The status bar in VS Code shows one of three colors:
| Color | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Green | Proxy reachable, ≥1 account eligible, last request succeeded |
| Yellow | Proxy reachable, but all accounts are currently rate-limited (waiting on reset) |
| Red | Proxy not reachable, or every account has failed authentication |
A red bar always means the extension cannot deliver a usable request. Hover the bar for the specific error string — the rest of this page covers the three error patterns.
1. "Proxy not running" / connection refused
The local proxy on localhost:3456 is not listening. See Power Claude isn't rotating accounts for the full diagnostic flow — it's the same root cause, just surfaced from the extension rather than the CLI. Short version:
systemctl --user status claude-watchdog.serviceIf inactive (dead) or failed, systemctl --user restart claude-watchdog.service and watch the bar turn yellow then green within ~5 seconds.
2. "All accounts failed authentication"
Every credential file in ~/.power-claude/accounts/ is being rejected by Anthropic. This happens when:
- You logged out of the upstream account in your browser and the refresh token rotation severed the refresh-grant chain
- The account's credential file was hand-edited or corrupted
- The account was suspended on Anthropic's side
Run:
pc accounts list --json | jq '.[] | {id, last_verified_at, last_error}'Any account with a recent last_error is the culprit. Refresh credentials:
pc accounts refresh <id>That opens a browser login flow for the affected account. After it completes, the bar should clear.
3. "Proxy reachable, but no API response"
The proxy is up but every request is timing out. Almost always a network egress issue — corporate proxy, captive portal, or upstream Anthropic outage.
curl -sI https://api.anthropic.com/v1/messagesIf that hangs or returns a connection error, the problem is between you and Anthropic, not Power Claude. Check your network. If you're on a corporate VPN, Power Claude needs the same egress your browser uses; set HTTPS_PROXY if applicable.
When to file a bug
If the bar is red but pc status reports proxy_running: true and accounts_active: ≥1 and curl https://api.anthropic.com/ succeeds, the extension and the runtime disagree about state — that's a defect. Use the Power Claude: Report issue command from the palette; it bundles the runtime state JSON for the bug ticket.