ClaudeGate – Use OpenRouter Models (0x Alpha, DeepSeek) in Claude Code CLI

ClaudeGate, a new open-source local API gateway, enables Claude Code CLI and Anthropic SDK applications to use any AI model, including free and frontier models from OpenRouter, DeepSeek, and others, by translating Anthropic's Messages API into OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions. The tool features zero-crash SSE streaming, multi-provider failover, PII sanitization, and support for 24+ provider presets, with a 10-minute keep-alive timeout.

High-Performance Universal Bridge connecting Claude Code CLI & Anthropic SDKs to ANY AI Model. Zero-crash streaming, multi-provider failover, chain-of-thought sanitization, PII redactor, and 24+ provider presets. 📌 1. Project Overview -1-project-overview 📸 2. Live Demo & Terminal Previews -2-live-demo--terminal-previews ✨ 3. Features -3-features 🛠️ 4. Tech Stack %EF%B8%8F-4-tech-stack 🏗️ 5. Architecture %EF%B8%8F-5-architecture 📁 6. Project Structure -6-project-structure ⚙️ 7. Installation and Setup %EF%B8%8F-7-installation-and-setup 🚀 8. Usage & User Flow -8-usage--user-flow 🧪 9. Testing & Diagnostics -9-testing--diagnostics 🔒 10. Security & Privacy Safeguards -10-security--privacy-safeguards 💡 11. Engineering Decisions -11-engineering-decisions 🔮 12. Limitations and Future Improvements -12-limitations-and-future-improvements 🤝 13. Contributing & Code of Conduct -13-contributing--code-of-conduct 📄 14. License -14-license Claude Code CLI https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/agents-and-tools/claude-code/overview is one of the most capable agentic coding tools available today. However, it is natively locked to Anthropic's commercial cloud endpoints. ClaudeGate is a lightweight, high-throughput, and secure local API gateway that bridges Anthropic's Messages API protocol /v1/messages and /v1/messages/count tokens into standard OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions. With ClaudeGate, developers can power Claude Code CLI, Cursor, and Anthropic SDK applications using: - 🆓 Free & Frontier AI Cloud Models : Stealth Ox Alpha, OpenRouter Claude Opus 5 / Sonnet 5 / Haiku 4.5 , OpenAI GPT-5.6 Sol / Terra / Luna , DeepSeek V4-Pro & V4-Flash , Google Gemini 3.1 Pro / 3.7 Flash / 3.5 Flash-Lite , Alibaba Qwen Qwen3.8-Max / Qwen3.7-Plus / Qwen3.8-27B , Moonshot Kimi K3 2.8T & K2.7 Code , Meta Muse Spark 1.2 & Muse Glimmer , Z.ai GLM GLM-5.3 & GLM-5-Turbo , MiniMax M3 & M2.7 , Cohere Command A+ / A / R7B , Mistral Large 3 / Medium 3.5 / Small 4 , Perplexity Sonar Reasoning Pro . - 🔒 100% Private Local Offline Models : Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM DeepSeek V4-Pro quantized, Qwen3.6-35B-A3B, Muse Glimmer - zero data leaves your machine . - 🧠 Next-Gen Model Mapping : Seamlessly routes all Claude versions Claude 3.5, 3.7, 4.x, 4.5, 5.x, Fable, Mythos to your configured BIG MODEL , MIDDLE MODEL , and SMALL MODEL tiers or passes through direct model slugs. - 🏢 Enterprise Private Deployments : Azure OpenAI Service, AWS Amazon Q via Kiro Bridge , Meta Muse Spark. ClaudeGate in active operation, translating Claude Code CLI tool calls, bash commands, and streaming tokens in real-time: - ⚡ Zero-Crash SSE Streaming : Translates raw OpenAI chunk streams into Anthropic Server-Sent Events content block start , content block delta , message delta , message stop . Mid-stream disconnects and upstream errors are caught gracefully without crashing Starlette/ASGI. - 🔄 Automatic Multi-Provider Failover : Seamlessly fails over from primary upstream to backup providers e.g. OpenRouter$\rightarrow$ Groq$\rightarrow$ local Ollama on transient 503 , 429 , or timeout errors without dropping the active client session. - 🛡️ PII & Secret Sanitizer : Intercepts outgoing prompts and automatically scrubs AWS keys, GitHub PATs, OpenAI tokens, and SSH private keys before requests leave your computer SANITIZE SECRETS=true . - 🛠️ Full Bi-directional Tool / Function Calling : Seamlessly translates Claude Code file-system operations, terminal commands, and search tools into OpenAI function calls and vice versa. - 🧹 Chain-of-Thought / : Cleanses internal reasoning tokens and <thinking Sanitizer <thinking blocks from conversation history so multi-turn reasoning models like DeepSeek R1/V4 never trigger 400 Bad Request errors on follow-up turns. - ⏳ Extended 10-Minute Keep-Alive : Tuned TCP socket lifespan timeout keep alive=600 to prevent Node.js ECONNRESET drops during prolonged user typing pauses. - 