{"slug": "show-hn-claudette-mistral-models-in-claude-code", "title": "Show HN: Claudette - Mistral models in Claude Code", "summary": "A developer released Claudette, an open-source wrapper that runs Anthropic's Claude Code CLI against Mistral models by starting a local proxy on port 4791 that translates Claude Code's requests to Mistral's API. Claudette defaults to mistral-large-latest for main work and mistral-small-latest for background tasks, keeps its own config directory so existing Claude Code logins and history are untouched, and is installed via a curl script; the author notes Anthropic does not support running Claude Code on non-Claude models, so the tool is best-effort. Tested on macOS only, Claudette lacks extended thinking, prompt caching, Remote Control, voice mode and fast mode, and Codestral and mistral-code-latest are listed but cannot call tools, which Claude Code depends on.", "body_md": "Run [Claude Code](https://code.claude.com) with Mistral models.\n\n`claudette` is a drop-in wrapper around `claude`. It starts a small local proxy\nthat translates Claude Code's requests for Mistral's API, then runs `claude`\nagainst it. It keeps its own config directory, so your regular Claude Code\nsetup, login and history are left alone.\n\nAnthropic doesn't support running Claude Code on non-Claude models, so treat this as best-effort. The limitations are listed below.\n\n- [Claude Code](https://code.claude.com)\n- [uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/)\n- A Mistral API key from [console.mistral.ai](https://console.mistral.ai)\n\nTested on macOS. Linux should work but hasn't been tested, and Windows isn't supported.\n\n```\ncurl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/raed667/claudette/main/install.sh | bash\n```\n\nThe installer asks for your Mistral API key and stores it in\n`~/.config/claudette/mistral_api_key`. If you skip the prompt, run the command\nagain later or export `MISTRAL_API_KEY` instead.\n\nTo update, run `claudette update` or the same install command.\n\n`claudette` takes the same flags and subcommands as `claude`:\n\n```\nclaudette\nclaudette -p \"explain this repo\"\nclaudette --continue\n```\n\nThe proxy starts on first use and keeps running in the background. Use\n`claudette proxy stop` to shut it down, or `claudette proxy logs` when\nrequests fail.\n\nThe status line shows the model, how much of the context is used before Claude Code compacts, an estimated cost at Mistral's prices, and the current folder and branch:\n\n```\nmistral-large | ctx 42k/256k 16% | ~$0.96 | claudette (main)\n```\n\nThe cost is the session's spend so far at Mistral's list prices, cached input\nincluded. It doesn't count web searches or the extra requests auto mode makes\nto check tool calls. A trailing `+` means part of the\nsession used a model without a known price. Mistral doesn't publish one for\nMedium, so a Medium-only session shows no cost.\n\nIf you've set your own `statusLine` in `~/.claudette/settings.json`, yours is\nused instead.\n\nThe main model is `mistral-large-latest`, and background tasks use\n`mistral-small-latest`. Any chat model your key can use works.\n`claudette models` lists them with their context sizes:\n\n```\nclaudette models\nCLAUDETTE_MODEL=ministral-14b-latest claudette\n```\n\nThe list is cached for a day; `claudette models --refresh` fetches it again.\n\nLarge, Medium and Small are the ones that have been tested. Codestral and\n`mistral-code-latest` are listed but don't call tools, which Claude Code\ndepends on.\n\nInside a session, `/model` lists Large, Medium and Small, plus your\n`CLAUDETTE_MODEL` if it's something else, and `/model <name>` takes any other\nmodel. Compaction is tuned to the model you start with, so prefer\n`CLAUDETTE_MODEL` when switching to a model with a smaller context window. If\nyou've set your own `modelPicker` in `~/.claudette/settings.json`, yours is\nused instead.\n\n| Variable | Default |  | \n|---|---|---|\n| `MISTRAL_API_KEY` |  | Overrides the key file | \n| `CLAUDETTE_MODEL` | `mistral-large-latest` | Main model | \n| `CLAUDETTE_FAST_MODEL` | `mistral-small-latest` | Background tasks | \n| `CLAUDETTE_COMPACT_WINDOW` | model's context, up to `256000` | Tokens before Claude Code compacts the conversation | \n| `CLAUDETTE_PORT` | `4791` | Local proxy port | \n| `CLAUDETTE_STATUSLINE` | `1` | Set to `0` to turn off the default status line | \n\n- Web search goes through Mistral's own search instead of Anthropic's. You get a summarised answer with source links rather than raw results, and searches are billed by Mistral.\n- Extended thinking, prompt caching, Remote Control, voice mode and fast mode aren't available.\n- Your global `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md` is still loaded, which means its contents\nare sent to Mistral.\n\nHow it works, testing and known quirks are in [CONTRIBUTING.md](https://github.com/raed667/claudette/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md).\n\nclaudette is a hobby project. I wanted Claude Code's workflow with Mistral's models, so I built it for myself and published it in case someone else wants the same thing. I'm not affiliated with Anthropic or Mistral AI, and neither company endorses or supports it.\n\nClaude, Claude Code and Mistral are trademarks of their owners. claudette doesn't include or modify Claude Code; it launches your own install against Mistral's public API with your own key, so both companies' terms still apply to how you use them.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-claudette-mistral-models-in-claude-code", "canonical_source": "https://github.com/raed667/claudette", "published_at": "2026-11-15 16:38:41+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-11-15 16:54:03.056317+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-tools", "large-language-models", "ai-agents", "developer-tools"], "entities": ["Claudette", "Claude Code", "Anthropic", "Mistral", "mistral-large-latest", "mistral-small-latest", "Codestral", "uv"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-claudette-mistral-models-in-claude-code", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-claudette-mistral-models-in-claude-code.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-claudette-mistral-models-in-claude-code.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-claudette-mistral-models-in-claude-code.jsonld"}}