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by stingraycharles 61 days ago
In this case, they handled things pretty well. You can still use openclaw etc with your regular Anthropic subscription, it will just count towards your extra credits / usage which you can buy for a 30% discount compared to API pricing. And they gave everyone one month’s value in credits.

I don’t think they could have done that much better I’d say.
3 comments
cedws 61 days ago
That does not address joshstrange's concerns.

There is very poor clarity about what is and isn't allowed with the Claude SDK/claude -p. Are we allowed to use it to automate stuff? What kind of tasks is it permitted to be used for? What if you call your script 'OrangeClaw' and release that on GitHub? What if your script gets super popular, does it suddenly become against TOS?

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joshstrange 61 days ago
This is exactly my point. At what point does it become a ToS violation? Right now it's a huge grey area and the idea of getting my account banned because I crossed an invisible line with zero recourse other than to switch providers is... frustrating.
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deaux 61 days ago
It's pretty easy to read between the lines tbh. Personal, non-automated use is fine. Using it as a means to automate depleting your 5-hour limit 24/7 ("leftover usage") is not fine. They don't want to put in in the ToS because it's almost impossible because writing what I just said will still have people going "well what's automated, where's the exact line!" when it's all pretty clear what the intended use case here is. The Anthropic peeps have said about as much.

I get that the traditional dev is allergic to the concept of reading between the lines and demands everything to be spelled out explicitly, but maybe you should just see it as something to learn because it's an incredibly useful life skill.

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cedws 61 days ago
Ok, let's say I'm not using it to deplete leftover usage, the task just happens to run down the 5 hour window usage.

Are you willing to bet your account over whether you've read between the lines correctly? Anthropic aren't going to listen to appeals.

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deaux 61 days ago
> the task just happens to run down the 5 hour window usage.

In a single prompt? From zero usage? That doesn't "just happen".

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cedws 61 days ago
When you're using the SDK, yes it can. Example: I used the Python SDK to translate a bunch of source code recently. I spawned a subagent for each module that needed translating and left it to run for a few hours with a parallelism limit of 5. It blasted through the 5 hour usage and dug into extra usage credits.

I have zero assurances that the above can't result in a ban. The usage pattern is not distinct from OpenClaw.

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joshstrange 61 days ago
That "non-automated" part is where I feel like there is a lack of clarity. They even have some stuff in to allow for scheduling in Claude Code. Seems similar to a cron but "non-automated" would rule out using a cron (right?). I'd love to feel comfortable setting up daily/hourly tasks for Claude Code but that feels iffy. Like I said, I don't think the line is clear.
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deaux 61 days ago
The lack of clarity doesn't matter because they obviously can't tell if you ran a claude -p a few times today with usual prompts or whether your cron job did. It's impossible for them to reliably tell.

It can tell if your cron is running them every 10 minutes 24/7, because basic biology rules out you doing that for more than a day or so.

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andai 61 days ago
Wait, this is news to me. I thought 3rd party use of the sub was unequivocally prohibited?

If I'm understanding you correctly: they changed that policy, you can now use 3rd party software unofficially with the undocumented Claude Code endpoint, and their servers auto-detect this and charge you extra for it?

EDIT: Yeah, something like that?

> Starting April 4 at 12pm PT / 8pm BST, you’ll no longer be able to use your Claude subscription limits for third-party harnesses including OpenClaw. Instead, they’ll require extra usage.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47633568

This seems to mean that unauthorized usage of the sub endpoint is tolerated now (and billed as though it were the regular API). And possibly affects claude -p, though I don't know yet.

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stingraycharles 60 days ago
> If I'm understanding you correctly: they changed that policy, you can now use 3rd party software unofficially with the undocumented Claude Code endpoint, and their servers auto-detect this and charge you extra for it?

That’s correct. It’s more like a convenience technicality: you can use your sub account, but you’re paying extra. So it doesn’t really count towards your subscription in any way.

Subscriptions can buy extra credits against a 30% discount, though, so it’s a decent amount cheaper than actual API, but still prohibitively expensive.

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sunnybeetroot 61 days ago
One month’s value in credits does not equal the value of one month’s subscription. They could have done better.
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