Headless Claude Code

Headless Claude Code

Running Claude Code outside a desktop terminal — in Docker containers, CI runners, cloud VMs, or orchestrated by another process — is full of undocumented friction. This guide covers everything we've learned getting CC to work reliably in these environments.

1. Authentication

CC tries multiple auth strategies in a fixed priority order. Understanding this chain is the key to headless auth.

Priority Order (highest → lowest)

1. Cloud provider ambient credentials — AWS Bedrock, GCP Vertex (auto-detected)
2. ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN — raw bearer token for Anthropic's API
3. ANTHROPIC_API_KEY — direct API key (pay-per-token, no Pro subscription features)
4. apiKeyHelper — executable that prints a token to stdout (set via --settings)
5. CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN — OAuth token (Pro/Team subscription)
6. /login — interactive browser OAuth dance (unusable in headless)

Recommended: apiKeyHelper

The most flexible headless strategy. Point CC at a script that returns a valid token:

{
  "apiKeyHelper": "/path/to/your-auth-script"
}

Pass it via --settings /path/to/settings.json on launch. CC calls this script whenever it needs a token, so it handles rotation naturally.

Example helper (reads from a credential vault):

#!/bin/bash
# Prints the OAuth token to stdout. CC calls this on demand.
your-vault-cli get anthropic-oauth-token

The script MUST:

• Print exactly one token to stdout (no trailing newline issues — CC trims)
• Exit 0 on success
• Be executable (chmod +x)

setup-token (One-Time OAuth Bootstrap)

If you have a browser somewhere (your laptop, a jump host), you can bootstrap OAuth credentials into a headless machine:

# On the headless machine:
claude setup-token
# Prints a URL and waits for a token

# Open that URL in any browser, complete the OAuth flow.
# The token is saved to ~/.claude/ and CC uses it going forward.

This is good for initial setup but tokens expire. For long-running environments, apiKeyHelper with a refresh mechanism is more robust.

CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN env var

Set a Pro/Team subscription OAuth token directly:

export CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN="oat-..."
claude

This is the simplest headless auth method and works in both -p mode and interactive mode. The main limitation: no automatic refresh. When the token expires, CC dies.

Caveat: on first launch in interactive mode, CC may still show the login method picker even with this env var set. Complete onboarding once (see Section 2) and subsequent launches will use the token without prompting.

What NOT to Use

• ANTHROPIC_API_KEY works but bills per-token (no Pro subscription). Fine for CI where you want predictable billing; bad for long interactive sessions.
• /login (the interactive browser flow) requires a real browser. In containers, this hangs or errors. The whole point of this guide is avoiding it.

2. First-Run Onboarding & Interactive Prompts

CC has several interactive prompts that block on first launch. In headless environments where no human is watching, these are silent killers.

The Onboarding Gauntlet

On first launch, CC may prompt for:

1. Theme selection — light/dark/system theme picker
2. Trust dialog — "Do you trust the files in this directory?"
3. Bypass-permissions warning — safety acknowledgment (when using --dangerously-skip-permissions)
4. OAuth login — browser-based auth (if no token is configured)

Each of these blocks the process waiting for input. In a tmux session or piped context, CC just hangs silently.

Pre-Seeding .claude.json (Skip Almost Everything)

CC stores onboarding and trust state in $HOME/.claude.json. Pre-populate it to skip all skippable prompts:

import json, os

config_path = os.path.expanduser("~/.claude.json")
config = {}

# Skip theme picker + welcome screen
config["hasCompletedOnboarding"] = True

# Pre-accept workspace trust per directory
config["projects"] = {
    "/workspace/my-repo": {
        "hasTrustDialogAccepted": True
    }
}

with open(config_path, "w") as f:
    json.dump(config, f, indent=2)

This eliminates the theme picker, welcome screen, and trust dialog. The only prompt that can't be pre-seeded is the bypass-permissions safety warning — CC always shows it when --dangerously-skip-permissions is used. Auto-accept it with:

# After launching CC in tmux, wait for it to render, then:
sleep 5
tmux send-keys -t session_name Down    # Select "Yes, I accept"
tmux send-keys -t session_name Enter

Why Not -p (Print Mode)?

claude -p "prompt" seems ideal for headless use, but it has critical limitations:

• Buffers ALL output until completion — no streaming, no progress visibility
• No session continuity — each invocation is a fresh session with no memory
• No mid-flight interaction — can't course-correct or add context

Interactive mode in tmux is better for anything beyond one-shot queries. You get streaming output, session continuity, and can inject follow-up prompts via load-buffer/paste-buffer (see Section 3).

3. tmux Orchestration

For persistent headless sessions, tmux is the right primitive. But the integration has sharp edges.

Prompt Injection: load-buffer + paste-buffer, NOT send-keys

This is the single most important tmux pattern. Do not use send-keys to type prompts into CC. Special characters, quotes, newlines, and shell metacharacters all break unpredictably.