🎛️ Universal CLI Tooling : Interactive setup wizard --setup , live connectivity diagnostic --test , and 24+ instant preset switches --preset <name . - 🐳 Docker & Compose Ready : Run as a standalone daemon container with health-check monitoring. Backend Framework : FastAPI https://fastapi.tiangolo.com/ High-performance async ASGI web framework ASGI Server : Uvicorn https://www.uvicorn.org/ Configured with custom socket keep-alives and signal handling Data Validation & Schemas : Pydantic v2 https://docs.pydantic.dev/ Strict type serialization for Anthropic & OpenAI payloads HTTP Clients : httpx https://www.python-httpx.org/ & openai-python https://github.com/openai/openai-python Async connection pooling and streaming response parsing Security & Crypto : Python hmac Constant-time token authentication and Regex Token Redaction Engine Containerization : Docker & Docker Compose Multi-stage Python slim base image ClaudeGate sits transparently between Claude Code CLI and your chosen AI model provider: flowchart LR A "Claude Code CLI\nor Anthropic SDK" -- "POST /v1/messages\n Anthropic Schema " -- B "ClaudeGate Gateway\n FastAPI / Port 8082 " subgraph CoreEngine "ClaudeGate Core Engine" B -- C "Constant-Time Auth & IP Validator" C -- D "Request Sanitizer\n PII & Credential Redaction " D -- E "Protocol Converter\n Tools, Messages, System Prompts " E -- F "Upstream Client & Failover Controller" end subgraph Upstream "Upstream AI Providers" F -- "Primary Request" -- G "Primary Provider\n OpenRouter / DeepSeek / Gemini " F -. "Auto Failover on 503/429" .- H "Backup Provider\n Groq / Local Ollama " end G -- "OpenAI Chunk Stream" -- I "SSE Stream Adapter\n Zero-Crash Generator " H -- "OpenAI Chunk Stream" -- I I -- "Anthropic SSE Events" -- A ClaudeGate/ ├── assets/ Visual assets and screenshots │ ├── ClaudeGate.png Project Banner & Logo │ ├── claude terminal ss.png Claude Code CLI in action │ └── proxy terminal.png ClaudeGate terminal proxy log ├── Dockerfile Container image specification ├── docker-compose.yml Container service configuration ├── requirements.txt Python package dependencies ├── pyproject.toml Modern package build configuration ├── setup.py Legacy pip install compatibility ├── start proxy.py CLI & Server launcher script ├── .env.example Comprehensive environment template ├── LICENSE MIT License ├── SECURITY.md Security policy & reporting guidelines ├── CODE OF CONDUCT.md Community standard of conduct ├── CONTRIBUTING.md Contribution guidelines ├── CHANGELOG.md Version release history ├── README.md Project documentation │ ├── presets/ Ready-to-use provider templates │ ├── openrouter.env OpenRouter Claude Opus 5, Sonnet 5, Haiku 4.5 │ ├── groq.env Groq DeepSeek V4-Pro, Llama 4 Maverick, Muse Glimmer │ ├── ollama.env Ollama 100% Local DeepSeek V4-Pro, Qwen3.6-35B, Muse Glimmer │ ├── deepseek.env DeepSeek DeepSeek V4-Pro & V4-Flash │ ├── gemini.env Google Gemini Gemini 3.1 Pro, 3.7 Flash & 3.5 Flash-Lite │ ├── openai.env OpenAI Official GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-5.6 Terra, GPT-5.6 Luna │ ├── kimi.env Moonshot AI Kimi K3 2.8T Reasoning & K2.7 Code │ ├── qwen.env Alibaba Qwen / DashScope Qwen3.8-Max, Qwen3.7-Plus, Qwen3.8-27B │ ├── mistral.env Mistral AI Mistral Large 3, Mistral Medium 3.5, Mistral Small 4 │ ├── perplexity.env Perplexity Sonar Reasoning Pro, Sonar Pro & Sonar │ ├── cohere.env Cohere Command A+, Command A & Command R7B │ ├── minimax.env MiniMax MiniMax M3 Frontier & MiniMax M2.7 │ ├── meta.env Meta AI Muse Spark 1.2, Llama 4 Maverick, Muse Glimmer │ ├── zai.env Z.ai / Zhipu GLM GLM-5.3 Flagship, GLM-5-Turbo, GLM-4.7-Flash │ ├── together.env Together AI DeepSeek V4-Pro, DeepSeek V4-Flash, Qwen3.8-27B │ ├── fireworks.env Fireworks AI DeepSeek V4-Pro, DeepSeek V4-Flash, Qwen3.8-27B │ ├── cerebras.env Cerebras DeepSeek V4-Pro, Llama 4 Maverick, Muse Glimmer │ ├── sambanova.env SambaNova Cloud DeepSeek V4-Pro, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen3.8-27B │ ├── siliconflow.env SiliconFlow DeepSeek V4-Pro, DeepSeek V4-Flash, Qwen3.8-27B │ ├── lmstudio.env LM Studio Desktop DeepSeek V4-Pro & Muse Glimmer │ ├── vllm.env vLLM Self-Hosted GPU DeepSeek V4-Pro & Qwen3.6-35B │ ├── azure.env Azure OpenAI Service o1 & GPT-5.6 Enterprise Deployments │ ├── kiro.env AWS Amazon Q Developer / Claude Opus 5 Bridge │ ├── ox.env Stealth Ox Alpha Frontier Reasoning Model │ └── nemotron.env Nvidia Nemotron Free Tier │ ├── scripts/ Verification & test utilities │ ├── verify failover.py Automated failover simulation