Limits & protection

Claude and ChatGPT plans meter your usage in two windows: a 5-hour limit and a weekly limit. Each window fills up as you work and resets at a fixed time. Agent Switch reads both windows for every account, shows how old the numbers are, and uses them to keep you from running into a wall.

What you see

agent-switch status

shows every account with who it is signed in as and both windows, for Claude Code and Codex. The desktop app shows the same as meters, per account, with the time until each reset. Unknown usage is shown as unknown, never as free.

Four safeguards, from always-on to opt-in

Safeguard	Default	What it does
Limit protection	on, at 98 %	An account at its threshold in any window is never picked for a new session, and you get one warning per window.
Usage notices	on, at 75 % and 90 %	A notice when the account you prefer crosses a threshold.
Limit suggestions (autoswitch)	off	Near a limit (95 % by default), a notification suggests the account with the most headroom. It never switches by itself.
Context alerts (alerts)	off	A notice when a running session’s context window passes 80 % or 95 %. See Sessions & context.

The warnings come from the background service (agent-switch service install), which checks every enabled account at least every 5 minutes.

Limit protection

agent-switch protection                                   # every account's policy
agent-switch protection set claude/work --threshold 95    # warn earlier for one account
agent-switch protection set claude/work --off             # no warnings for one account

--off only silences the warning. A new session still skips an account once it reaches its threshold, so set a higher --threshold if you want an account to be used closer to 100 %.

Protection warns; it does not pause a session that is already running. What happens when a running Claude Code session reaches 100 % is Claude Code’s own choice, set by its autoContinueAtUsageLimit setting: it either waits for the reset and continues by itself, or stops. Agent Switch shows which one applies and lets you change it per account Claude only:

agent-switch protection wait on claude/work    # wait for the reset and continue
agent-switch protection wait off claude/work   # stop at the limit
agent-switch protection wait default claude/work   # remove the setting, Claude Code's own default applies

off pins a value; default removes it, so the account follows whatever Claude Code ships as its default (today that is to wait).

Limit suggestions

agent-switch autoswitch on --threshold 90
agent-switch autoswitch status
agent-switch autoswitch off

When the account you prefer gets close to its limit, you get a notification that names a better account. Taking the suggestion is your move. Start the next session there, or switch a running session with rebind.

Why it never switches on its own

Switching a running session’s account changes whose limits and whose organization the conversation runs under. That is your decision, every time. An earlier version rotated accounts automatically; it was removed on purpose.

Codex: banked resets Codex

Codex plans can bank a limited number of rate-limit resets. With limit suggestions turned on for Codex (agent-switch autoswitch on --provider codex), the service tells you when your preferred Codex account is near its limit and has a reset banked, once per reset cycle. The desktop app shows the banked resets per account. Redeeming one is always your action:

agent-switch reset work --provider codex

Antigravity

Antigravity does not report usage, so it has no meters, no protection and no suggestions. Its accounts can still be pinned to folders.

Next steps

Which account a session uses How limits feed the balanced pick.

Notifications & desktop pet Where the warnings show up.