Claude Code CLI — Configuration with OmniRoute

Point the Claude Code CLI (claude) at OmniRoute — local or a remote VPS — with per-model profiles, mirroring the Codex setup.

Quick start

# Launch Claude Code against a local OmniRoute (auto-detects the active context)
omniroute launch

# Against a remote OmniRoute (after `omniroute connect <host>`, this is automatic)
omniroute launch --remote http://192.168.0.15:20128 --api-key oma_live_xxx

# Generate per-model profiles, then launch one
omniroute setup-claude            # writes ~/.claude/profiles/<name>/settings.json
omniroute launch --profile glm52  # Claude Code using glm/glm-5.2 via OmniRoute

How Claude Code connects to a gateway

Claude Code talks the Anthropic Messages API and is pointed at a custom endpoint with environment variables (it has no --base-url flag):

Env vars are read once at startup — restart Claude Code after changing them.

omniroute launch sets all of these for you: it resolves the base URL + token from the active context (so omniroute connect <vps> then omniroute launch just works), health-checks the server, and execs claude.

Profiles (CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR)

Claude Code has no native profile files (unlike Codex's ~/.codex/<name>.config.toml). The idiomatic mechanism is CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR — a separate config directory per profile, each with its own settings.json, credentials, history and cache.

omniroute setup-claude fetches the live /v1/models catalog and writes one profile per model at ~/.claude/profiles/<name>/settings.json, reusing the same names as setup-codex (glm52, kimi-k27, deepseek-pro, …):

// ~/.claude/profiles/glm52/settings.json
{
  "$schema": "https://json.schemastore.org/claude-code-settings.json",
  "model": "glm/glm-5.2",
  "effortLevel": "xhigh",
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "http://192.168.0.15:20128",
    "ANTHROPIC_MODEL": "glm/glm-5.2",
    "CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_GATEWAY_MODEL_DISCOVERY": "1",
    "CLAUDE_CODE_AUTO_COMPACT_WINDOW": "190000",
  },
}

The auth token is never written to the profile. Launch with omniroute launch --profile <name> (it injects ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN from the active context), or export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN yourself and run CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.claude/profiles/<name> claude.

Auto-sync after model discovery (opt-in). OmniRoute can regenerate these same ~/.claude/profiles/<name>/settings.json files automatically whenever a provider model sync changes the live catalog — so new/renamed models get profiles without re-running the command. It is off by default: toggle it from the CLI Code dashboard ("CLI profile auto-sync" → Claude Code), or set OMNIROUTE_AUTO_SYNC_CLAUDE_PROFILES=true (it also honors CLI_ALLOW_CONFIG_WRITES, on by default). When enabled it only writes profile files; it never changes your active/default Claude config, auth, or the ~/.claude/settings.json.

Generating + using profiles

# Local OmniRoute
omniroute setup-claude

# Remote VPS (bakes the VPS URL into every profile)
omniroute setup-claude --remote http://192.168.0.15:20128 --api-key oma_live_xxx

# Only some providers
omniroute setup-claude --only glm,kimi

# Preview without writing
omniroute setup-claude --dry-run

# Launch a profile
omniroute launch --profile kimi-k27

Model tiers (optional)

Claude Code routes to capability tiers. Map each to an OmniRoute model via env / settings if you want different providers per tier:

export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL="glm/glm-5.2"
export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL="kmc/kimi-k2.6"
export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL="glm/glm-4.7-flash"

Otherwise a single ANTHROPIC_MODEL (what profiles set) is used for everything.

Remote mode

Once you've run omniroute connect <host> (see Remote Mode), omniroute launch and omniroute setup-claude automatically target that remote server and use its scoped access token — no extra flags needed. Override per-invocation with --remote / --api-key.

Troubleshooting

Claude Code ignores the gateway — confirm ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL has no /v1 and restart claude (env is read once at startup). omniroute launch handles this for you.

/model picker is empty / missing gateway models — needs Claude Code v2.1.129+ and CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_GATEWAY_MODEL_DISCOVERY=1. Only claude* / anthropic* model IDs appear in the picker; force any other model with ANTHROPIC_MODEL=<id> (this is what profiles do).

Auth errors — the profile holds no token. Use omniroute launch --profile (injects it) or export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN.

Profiles don't isolate — each profile is a distinct CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR; verify echo $CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR inside the session points at ~/.claude/profiles/<name>.