runner │ └── test live nemotron ox.py Live dual-model probe Nemotron & Ox Alpha │ └── src/ Source code ├── main.py FastAPI app & Uvicorn lifecycle ├── cli.py CLI commands, setup wizard & test runner ├── api/ │ └── endpoints.py /v1/messages, /health & /count tokens routes ├── conversion/ │ ├── request converter.py Anthropic - OpenAI message & tool parsing │ └── response converter.py OpenAI stream - Anthropic SSE translation ├── core/ │ ├── client.py Async client with failover & retry logic │ ├── config.py Dynamic environment loader & constant-time auth │ ├── constants.py Anthropic & OpenAI protocol constants │ ├── logging.py Structured logging configuration │ └── model manager.py Intelligent model tier & slug router ├── models/ │ ├── claude.py Pydantic schemas for Anthropic API │ └── openai.py Pydantic schemas for OpenAI API └── security/ └── sanitizer.py Secret, AWS key, and PAT redaction engine git clone https://github.com/Santosh-Prasad-Verma/ClaudeGate.git cd ClaudeGate python3 -m venv .venv source .venv/bin/activate pip install -r requirements.txt Launch the interactive configuration wizard: python start proxy.py --setup Or load a ready-made preset directly: python start proxy.py --preset openrouter You can configure Claude Code CLI to communicate with ClaudeGate using either Permanent or Session-Based configuration: Edit or create ~/.claude/settings.json to automatically route all future claude commands to ClaudeGate: { "env": { "ANTHROPIC BASE URL": "http://127.0.0.1:8082", "ANTHROPIC API KEY": "sk-claudegate-local" } } Export the variables in your active shell before launching Claude: export ANTHROPIC BASE URL="http://127.0.0.1:8082" export ANTHROPIC API KEY="sk-claudegate-local" Run the built-in diagnostic test to verify your upstream provider connection and measure latency: python start proxy.py --test Expected Output: 🔍 Testing upstream connection... Provider Base URL: https://openrouter.ai/api/v1 Test Model: stealth/ox-alpha ✅ Connection Successful Model is active and responsive. Status: 200 OK You can also probe the gateway health endpoint directly from your terminal: curl http://127.0.0.1:8082/health {"status":"healthy","service":"claudegate"} Once setup is complete, your day-to-day workflow looks like this: ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ TERMINAL 1: Start ClaudeGate Gateway Daemon │ │ $ cd ClaudeGate && python start proxy.py │ │ Gateway listening on http://127.0.0.1:8082 OpenRouter/Groq/Ollama │ └──────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┘ │ Translates Anthropic ⟷ OpenAI protocol ▼ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ TERMINAL 2: Your Codebase Workspace Run Claude Code │ │ $ cd /path/to/my-project │ │ $ claude │ │ │ │ "Add JWT authentication to src/auth.py and run the unit tests" │ │ │ │ Claude Code ──────► ClaudeGate 8082 ──────► DeepSeek R1 / Qwen / Groq │ │ CLI Tool Calls Translates schemas Executes inference & tools │ │ ◄────────────────── Streams SSE Events ◄──────────────────────────────── │ │ │ │ ✅ Claude Code automatically reads files, writes code, and runs bash tests │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ - Start the Gateway Terminal 1 : cd ClaudeGate python start proxy.py ClaudeGate will boot up, display active model mappings, and listen on http://127.0.0.1:8082 . - Open Your Coding Project Terminal 2 : Navigate to whatever software project or repo you want to work on: cd ~/my-flutter-app or any project directory - Launch Claude Code : claude You can now type natural language instructions as usual. Claude Code will execute file inspections, bash commands, multi-file edits, and git commits powered entirely by your chosen backend model - Switching Models On The Fly : Want to swap from free cloud models OpenRouter to 100% private offline models Ollama ? In Terminal 1: python start proxy.py --preset ollama python start proxy.py Claude Code in Terminal 2 will immediately begin routing through local Ollama without needing a restart. | Command | Purpose | |---|---| python start proxy.py | Start the ClaudeGate server | python start proxy.py --test | Run live connectivity probe & measure upstream latency | python start proxy.py --setup | Launch interactive 24-provider setup wizard | python start proxy.py --preset <name | Quick-load a preset e.g. groq , gemini , ollama , deepseek | python start proxy.py --help | View help and available options | python start proxy.py --version | Display current release version | If you prefer to run ClaudeGate as a