auth-switch

name	auth-switch
description	Switch which Anthropic auth profile (OAuth token) OpenClaw uses. Use when the user asks to switch API keys, swap auth tokens, change which account is active, check which profile is in use, or troubleshoot rate limiting by switching to the backup account.
user-invokable	true
args	[{"name":"action","description":"The action to perform (status, list, switch)","required":true},{"name":"profile","description":"The profile name to switch to (e.g. \"anthropic:backup\")","required":false}]

Auth Profile Switcher

Switch between Anthropic OAuth auth profiles in OpenClaw.

Installation

This skill requires OpenClaw with multiple auth profiles configured.

Set up auth profiles in ~/.openclaw/agents/main/agent/auth-profiles.json:

{
  "anthropic:primary": { ... },
  "anthropic:backup": { ... }
}

Register the skill (OpenClaw):

ln -sf ~/repos/claude-skills/skills/auth-switch skills/auth-switch

No additional dependencies required.

Commands

Resolve scripts/auth-switch.sh relative to this skill's directory.

# Show current active profile and stats
bash scripts/auth-switch.sh status

# List available profiles
bash scripts/auth-switch.sh list

# Switch to a specific profile
bash scripts/auth-switch.sh switch anthropic:backup
bash scripts/auth-switch.sh switch anthropic:openclaw

After Switching

The switch updates auth-profiles.json locally. To take effect:

1. Use the gateway tool to restart: gateway(action="restart", note="Switched auth profile to X")
2. Or restart the gateway manually via openclaw gateway restart

How It Works

• Sets lastGood.anthropic to the target profile
• Resets error count and failure timestamp on the target
• Sets lastUsed to 0 so OpenClaw's rotation picks it as the preferred (oldest-used) profile

Gotchas

• Switching profiles updates auth-profiles.json but requires a gateway restart to take effect
• If the target profile's OAuth token is expired, the switch succeeds but API calls will fail after restart
• The script sets lastUsed: 0 which makes the profile "oldest" for rotation — this is intentional, not a bug

Notes

• OpenClaw auto-rotates between profiles on rate limit errors
• This skill forces a specific profile to be preferred
• Useful when one account is rate-limited and you want to immediately switch
• The non-preferred profile remains available as fallback