🤖 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 <think> 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