Anthropic managed to confuse everyone today with a documentation update.
This morning, developers discovered new policy language stating OAuth tokens from Claude accounts couldn't be used in "any other product, tool, or service - including the Agent SDK." OpenClaw users thought they were getting cut off.
Thariq from Anthropic later clarified on X: experiment freely, but commercial use should go through API keys instead of consumer OAuth tokens.
Then 51 minutes later, he apologized: "This was a docs clean up we rolled out that's caused some confusion. Nothing is changing about how you can use the Agent SDK and MAX subscriptions!"
But Rob Zolkos pointed out the restrictive policy language is still there in the documentation.
So what's actually happening? Anthropic seems to be sending mixed signals. The docs say one thing, the spokesperson says another, then apologizes for confusion while the original language remains.
This is classic big company communication breakdown. When your documentation team, policy team, and public relations aren't aligned, developers get whiplash trying to figure out what's actually allowed.
The real story isn't platform wars or strategic restrictions. It's about how hard it is to communicate clearly when you're moving fast and have multiple teams updating different parts of the system.
Clear documentation matters when developers are building businesses on your platform. Mixed messages create exactly the kind of uncertainty that makes people look for alternatives.