Claude Code

Connect Anthropic's Claude Code to BitRouter for multi-provider routing

Claude Code Integration

Quick Start

# 1. Start BitRouter
bitrouter serve

# 2. Configure Claude Code
export ANTHROPIC_API_BASE=http://localhost:8787

# 3. Launch Claude Code
claude

What You Get

  • Multi-provider access - Route to OpenAI, Google, DeepSeek beyond Anthropic
  • Cost optimization - Automatically use cheaper models for simple tasks
  • Fallback providers - Never get blocked by API outages
  • Session tracking - Monitor all Claude Code sessions in one place
  • MCP gateway - Access all MCP tools through BitRouter

Installation

Prerequisites

# Install Claude Code (choose one)
winget install Anthropic.ClaudeCode  # Windows
code --install-extension claude-code  # VS Code

Connect to BitRouter

Choose your integration method:

Option 1: Simple API Proxy

export ANTHROPIC_API_BASE=http://localhost:8787
claude

Option 2: ACP Protocol (Advanced)

# Terminal 1: Start BitRouter with ACP
bitrouter acp

# Terminal 2: Connect Claude Code
claude --api-base http://localhost:8787 --protocol acp

Option 3: Skills Integration

# Auto-configure with skills
npx skills add BitRouterAI/claude-code-integration
claude

Essential Configuration

Smart Task Routing

# ~/.bitrouter/config.yaml
routes:
  # Heavy refactoring → Most capable model
  - match: "claude-code/refactor/*"
    provider: anthropic
    model: claude-3-5-sonnet-latest
    
  # Test generation → Specialized model
  - match: "claude-code/test/*"
    provider: deepseek
    model: deepseek-coder
    
  # Quick fixes → Fast & cheap model
  - match: "claude-code/quick/*"
    provider: openai
    model: gpt-4o-mini
    
  # Documentation → Optimized model
  - match: "claude-code/docs/*"
    provider: anthropic
    model: claude-3-5-haiku-latest

High Availability Setup

routes:
  - match: "claude-code/*"
    provider: anthropic
    model: claude-3-5-sonnet-latest
    fallback:
      - provider: openai
        model: gpt-4o
      - provider: google
        model: gemini-2.0-flash-exp

Budget Controls

budget:
  claude-code:
    limits:
      hourly: 5.00
      daily: 50.00
    alerts:
      - at: 80%
        action: notify
      - at: 100%
        action: block

Common Recipes

Recipe: Cost-Optimized Development

# Route by task complexity
routes:
  - match: "claude-code/*"
    rules:
      - if: complexity == "simple"
        model: gpt-4o-mini
      - if: complexity == "moderate"
        model: claude-3-5-haiku-latest
      - if: complexity == "complex"
        model: claude-3-5-sonnet-latest

Recipe: Team Collaboration

# Export team config
bitrouter config export > team-config.yaml

# Team members import
bitrouter config import team-config.yaml

Recipe: MCP Tools Access

mcp_servers:
  - name: github
    command: npx @modelcontextprotocol/server-github
    
  - name: filesystem
    command: npx @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem
    args: ["--root", "/code"]

routes:
  - match: "claude-code/*"
    mcp_access: [github, filesystem]

CLAUDE.md Configuration

Enhance Claude Code's behavior with a project-specific config:

<!-- CLAUDE.md in your project root -->
# Project Configuration

## BitRouter Settings
- Use `claude-code/test/*` route for test generation
- Use `claude-code/docs/*` route for documentation
- Use `claude-code/refactor/*` route for major refactoring

## Coding Standards
- Follow existing code style
- Write comprehensive tests
- Document complex logic

Monitoring

Real-time Session Tracking

# View active sessions
bitrouter sessions list --agent claude-code

# Monitor live session
bitrouter monitor --agent claude-code --live

# Export session data
bitrouter sessions export <session-id> --format json

Cost Analytics

# Current spending
bitrouter costs show --agent claude-code

# Daily breakdown
bitrouter costs breakdown --agent claude-code --by day

# Set spending alert
bitrouter budget alert --agent claude-code --at 80%

Troubleshooting

🔴 Connection Issues

# Verify BitRouter is running
curl http://localhost:8787/health

# Check Claude Code config
claude config show

# Test with debug mode
RUST_LOG=debug bitrouter serve
claude --verbose

🟡 Performance Problems

# Benchmark providers
bitrouter providers benchmark

# Enable caching
bitrouter config set cache.enabled true

# Optimize routing
bitrouter routes optimize --agent claude-code

🔵 Authentication Errors

# Validate all API keys
bitrouter config validate

# Test specific provider
bitrouter providers test anthropic

# Re-authenticate
claude auth refresh

Advanced Features

Context Window Management

routes:
  - match: "claude-code/*"
    options:
      max_tokens: 8192
      compress_context: true
      cache_enabled: true

Custom Hooks

hooks:
  pre_request:
    - name: security_scan
      command: ./scan_request.sh
      
  post_response:
    - name: log_activity
      command: ./log_activity.sh

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