup-token again, open the subscription’s row, paste the new token into New token from claude setup-token, and press Replace the token. The new token works at once. Do this before the old one’s year ends.
• Remove the subscription: press Delete this subscription in its row. If a rig or an agent still uses it, the row says “In use: give its rigs another model before deleting it.” Give them another model first.

If something goes wrong

You see	What to do
“That is not a token from claude setup-token: it starts with sk-ant-.”	Copy the token that claude setup-token printed, not another key.
“The token has spaces or is too long: paste only what claude setup-token printed.”	Paste the token alone, on one line.
The model check fails right after you chose the model	Check that the rig’s harness image was built with CLAUDE_CODE_VERSION. The check then says: this rig’s harness image has no Claude Code: build the image with the Claude Code option (CLAUDE_CODE_VERSION), or give the rig another harness on Edit rig.
The model check fails with: Claude Code needs bubblewrap to keep the agent’s commands away from its sign-in	The rig’s harness or supervisor image predates bubblewrap in Thermite’s images. Rebuild them from this version, or install bubblewrap in your own image. Claude Code’s sandbox also needs unprivileged user namespaces where the rig runs.
The model check fails because the model called no tool, and the model’s answer says the sandbox needs socat	The rig’s harness or supervisor image predates socat in Thermite’s images. Claude Code then answers but cannot run a command. Rebuild the images from this version, or install socat in your own image.
The model check fails with “the subscription’s usage window is full until” a time	Wait for the reset, or use another model meanwhile.
A research campaign’s trials end with “research workers run in Pi or OpenCode, and a Claude subscription runs only in Claude Code: give this rig another model for research”	Research workers run in Pi or OpenCode v2, never in Claude Code. Give the rig another model for research.