# Claude accounts, sign-in and seats

> Sign your machines in to Claude from By Dawn, manage accounts across machines, require your company's Claude organization, and choose which seat may run a job.

This page shows you how to sign your organization's machines in to Claude and manage those sign-ins from By Dawn. By the
end you'll be able to sign a machine in, move an account from one machine to another, and set the two rules an org
admin decides: which Claude organization is required, and whose seat a job may run on.

By Dawn's agents run Claude Code on a Claude subscription, signed in on the machine that does the work. So each
[remote agent](https://docs.bydawn.com/remote-agents/) needs a Claude sign-in before it takes any work.

## How sign-in works

You sign a machine in with Anthropic's own sign-in. By Dawn starts it on the machine, you open Anthropic's page in your own
browser and sign in, and then you paste back the one-time code it shows. That code is encrypted for the machine before
it leaves your browser, so By Dawn can't read it, and the sign-in itself stays on the machine. By Dawn never holds a Claude
password or token.

Only a machine's owner or an org admin can sign it in or out, and the machine must be online, because the sign-in runs
there.

Two words come up on these pages:

- **Seat**: one Claude sign-in on a machine. Every machine has its own login, its **default seat**, and can hold extra
  seats, each signed in to another Claude account.
- **Linked**: a member has told By Dawn which Claude account is theirs, so By Dawn knows whose seat it is.

## Sign in, move and sign out

Signing in, switching accounts, adding seats and signing out all run on the machine itself, from the Remote Agents
page. Moving an account between machines, or signing it out everywhere, starts from the Claude Accounts page.

### Sign a machine in to Claude

1. Open **Settings › Organization › Remote Agents**. A machine that needs a sign-in says so on its Claude
   badge, and the badge is the button that starts one. You can also open the machine's **Actions** menu (⋮) and choose
   **Sign in to Claude…**.

2. By Dawn prepares the sign-in on the machine, which takes a few seconds. Choose **Open Anthropic sign-in**. Anthropic's
   page opens in a new tab: sign in with the Claude account this machine should use.

3. Copy the code Anthropic shows, paste it into **Paste the code Anthropic shows you**, and choose **Sign in**.

4. By Dawn says which account the machine signed in as. Choose **Done**.

Each code works once and lasts a few minutes. If By Dawn says **That code didn’t work** or **The sign-in timed out**,
choose **Start again** for a new one.

To change the account, choose **Switch account…** in the same menu. **Sign out of Claude** stops the machine running
Claude until someone signs it in again, and jobs already running there may fail.

### Sign in several machines at once

An org admin can tick machines in the **Online** group, or tick the group to select every machine shown, and then
choose **Sign in to Claude…** in the bar that appears. The **need sign-in** chip at the top of the page narrows the
list to the machines that need one.

You can fill in **Use the same email for all (optional)**. With an email set, a machine that's signed in to any other
account is signed straight back out, so a wrong account can't slip in. By Dawn then walks you through the machines one at a
time. Each machine needs its own Anthropic code, so sign in on Anthropic's page once for every machine. Choose
**Next machine** or **Skip machine** as you go, and **See summary** at the end.

**Sign out of Claude** in the same bar signs every selected machine out.

### Add a seat

A machine can be signed in to more than one Claude account. When one seat reaches its usage limit or is signed out,
new jobs use another seat until it's back, so one busy account doesn't stop the machine. A job that's already running
keeps its seat.

On a signed-in machine, choose **Add seat…** in its menu and sign in as above with another account. A machine with two
or more seats shows how many on its row. Open that to see each seat, who it's signed in as, its usage, its state and the
member it's linked to, with **Switch…**, **Sign in…** and **Remove seat** for each. The default seat can be signed out
but not removed.

### Move an account or sign it out everywhere

**Settings › Organization › Claude Accounts** turns the fleet around: one card per Claude account signed in
anywhere in your organization. Each card shows the account's name and email, its Claude organization and plan, its
usage, the member it's linked to (or **Unlinked**), and every machine and seat signed in with it.

From a card you can:

- **Sign in on another machine…**: pick an online machine that isn't on this account yet. If that machine is already
  signed in to another account, By Dawn adds this one as an extra seat by default, so nobody is signed out. Untick
  **Keep … signed in and add this account as an extra seat** to replace the other account instead.
- **Move to…**, next to a machine: move the account to another machine. By Dawn signs the new machine in first (step 1 of
  2) and only then signs the old one out (step 2 of 2). If the sign-in fails, or lands on a different account, the old
  machine stays signed in, so a move never leaves the account on no machine at all. The old machine must be online.
- **Sign out everywhere**: sign every online machine out of the account at once, for example when someone leaves or a
  sign-in may have leaked. By Dawn shows how each machine went. An offline machine can't be reached, so it stays signed in
  and the dialog says so: sign it out once it's back online. Jobs already running on these machines may fail.

