Accounts
How PaneScale uses your CLI sign-ins, how to run several accounts per agent side by side, and the start options for effort and bypass.
PaneScale doesn’t have access to your AI providers. It starts the CLIs you installed, and those CLIs use their own sign-in. Your passwords and API keys never pass through PaneScale, and your provider bills you directly.
Your computer sign-in
By default, every agent starts with the computer sign-in — whatever account the CLI is logged in to when you run it in a normal terminal. For most people that is all they need.
Profiles
If you use more than one account for the same CLI — for example a work and a personal subscription — add a profile. Profiles are available for Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI.
- Open Settings → Agents & accounts and scroll to Accounts.
- Under the agent, choose Add account and give the profile a name you’ll recognize — Work, Personal, Second account.
- Choose Create & open sign-in pane. A pane named Work · Sign-in opens in the active project; sign in there once, exactly as you would in a terminal (for Claude Code with
/login). - Choose Set as default on the profile new panes should use.
Each profile gets its own configuration folder, so its sign-in, settings and history are separate from the other profiles and from your computer sign-in — which stays untouched. Sign in next to a profile opens a sign-in pane again, for example after the session expired. Removing a profile only takes it off the list; its configuration folder is kept.
Using profiles
- Pane picker — agents with profiles show an account selector right in the list.
- Pane header — the account label shows which profile a pane uses. Click it to switch: Switch & restart or Open in new pane. See Sessions.
- Launch sets — every pane of a launch set can use its own account. Run Claude (Work) and Claude (Personal) side by side.
- Ready sessions — instant starts wait for the default profile; a pane with another profile starts fresh.
The usage meter shows the limits of the account your CLI is signed in to.
Detecting CLIs
Settings → Agents & accounts lists every supported CLI with its version and a note, or Not installed with a button that copies the install command. PaneScale searches your PATH (including the system PATH from the registry) and the usual install folders — npm, Cargo, Bun, Volta and others — reads the versions of all CLIs in parallel, and caches the result for a while. Click Check again after installing something new.
Start options
Under Start options for agent terminals:
| Option | Effect |
|---|---|
| Effort | How much thinking the agent should spend — CLI default, Low, Medium, High, XHigh or Max. Passed to Claude Code as --effort and to Codex as its reasoning effort |
| Start without prompts (bypass) | Skips the agent’s own permission prompts — Claude Code with --dangerously-skip-permissions, Codex with --dangerously-bypass-approvals-and-sandbox, Gemini CLI with --yolo. Claude Code’s own bypass warning is confirmed automatically for PaneScale’s panes |
The options apply to newly opened terminals; running panes keep theirs and show them as markers in their header — the effort level and a Bypass badge. Waiting ready sessions restart with the new options automatically. Claude Code’s effort can also be changed live per pane.
Model APIs for workflows
Workflow model steps don’t use a coding CLI but a model API. Configure them in the same settings section:
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Ollama | The address of your local Ollama — text stays on your computer. Default: http://127.0.0.1:11434 |
| Own endpoint | Any OpenAI-compatible …/v1/chat/completions address |
| Model ID | Required for your own endpoint |
| Environment variable with the API key | Only the name of the variable — for example OPENROUTER_API_KEY — never the key itself |
Service CLIs
Some work needs other command-line tools — GitHub, Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare, Supabase, Stripe, Fly.io, Railway, Docker, Google Cloud. Settings → Plugins checks whether each one is installed and signed in, and tells you the sign-in command (gh auth login, wrangler login …) when it isn’t. PaneScale only checks the status; the credentials stay with each CLI.