🤖 Free Claude Code

Use Claude Code CLI & VSCode for free. No Anthropic API key required.

A lightweight proxy that routes Claude Code's Anthropic API calls to NVIDIA NIM (40 req/min free), OpenRouter (hundreds of models), DeepSeek (direct API), LM Studio (fully local), or llama.cpp (local with Anthropic endpoints).

Quick Start · Providers · Discord Bot · Configuration · Development · Contributing

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Claude Code running via NVIDIA NIM, completely free

Features

Feature	Description
Zero Cost	40 req/min free on NVIDIA NIM. Free models on OpenRouter. Fully local with LM Studio
Drop-in Replacement	Set 2 env vars. No modifications to Claude Code CLI or VSCode extension needed
5 Providers	NVIDIA NIM, OpenRouter, DeepSeek, LM Studio (local), llama.cpp (llama-server)
Per-Model Mapping	Route Opus / Sonnet / Haiku to different models and providers. Mix providers freely
Thinking Token Support	Parses `` tags and reasoning_content into native Claude thinking blocks
Heuristic Tool Parser	Models outputting tool calls as text are auto-parsed into structured tool use
Request Optimization	5 categories of trivial API calls intercepted locally, saving quota and latency
Smart Rate Limiting	Proactive rolling-window throttle + reactive 429 exponential backoff + optional concurrency cap
Discord / Telegram Bot	Remote autonomous coding with tree-based threading, session persistence, and live progress
Subagent Control	Task tool interception forces run_in_background=False. No runaway subagents
Extensible	Clean BaseProvider and MessagingPlatform ABCs. Add new providers or platforms easily

Quick Start

Prerequisites

1. Get an API key (or use LM Studio / llama.cpp locally):
   • NVIDIA NIM: build.nvidia.com/settings/api-keys
   • OpenRouter: openrouter.ai/keys
   • DeepSeek: platform.deepseek.com/api_keys
   • LM Studio: No API key needed. Run locally with LM Studio
   • llama.cpp: No API key needed. Run llama-server locally.
2. Install Claude Code

Install uv

# Install uv (required to run the project)
pip install uv

If uv is already installed, run uv self update to get the latest version.

Clone & Configure

git clone https://github.com/codeaashu/free-claude-code.git
cd free-claude-code
cp .env.example .env

Choose your provider and edit .env:

NVIDIA NIM (40 req/min free, recommended)

NVIDIA_NIM_API_KEY="nvapi-your-key-here"

MODEL_OPUS=
MODEL_SONNET=
MODEL_HAIKU=
MODEL="nvidia_nim/z-ai/glm4.7"                     # fallback

# Global switch for provider reasoning requests and Claude thinking blocks.
ENABLE_THINKING=true

OpenRouter (hundreds of models)

OPENROUTER_API_KEY="sk-or-your-key-here"

MODEL_OPUS="open_router/deepseek/deepseek-r1-0528:free"
MODEL_SONNET="open_router/openai/gpt-oss-120b:free"
MODEL_HAIKU="open_router/stepfun/step-3.5-flash:free"
MODEL="open_router/stepfun/step-3.5-flash:free"     # fallback

DeepSeek (direct API)

DEEPSEEK_API_KEY="your-deepseek-key-here"

MODEL_OPUS="deepseek/deepseek-reasoner"
MODEL_SONNET="deepseek/deepseek-chat"
MODEL_HAIKU="deepseek/deepseek-chat"
MODEL="deepseek/deepseek-chat"                      # fallback

LM Studio (fully local, no API key)

MODEL_OPUS="lmstudio/unsloth/MiniMax-M2.5-GGUF"
MODEL_SONNET="lmstudio/unsloth/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-GGUF"
MODEL_HAIKU="lmstudio/unsloth/GLM-4.7-Flash-GGUF"
MODEL="lmstudio/unsloth/GLM-4.7-Flash-GGUF"         # fallback

llama.cpp (fully local, no API key)

LLAMACPP_BASE_URL="http://localhost:8080/v1"

MODEL_OPUS="llamacpp/local-model"
MODEL_SONNET="llamacpp/local-model"
MODEL_HAIKU="llamacpp/local-model"
MODEL="llamacpp/local-model"

Mix providers

Each MODEL_* variable can use a different provider. MODEL is the fallback for unrecognized Claude models.

NVIDIA_NIM_API_KEY="nvapi-your-key-here"
OPENROUTER_API_KEY="sk-or-your-key-here"

MODEL_OPUS="nvidia_nim/moonshotai/kimi-k2.5"
MODEL_SONNET="open_router/deepseek/deepseek-r1-0528:free"
MODEL_HAIKU="lmstudio/unsloth/GLM-4.7-Flash-GGUF"
MODEL="nvidia_nim/z-ai/glm4.7"                      # fallback

Migration: NIM_ENABLE_THINKING was removed in this release. Rename it to ENABLE_THINKING.

Optional Authentication (restrict access to your proxy)

Set ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN in .env to require clients to authenticate:

ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN="your-secret-token-here"

How it works:

• If ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN is empty (default), no authentication is required (backward compatible)
• If set, clients must provide the same token via the ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN header
• The claude-pick script automatically reads the token from .env if configured

Example usage:

# With authentication
ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN="your-secret-token-here" \
ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="http://localhost:8082" claude

# claude-pick automatically uses the configured token
claude-pick

Use this feature if:

• Running the proxy on a public network
• Sharing the server with others but restricting access
• Wanting an additional l