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Authentication

Sandboxes run in isolated containers that cannot access the host's credential stores (e.g., macOS Keychain, Linux secret-service). This page explains how forage-ctl bridges that gap for each authentication method.

Overview

There are three ways to authenticate agents in sandboxes, in order of preference:

Method Scope Token lifetime Best for
Long-lived token Claude-specific 1 year Production use, long-running sandboxes
Keychain passthrough Claude-specific ~8 hours Quick experiments, no setup needed
Secret files Any agent Indefinite API key auth (Anthropic API, OpenAI, etc.)

Long-lived token (recommended)

For Claude Code with a Max/Pro subscription (OAuth authentication), generate a long-lived token that forage-ctl stores and injects into every sandbox.

Setup

  1. Generate a token (opens browser for OAuth):

    claude setup-token

  2. Copy the displayed token and store it:

    forage-ctl claude token store <token>

  3. Verify:

    forage-ctl claude token status

That's it. All future sandboxes with a Claude agent will automatically pick up this token.

How it works

forage-ctl claude token store <token>
    │
    ▼
<stateDir>/tokens/claude-oauth.json     ← token + creation time + expiry
    │
    │  (on forage-ctl up)
    ▼
CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN env var         ← injected into container
    │
    ▼
Claude Code reads env var               ← authenticates without keychain

The token file is stored at <stateDir>/tokens/claude-oauth.json (typically /var/lib/firefly-forage/tokens/claude-oauth.json) with mode 0600. It contains:

{
  "token": "sk-ant-...",
  "createdAt": "2026-03-19T21:00:00Z",
  "expiresAt": "2027-03-19T21:00:00Z"
}

Token lifecycle

  • Valid: token is used silently, no output.
  • Expiring (< 30 days remaining): token is used but forage-ctl prints a warning during forage-ctl up suggesting renewal.
  • Expired: forage-ctl falls back to keychain passthrough and warns. Renew with claude setup-token + forage-ctl claude token store.
  • Missing: same behavior as expired — keychain fallback with instructions.

Management commands

forage-ctl claude token store <token>   # Store a new token
forage-ctl claude token status          # Show token state and expiry
forage-ctl claude token remove          # Delete stored token

Nix configuration

When using a long-lived token, the template only needs hostConfigDir — no secrets or API key env vars:

services.firefly-forage.templates.claude = {
  description = "Claude Code sandbox";
  network = "full";
  agents.claude = {
    package = pkgs.claude-code;
    hostConfigDir = "~/.claude";
  };
};

hostConfigDir mounts the host ~/.claude directory into the container. This provides Claude Code with its configuration, project history, and settings. The OAuth token is injected separately via CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN, not through the mounted directory.

Keychain passthrough

When no long-lived token is stored, forage-ctl automatically reads the OAuth access token from the host's credential store and injects it. This requires no setup but has limitations.

How it works

On macOS, Claude Code stores OAuth credentials in the login keychain under the service name Claude Code-credentials. At sandbox creation time, forage-ctl:

  1. Reads the keychain entry via security find-generic-password
  2. Parses the JSON to extract the access token
  3. Checks the token hasn't expired
  4. Injects it as CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN

Limitations

  • macOS only — Linux keychain support is not yet implemented.
  • Short-lived — access tokens expire in ~8 hours. A token extracted at sandbox creation may expire during a long session.
  • No refresh — once injected, the token cannot be refreshed inside the container. When it expires, Claude Code will report authentication errors.
  • Requires active session — the host must have a valid Claude Code login (i.e., you've used claude on the host recently).

The keychain passthrough is a convenience for quick experiments. For anything beyond that, use a long-lived token.

Verbose output

With -v, forage-ctl logs which token source was used:

level=DEBUG msg="using stored long-lived Claude OAuth token"

or:

level=DEBUG msg="read OAuth token from keychain" expiresIn=7h25m0s
level=DEBUG msg="using short-lived OAuth token from host keychain ..."

Secret files

For agents that authenticate via API keys (not OAuth), use the secrets mechanism. This works for any agent type — Claude with an API key, OpenAI, or custom agents.

Nix configuration

Define secrets as a mapping from names to file paths:

services.firefly-forage = {
  secrets = {
    anthropic = config.sops.secrets.anthropic-api-key.path;
    openai = "/run/secrets/openai-api-key";
  };

  templates.claude = {
    agents.claude = {
      package = pkgs.claude-code;
      secretName = "anthropic";
      authEnvVar = "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY";
    };
  };
};

How it works

  1. The Nix module validates that each agent's secretName exists in the top-level secrets map.
  2. At sandbox creation, forage-ctl copies the secret file into a per-sandbox directory under <secretsDir>/<sandbox-name>/.
  3. The secret directory is bind-mounted read-only into the container at /run/secrets/.
  4. The agent's wrapper script reads the file and exports it as the specified authEnvVar.

Secret management integration

Secrets should come from a proper secret manager, not plain files:

# sops-nix (recommended)
secrets.anthropic = config.sops.secrets.anthropic-api-key.path;

# agenix
secrets.anthropic = config.age.secrets.anthropic-api-key.path;

Token resolution priority

When a Claude agent is configured with hostConfigDir (OAuth flow) and no secretName, forage-ctl resolves the token in this order:

  1. Token store — <stateDir>/tokens/claude-oauth.json. If valid, use it.
  2. Token store (expiring) — if the stored token has < 30 days remaining, use it but warn.
  3. Token store (expired) — skip, warn, fall through.
  4. Host keychain — extract the short-lived access token from the macOS Keychain.
  5. No token — warn with setup instructions. The sandbox is created but Claude Code will report "Not logged in".

When secretName is set, the secret file path is used directly and none of the above applies.

Troubleshooting

"Not logged in" inside sandbox

Check which token source forage-ctl is using:

forage-ctl up mysandbox --template=claude --repo=. -v 2>&1 | grep -i "oauth\|token\|keychain"

Common causes:

  • No long-lived token and no keychain entry: log in on the host with claude auth login, then either use the keychain passthrough or generate a long-lived token.
  • Expired keychain token: run claude on the host to trigger a refresh, then recreate the sandbox.
  • Expired long-lived token: forage-ctl claude token status will confirm. Regenerate with claude setup-token.

Verify authentication inside a running sandbox

forage-ctl exec mysandbox -- claude auth status

Expected output for a working setup:

{
  "loggedIn": true,
  "authMethod": "oauth_token",
  "apiProvider": "firstParty"
}

Token not reaching the container

Verify the env var is set:

forage-ctl exec mysandbox -- printenv CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN

If empty, check forage-ctl up -v output for token resolution messages.