# ✅ CORRECT — works with any content
echo "Your prompt here, with 'quotes' and \"escapes\" and $variables" > /tmp/prompt.txt
tmux load-buffer /tmp/prompt.txt
tmux paste-buffer -t session_name
tmux send-keys -t session_name Enter

# ❌ WRONG — breaks on quotes, newlines, $, !, etc.
tmux send-keys -t session_name "Fix the bug in auth.ts" Enter

send-keys is fine for simple strings (Enter, Y, N) but not for arbitrary prompt text. The load-buffer/paste-buffer pattern treats the content as raw text, bypassing all shell interpretation.

Reading Output: capture-pane

# Last 50 lines of a session
tmux capture-pane -t session_name -p -S -50

# Full scrollback to a file
tmux capture-pane -t session_name -p -S - > /tmp/session-output.txt

Session Lifecycle

# Create a detached session in a working directory
tmux new-session -d -s my-session -c /path/to/repo

# Kill when done
tmux kill-session -t my-session

# List all sessions
tmux list-sessions

Reference Launcher: cc-session

A complete launcher that handles auth, user switching, onboarding bypass, git tokens, and the bypass-permissions warning — zero human interaction required:

#!/bin/bash
# cc-session <name> [working-dir] [-- claude-args...]
set -euo pipefail

SESSION_NAME="${1:?Usage: cc-session <name> [working-dir]}"
WORK_DIR="${2:-/path/to/default/repo}"

# Install tmux if missing (containers lose it on restart)
command -v tmux &>/dev/null || apt-get install -y -qq tmux

# Find or create a non-root user
CC_USER=$(grep -E '/bin/(ba)?sh$' /etc/passwd | grep -v '^root:' | head -1 | cut -d: -f1)
[ -z "$CC_USER" ] && { useradd -m ccuser; CC_USER="ccuser"; }
CC_HOME=$(eval echo "~$CC_USER")

# Pre-seed .claude.json to skip onboarding + trust prompts
mkdir -p "$CC_HOME/.claude"
python3 -c "
import json
config = {'hasCompletedOnboarding': True, 'projects': {'$WORK_DIR': {'hasTrustDialogAccepted': True}}}
with open('$CC_HOME/.claude.json', 'w') as f: json.dump(config, f)
"
chown -R "$CC_USER:$CC_USER" "$CC_HOME/.claude" "$CC_HOME/.claude.json"

# Write a wrapper script (keeps the token out of tmux scrollback)
LAUNCHER="/tmp/.cc-launch-$SESSION_NAME.sh"
cat > "$LAUNCHER" << EOF
#!/bin/bash
export PATH="/path/to/bun/bin:\$PATH"
export HOME=$CC_HOME
export CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN="\$(your-vault-cli get anthropic-token)"
cd $WORK_DIR
exec claude --dangerously-skip-permissions
EOF
chmod +x "$LAUNCHER"

# Create session and launch
tmux new-session -d -s "$SESSION_NAME" -c "$WORK_DIR"
sleep 1
tmux send-keys -t "$SESSION_NAME" "su -s /bin/bash $CC_USER -c $LAUNCHER" Enter

# Poll for bypass-permissions warning and auto-accept
for i in $(seq 1 30); do
  tmux capture-pane -t "$SESSION_NAME" -p 2>/dev/null | grep -q "Yes, I accept" && {
    tmux send-keys -t "$SESSION_NAME" Down; sleep 0.3; tmux send-keys -t "$SESSION_NAME" Enter; break
  }; sleep 1
done

# Poll for ready prompt
for i in $(seq 1 20); do
  tmux capture-pane -t "$SESSION_NAME" -p 2>/dev/null | grep -q "bypass permissions on" && break
  sleep 1
done

Key design decisions:

• Wrapper script instead of send-keys exports — token never appears in scrollback
• Polling loops instead of fixed sleep — adapts to slow/fast startup
• Readiness check — script doesn't return until CC is actually at the prompt

Reference Prompt Sender: cc-prompt

#!/bin/bash
# cc-prompt <session> <file>    — send file contents as prompt
# cc-prompt <session> -c "text" — send inline text as prompt
set -euo pipefail

SESSION_NAME="$1"; shift

if [ "${1:-}" = "-c" ]; then
  shift
  PROMPT_FILE=$(mktemp)
  echo "$*" > "$PROMPT_FILE"
  CLEANUP=true
else
  PROMPT_FILE="$1"
  CLEANUP=false
fi

tmux load-buffer "$PROMPT_FILE"
tmux paste-buffer -t "$SESSION_NAME"
sleep 0.5
tmux send-keys -t "$SESSION_NAME" Enter

[ "$CLEANUP" = true ] && rm -f "$PROMPT_FILE"

4. Root User & Permissions

Containers often run as root. CC has special behavior here that will bite you.