## Link your Claude account

Every member can tell By Dawn which Claude account is theirs. Open **Settings › You › Connections**, find
**Claude account**, enter your **My Claude account email** and choose **Link account**. By Dawn stores only the address,
never a sign-in.

Linking does two things. It shows you as the account's owner on its card in Claude Accounts, and it makes your seat
count as yours for the [seat policy](#which-seat-runs-a-job). Each Claude account can be linked to one member.

If a seat is signed in with your verified By Dawn email, By Dawn may link it for you and says so on the card. If that isn't
your account, choose **Not my account**.

Org admins see every link under **Linked members** on the Claude Accounts page.

## The org guard

The org guard makes sure your machines use your organization's own Claude plan. Your organization probably pays for a
Claude team or enterprise plan, and its work should run there, not on someone's personal Pro or Max plan.
**Required Claude organization**, on the Claude Accounts page, lets an org admin say which
Claude organizations count. Any member can read it.

To turn it on:

1. Under **Claude organization IDs**, add each Claude organization your machines should use, and choose **Add**. You
   can find an ID on claude.ai under Settings → Organization (owners and admins can see it), or by running
   `claude auth status` on a remote agent. The organizations your machines already report are offered under
   **Seen in your fleet**, so usually you only pick from those. You can require up to 20.

2. Under **When a machine is signed in to another organization**, choose what happens:
   - **Flag only**: the machine is marked **Wrong org** but still takes work.
   - **Flag and stop dispatching to it**: it's marked, and gets no new jobs until it signs in to a required
     organization.

3. Choose **Save**. Nothing is enforced until you save.

A machine whose Claude organization isn't reported, for example because it's signed out or runs an older agent, is
never marked **Wrong org** and keeps taking work. To fix a flagged machine, choose **Switch account…** in its menu and
sign in with an account in a required organization.

To turn the rule off, remove every ID and choose **Save and turn off**.

## Which seat runs a job

This setting, on the Claude Accounts page, decides whose Claude subscription a job may use. Only an org admin can
change it.

| Option | What it means |
|---|---|
| **Owner’s seat only** (recommended) | A job runs only on a seat linked to its owner or requester. |
| **Any healthy seat** | A job runs on any healthy seat, whoever's subscription it is. |

**Owner’s seat only** is the default because Claude's consumer subscriptions are personal. Anthropic's Consumer Terms
say you may not make your account available to anyone else, and **Any healthy seat** lets one member's work run on
another member's subscription. So turning it on asks an org admin to confirm with Anthropic first and tick **I accept
this for the organization and will confirm it with Anthropic**. By Dawn records who accepted it and when.

**Owner’s seat only** counts a seat as a member's only once they [link their Claude account](#link-your-claude-account).
Until at least one seat is linked, it isn't enforced, and the card says so. Once it is, every unlinked seat refuses
work until its member links it. The card counts the linked seats, warns you about unlinked ones, and, before you
switch, tells you what the change will do.

> **Caution:** Switching to **Owner’s seat only** while some seats are unlinked stops those seats taking jobs straight away. Ask
> members to link their accounts first.

## When a machine needs attention

These show on a machine's row, or in its Claude usage panel, when something stops it running Claude work:

| What By Dawn shows | What to do |
|---|---|
| **Signed out**, or the Claude badge asks for a sign-in | [Sign the machine in](#sign-a-machine-in-to-claude). |
| **Claude token expired — usage unavailable**, or **Claude sign-in no longer accepted — sign in again on the machine** | Sign the machine in again. |
| **Wrong org** | Switch to an account in a [required organization](#the-org-guard). |
| **Limit reached** with a reset time | Nothing: new jobs use another seat until the limit resets. [Add a seat](#add-a-seat) if it happens often. |
| **Claude subscription access disabled by organization** | The account's Claude organization has turned off Claude Code, so the machine gets no new jobs. Sign in with an account whose organization allows it. |
| **Claude status unknown** | The machine's agent hasn't reported its Claude status. Updating the agent may fix it. |

## FAQ

**Can By Dawn see my Claude password or token?**

No. You sign in on Anthropic's page in your own browser, and the one-time code you paste is encrypted for the machine
before it leaves your browser. The sign-in lives only on the machine.

**Why can't I sign in a machine?**

Only the machine's owner or an org admin can, and the machine must be online. If someone else is signing it in or out
at the same moment, wait for them to finish and try again.

**Why does my linked account say another member already linked it?**

Each Claude account can be linked to one member of the organization. Ask an org admin to check **Linked members**.

## Where to go next

- [Remote agents and machines](https://docs.bydawn.com/remote-agents/): pair a machine and choose whose work it runs.
- [Models and runtimes](https://docs.bydawn.com/models-and-runtimes/): choose the model a ticket runs on.

Source: https://docs.bydawn.com/claude-accounts/