1Password for Claude: My Mac Setup and What It Can’t Do

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With 1Password for Claude, Claude only asks for a login, you approve it in a 1Password window, and the browser extension fills the form, so Claude never sees the password.

It’s a beta that runs only on a Mac, with the Claude desktop app, Claude in Chrome (Anthropic’s extension that lets Claude work in your Chrome) and a paid Claude plan (Pro, Max, Ultra, Team or Enterprise). Claude Code and Windows aren’t covered.

Every time I’ve handed Claude a login, the window has asked again, even on the same site the next day.

Diagram: Claude sends a request to 1Password, 1Password autofills the login page, and no values flow back to Claude
Claude requests, 1Password fills (redrawn with AI).
On this page
  1. Before you connect: versions and two admin switches
  2. Connecting: three steps and one authorization
  3. What the approval window asks, and how far one approval goes
  4. When the hand-off stalls
  5. What stays open after 1Password fills the login

Before you connect: versions and two admin switches

You also need a 1Password account on an individual, family or business plan, with both the 1Password app and its browser extension.

Your setup Works? Condition
Cowork, the desktop app’s mode for tasks Claude carries out Yes Open it with +New > Cowork
Google / Facebook sign-in Yes One extra step, in the Google section below
One-time codes (TOTP) Yes Stored in the Login item
Passkeys, cards, other items No

The app and the extension both need version 8.12.28 or later.

To check your versions, choose 1Password > About 1Password in the Mac menu bar, and in Chrome open the menu, then Extensions > Manage Extensions, and select Details under 1Password.

Chrome updates the extension on its own; for the app, turn on “Install updates automatically” under Settings > Advanced.

On a Team or Enterprise plan the feature is off until an Owner or Primary Owner (the admin roles) of your Claude organization turns it on: Organization settings > Claude in Chrome, then “Enable for your team” and “Password managers.”

On a 1Password Business account, an admin also signs in at 1Password.com, selects Policies in the sidebar, then Manage under Sharing and permissions, and turns on “Allow AI agents to autofill for users.” If 1Password never shows up in your Connectors list on a work account, send your admins those two paths.

The separate 1Password plugin for Claude Code handles secrets for your code; it doesn’t sign in to websites.

Connecting: three steps and one authorization

  1. Update the 1Password app and extension as above, and unlock the app.
  2. Install the Claude desktop app, then add Claude in Chrome from the Chrome Web Store and sign in to it with the same Claude account. In the desktop app, open Settings > Cowork and set Preferred browser to “Chrome (Claude in Chrome).” Without that, Cowork may use its own built-in browser, where your 1Password extension isn’t.
  3. In the Claude desktop app, select Customize in the sidebar, then Connectors, search for “1Password,” and click Connect.
1Password connector shown as connected in Claude settings
The 1Password connector in Claude's connector list (redrawn with AI).

A 1Password prompt then asks whether to allow the connection; 1Password’s guide says you confirm it with Touch ID or your 1Password account password. This one-time authorization is a different layer from the window you’ll see at each login later.

If the app is locked, 1Password asks you to unlock it before that prompt, so step 1’s unlock only saves a step. Mine was already unlocked and connected on the first try.

Two signs tell you it worked. In Connectors, 1Password moves under Your connectors with the status Connected.

Then give Claude a Cowork task that needs a sign-in, such as checking your latest order on a shopping site: Claude should work in a Chrome tab, and a 1Password window should open with a suggested login.

Claude uses the preferred browser unless you name the other one in the task, and tells you if it has to switch. If no window opens, start with the stall section below.

What the approval window asks, and how far one approval goes

I’d assumed letting Claude log in for me meant pasting my password into the chat. It doesn’t. When Claude reached the login screen, a 1Password window opened right away, naming the site and the values it needed: username and password. You can approve, pick a different saved login, or deny.

1Password approval prompt listing the site and the fields Claude needs to log in
The 1Password approval prompt, before approving (redrawn with AI, site details masked).

After I approved, the browser went to that login page on its own and 1Password filled it in with no wait I noticed, while Claude stayed out of the username and password fields.