--dangerously-skip-permissions Refuses Root

CC deliberately refuses --dangerously-skip-permissions when running as root (UID 0). The flag is designed for trusted local development; root + skip-permissions is considered too dangerous.

Error: --dangerously-skip-permissions cannot be used as root

Recommended: Switch to Any Non-Root User

Most container images have at least one non-root user, or you can create one. The key insight: CC only checks uid == 0 — any non-root uid works, regardless of the username or whether the user has a real home directory.

# Find existing non-root users with a shell
grep -E '/bin/(ba)?sh$' /etc/passwd | grep -v '^root:'

# If none exist, create one
useradd -m ccuser

# Switch and launch
su -s /bin/bash ccuser -c '
  export PATH="/path/to/bun/or/node/bin:$PATH"
  export HOME=/home/ccuser
  export CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN="your-token"
  claude --dangerously-skip-permissions
'

In a tmux launcher, the pattern is:

tmux new-session -d -s my-session -c /workspace
tmux send-keys -t my-session "su -s /bin/bash ccuser" Enter
sleep 1
tmux send-keys -t my-session "export PATH=/path/to/bin:\$PATH" Enter
tmux send-keys -t my-session "export HOME=/home/ccuser" Enter
tmux send-keys -t my-session "export CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN='$TOKEN'" Enter
tmux send-keys -t my-session "claude --dangerously-skip-permissions" Enter

Important: set HOME explicitly after su. Some containers default root's HOME to /root or /data, and su doesn't always update it. CC stores config in $HOME/.claude and $HOME/.claude.json, so a wrong HOME means it can't find its auth or onboarding state.

Alternative: --settings with permissions.allow

If you can't switch users, pre-approve tools via settings so CC never prompts:

{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": ["Bash(*)", "Read(*)", "Write(*)", "Edit(*)"]
  }
}

Pass via claude --settings /path/to/settings.json. This is functionally equivalent to skip-permissions but works as root. Use only in trusted environments.

Fallback: Auto-Approve via send-keys

When CC asks for permission, send approval:

# Watch for permission prompts and auto-approve
while true; do
  OUTPUT=$(tmux capture-pane -t session_name -p -S -5)
  if echo "$OUTPUT" | grep -q "Allow\|approve\|permission"; then
    tmux send-keys -t session_name "Y" Enter
  fi
  sleep 2
done

This is janky and race-prone. Use it as a last resort.

5. Git Auth in Containers

Containers don't have SSH agents, keychains, or credential managers. Git auth needs to be handled explicitly.

HTTPS with Token in Remote URL

The simplest approach — embed an access token directly in the remote URL:

git remote set-url origin "https://x-access-token:${TOKEN}@github.com/org/repo.git"

Works with:

• GitHub App installation tokens
• Personal access tokens (PATs)
• Fine-grained tokens

Token Refresh

GitHub App tokens expire (typically 1 hour). For long sessions, refresh before push:

# Refresh token and update remote
TOKEN=$(your-token-refresh-command)
git remote set-url origin "https://x-access-token:${TOKEN}@github.com/org/repo.git"
git push origin HEAD

Build this into your launcher or run it before CC tries to push.

gh CLI Auth

If gh is installed, it can handle auth for git operations:

gh auth setup-git  # configures git credential helper

But gh itself needs auth — either GITHUB_TOKEN env var or gh auth login with a token. In containers, set GITHUB_TOKEN and run gh auth setup-git during setup.

What Doesn't Work

• SSH keys — no ssh-agent in most containers; mounting keys is a security risk
• macOS Keychain — obviously not available
• Git Credential Manager — requires a credential store that doesn't exist
• git credential-store — writes plaintext to disk; works but ugly

6. CC --settings Deep Merge Behavior

--settings doesn't replace ~/.claude/settings.json — it deep-merges on top of it. This means:

• Your apiKeyHelper in --settings overrides the one in ~/.claude/settings.json
• Hooks from ~/.claude/settings.json are preserved
• Array fields (like permissions.allow) are merged, not replaced

This is useful: you can have repo-level settings in ~/.claude/settings.json (hooks, tool configs) and overlay auth-only settings via --settings at launch.

7. Common Failure Modes

8. Quick Start: Container Checklist

□ Auth: CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN env var or apiKeyHelper configured
□ Onboarding: ~/.claude.json pre-seeded (hasCompletedOnboarding + hasTrustDialogAccepted)
□ User: running as non-root (su if needed) for --dangerously-skip-permissions
□ Bypass warning: auto-accepted via send-keys Down+Enter after launch
□ tmux: installed in launcher (won't persist across container restarts)
□ Prompts: injected via load-buffer/paste-buffer (NOT send-keys)
□ Git: token embedded in remote URL, refresh mechanism for long sessions
□ Monitoring: capture-pane for output (not -p buffering)