Distribute: spread work across accounts on a clock

People who add more than one account to Shuriken tend to fall into two camps.

The first camp wants one main account. Use it until it's done, then move on. The second camp kept telling us about a different pain: one account hits its weekly limit on Thursday while the other is still at a fifth of its week. They didn't want a main account. They wanted the work spread out.

So Sources has two modes, and you choose. We call them Rotation and Distribute; in Switch settings they are the two answers to How: When one runs out and Spread the work.

Rotation: one account until it's done#

This is the default. Your chats stay on the account in use until it reaches your switch point (99% by default) or the provider reports a limit. Then they move to the account with the most room.

It's the simplest mental model: one account at a time, in order, with no surprises.

Distribute: a little of each, on a clock#

With Distribute (Spread the work in the app), Shuriken looks again at a fixed interval and moves new turns to the account with the most left. You pick the interval: 15, 20, 30, 45 or 60 minutes. The default is 15.

Two rules keep it calm:

• It only moves for a real difference. The other account needs at least 5 points more room than the one in use. Two accounts at 41% and 43% don't trade places every quarter of an hour.
• The interval is also the minimum stay. After a move, Shuriken stays put for at least one interval. No flip-flopping.

Limits still come first. If the account in use hits your switch point or a provider limit halfway through an interval, your chats move right away. Distribute never makes you wait for the clock.

Which one should you pick?#

Pick Rotation if:

• you have one main account and the others are backups;
• you like fewer moves. A move starts the next request on a different account, which has none of your conversation in its prompt cache yet, so fewer moves means fewer cold starts;
• you keep one account partly free on purpose, and rely on the switch point to protect it.

Pick Distribute if:

• your accounts are equals and you want their weeks to run down together;
• you've been caught by one account hitting its weekly limit days before the others;
• you run several agents at once and would rather not burn through one account in an afternoon.

Not sure? Start with Rotation. Switch to Distribute the first time one account hits its week while another sits half full.

How it works with 5-hour clocks#

Claude's 5-hour window doesn't start at a fixed time. It starts the first time you use the account. 5-hour clocks use that: when one of your subscriptions has a window that isn't running, the computer that holds its sign-in sends it one tiny request in the background, so its clock starts. Its limit then comes back earlier.

The setting is Start unused session limits, and it's on by default. It works the same in both modes, because it never moves a chat:

• One request per window, to the smallest model. It never shows in a chat or your history, and it counts toward that account's usage like any request.
• Where your chats run is decided by the mode alone: your switch point in Rotation, the interval in Distribute.
• An account already past its weekly switch point is skipped, and so are API keys.

With Rotation, 5-hour clocks are what keep your idle accounts' windows ticking. With Distribute, the accounts take turns anyway, and 5-hour clocks start the window of any account that hasn't had its turn yet.

For the background on how Claude's limits reset, see Claude's weekly limit, explained.

Subscriptions first, keys last#

Neither mode ever moves your chats onto an API key or a paid endpoint while a subscription has room. Keys take chats only once every subscription is out, and only if Switch to API keys is on (it's off by default). A spend cap per fallback run, $25 by default, covers everything the run spends across that provider's keys, not each key separately. Past it, chats wait for a subscription instead of spending more.

When a subscription has room again, new turns go back to your subscriptions on their own.

Where to find it#

Everything above is one click away in Sources: press Switch settings at the top. It has Switch at (the switch point), How (When one runs out or Spread the work), Every (the interval), Start unused session limits and the API fallback. The account in use is the same on every computer and server you've linked, so one device never runs on a different account from the others.

A word on accounts: Shuriken only ever uses the sources you add, and you should only add accounts you own and are entitled to use. Some providers' terms don't allow sharing a subscription sign-in.

The source switching page has the whole picture. If your accounts have been running out at different speeds, try Shuriken and give Distribute a week.