Jobs that stay on one site need you only at that window. On a shopping and subscription service, Claude stayed signed in across pages to find my order history and account details without asking again, and that’s the job I’ve handed over most since: rechecking orders or billing after a session expired.

Account page after Claude finished logging in through 1Password
A logged-in account page after approval (redrawn with AI, personal details masked).

My one wrong guess was about how far a single approval goes. I expected one login hand-off to carry through every later lookup, but it covers one sign-in: page moves inside that live session asked nothing more, a job that moved between two sites asked twice, and a re-login after the session expired asked again.

I think that’s right, and I still press approve in the window each time. For a multi-site task, stay at the Mac until the logins are through.

When the hand-off stalls

Mine stalled once, right after an extension update. Claude asked for a login, the extension showed as not connected to the desktop app, and the request never reached the approval window. Locking and unlocking the 1Password app fixed it, and later updates haven’t brought it back.

When no window appears, lock and unlock the 1Password app first.

If the extension still shows as not connected, check its link to the app: click the 1Password button in Chrome’s toolbar, open the account menu at the top left, then Settings > General, make sure “Integrate this extension with the 1Password desktop app” is on, and restart Chrome.

If that doesn’t clear it:

What you see Try first If it stays
A banner in Claude saying it couldn’t connect to 1Password, or Claude waits with no approval window Click the Claude icon in Chrome’s toolbar to open its side panel (pin it from the puzzle-piece menu if it’s hidden), then retry. This is a user’s workaround: the approval prompt may be waiting in a Chrome window you can’t see Send diagnostics
Claude reports that its login request failed with relayUnavailable, even after the check above Send diagnostics; restarting again hasn’t cleared it for other users Follow support’s reply
Wrong login suggested Pick another saved login in the window, or deny Make the item’s website match the sign-in URL

To send diagnostics, unlock 1Password, choose Help > Send Diagnostic Report in the menu bar, then Open file location.

Email the .1pdiagnostics file with a short description of what Claude was doing to support@1password.com, or attach it to your reply if you’re already talking to support. Don’t hold off for an extension update; no fix for these failures has been posted.

A site you only enter with Google

The first time, 1Password had no Login item for that site, so Claude found nothing to fill and stopped.

1Password fills these sign-ins only with extension 8.12.34 or later and when the site’s Login item is linked to your Google login: open the site’s item in the 1Password app, select Edit, then Add More > Sign in with, choose your Google Login item and save.

With the item linked, I handed over the same job again. Claude got through to Google’s sign-in, and the email and password went in through the approval window. Then Google asked for a phone check with no field to fill, and I confirmed it on my phone.

So link the item only if you’ll be at the Mac when Claude signs in, or your Google account rarely asks for a phone or 2-step check. Mine asked, so I still don’t hand over sites that only take social sign-in.

What stays open after 1Password fills the login

The remaining risk is the live session after approval, not Claude holding your password: nothing in this design stops a logged-in session from being hijacked or steered to the wrong page.

Close Claude’s group of Chrome tabs as soon as the job is done, so Claude isn’t left driving a signed-in page; that also gives the extension back to you.

Until then the extension stays in what 1Password calls Agentic Mode, limited to the items you approved. The name made me expect one more feature to set up, but it switches on by itself when Claude takes over Chrome.

To remove the connection entirely, disconnect 1Password in the same Connectors list.

Cowork’s built-in browser, the one step 2 steers you away from, offers to import your sign-ins site by site. Imported sign-ins stay usable in later Cowork sessions, while a 1Password approval shows which item and why, every time.

I keep logins out of that browser because I want to see when I let each site in. I use it for pages that need no sign-in and skipped the import; mixing the two would leave me guessing which site sits on which side.

Payments and bank logins stay with me

1Password covers the login and nothing after it; payments have no such approval yet, so the line is mine. Claude reads order history and billing pages; I press the final order or transfer button.

Banks, brokerages and card companies stay off the list, since their logins add checks outside the password field and leave a session open. So do my email and work accounts, which hold the keys to other sites, and passkey-only sites. Reading is delegated; anything that moves money stays in my hands.

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I first wrote this in Korean on my blog: https://jjeongil.tistory.com/3523.