background Docker container: Build and start container in the background docker compose up -d --build View real-time logs docker compose logs -f Check container health status docker ps Stop container docker compose down ClaudeGate includes built-in live diagnostics and automated test suites: Test your active model and measure upstream response latency: python start proxy.py --test Output: 🔍 Testing upstream connection... Provider Base URL: https://openrouter.ai/api/v1 Test Model: stealth/ox-alpha ✅ Connection Successful Model is active and responsive. Status: 200 OK Simulate an upstream outage to test automatic failover: python scripts/verify failover.py Run the full test suite covering non-streaming failover, SSE streaming, and endpoint security: pytest tests/ -v ClaudeGate implements defense-in-depth privacy controls to ensure secure self-hosting: Localhost-Only Default : Restricts incoming traffic exclusively to the local machine. 127.0.0.1 Constant-Time Authentication : Uses Python's hmac.compare digest to validate x-api-key headers, preventing side-channel timing analysis. Secret & PII Redaction Engine : When SANITIZE SECRETS="true" , prompts are automatically scrubbed for sensitive tokens GitHub PATs, AWS Access Keys, OpenAI Keys, Private SSH keys before reaching upstream providers. Vulnerability Reporting : For responsible disclosure, please refer to our Security Policy /Santosh-Prasad-Verma/ClaudeGate/blob/main/SECURITY.md . - Error Markers over Generator Exceptions : Problem : In Starlette / FastAPI, raising HTTPException inside an active StreamingResponse async generator after HTTP headers 200 OK are flushed causes a fatal RuntimeError: response already started and terminates the ASGI worker. Decision : ClaudeGate's generator yields formatted ERROR::<status ::<message tokens that the SSE converter catches and translates into standard Anthropic error events, keeping the worker process healthy. - Multi-Turn : <thinking Cleansing Problem : Reasoning models like DeepSeek R1 output reasoning tokens. When Claude Code sends subsequent conversation turns containing these blocks in history, standard OpenAI endpoints reject the payload with 400 Bad Request . Decision : The request converter automatically identifies and filters thinking and redacted thinking content blocks before dispatching to upstream providers. - Constant-Time Client Authentication : Problem : Standard string comparisons key == expected are susceptible to side-channel timing attacks. Decision : Implemented hmac.compare digest across all header validation points. - 10-Minute TCP Keep-Alive : timeout keep alive=600 Problem : Node.js HTTP agents in Claude Code CLI drop connections with ECONNRESET if an interactive user takes longer than 5 seconds between prompts. Decision : Configured explicit keep-alive headers and Uvicorn socket timeouts to support extended interactive developer pauses. Image Input Format : Multimodal image support currently converts Base64 images directly; URLs require public accessibility. Provider-Specific Parameters : Non-standard hyperparameters outside temperature and top p are passed as standard OpenAI extensions. - Real-Time Web Dashboard : Built-in visual UI http://127.0.0.1:8082/dashboard for live latency charts, token velocity, and cost tracking. - Prompt Cache & SQLite Deduplication : In-memory and SQLite KV caching for repetitive codebase index prompts. - Dynamic Complexity Router : Automatic classification of task difficulty e.g. routing simple edits to Groq and complex architectural refactors to DeepSeek R1 . - Unix Domain Sockets UDS : Zero-network communication option over /run/user/$UID/claudegate.sock . We welcome bug fixes, documentation improvements, new provider presets, and feature additions Contributing Guide : Check out CONTRIBUTING.md /Santosh-Prasad-Verma/ClaudeGate/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md for local environment setup and PR workflows. Code of Conduct : This project follows the Contributor Covenant v2.1 /Santosh-Prasad-Verma/ClaudeGate/blob/main/CODE OF CONDUCT.md . Adding Presets : To contribute a new preset, add presets/<provider name .env and submit a pull request Distributed under the MIT License . See LICENSE /Santosh-Prasad-Verma/ClaudeGate/blob/main/LICENSE for more information. Built with ❤️ for the open-source & AI developer community. Empowering developers to run Claude Code with any model, anywhere, completely unrestricted. ⭐ If you find ClaudeGate useful, consider giving it a star on GitHub ⭐