Claude Code Router + OpenRouter

Run Claude Code with any model via OpenRouter — including forked, leaked, and unreleased Claude versions.

What is this?

This guide shows how to use Claude Code Router (CCR) to route Claude Code traffic through OpenRouter, enabling:

• Use any OpenRouter model with Claude Code's interface
• Free tier models like Qwen 3.6 Plus, Gemma 4, DeepSeek R1
• Bypass Claude Code's model validation which blocks unknown model names
• Custom transformers for memory injection, prompt modification, etc.

Why?

Claude Code validates model names against a known list. If you want to use:

• Open-source models not in Claude's whitelist
• Forked Claude Code versions with modified behavior
• Custom providers like Ollama, LiteLLM, or private endpoints

...you need CCR to act as middleware that translates between Claude Code's API and your provider.

Quick Start

1. Install CCR

npm install -g @musistudio/claude-code-router

2. Create CCR symlink

CCR needs a claude command. If your Claude Code binary is named differently:

# Find your Claude Code binary
which claude-code

# Create symlink (adjust path as needed)
ln -sf /path/to/claude-code ~/bin/claude

3. Configure OpenRouter

Create ~/.claude-code-router/config.json:

{
  "Providers": [{
    "name": "openrouter",
    "api_base_url": "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions",
    "api_key": "sk-or-v1-YOUR-KEY-HERE",
    "models": [
      "qwen/qwen3.6-plus:free",
      "qwen/qwen3.5-flash-02-23",
      "google/gemma-4-26b-a4b-it"
    ],
    "transformer": { "use": ["openrouter"] }
  }],
  "Router": {
    "default": "openrouter,qwen/qwen3.6-plus:free"
  },
  "LOG_LEVEL": "info"
}

4. Start CCR

ccr start

5. Launch Claude Code

ccr code

Inside Claude Code, switch models with:

/model openrouter,qwen/qwen3.6-plus:free
/model openrouter,google/gemma-4-26b-a4b-it

Available Free Models on OpenRouter

Model	Provider	Context	Notes
qwen/qwen3.6-plus:free	Alibaba	1M	Best free model, SWE-bench 78.8
qwen/qwen3.5-flash-02-23	Alibaba	32K	Fast, good for daily tasks
google/gemma-4-26b-a4b-it	Google	256K	Multimodal, strong reasoning
deepseek/deepseek-r1-distill-qwen-32b	DeepSeek	32K	Strong reasoning

Switching Providers

CCR supports multiple providers. To add DeepSeek, Ollama, or others:

{
  "Providers": [
    {
      "name": "deepseek",
      "api_base_url": "https://api.deepseek.com/v1",
      "api_key": "sk-YOUR-KEY",
      "models": ["deepseek-chat"]
    }
  ],
  "Router": {
    "default": "openrouter,qwen/qwen3.6-plus:free"
  }
}

Then switch with:

/model deepseek,deepseek-chat

Custom Transformers

CCR supports custom transformers for request/response modification. Example: inject memory context.

Create ~/.claude-code-router/transformers/memory-transformer.js:

class MemoryTransformer {
  name = "memory";

  async transformRequestIn(request) {
    // Call your memory service
    const resp = await fetch('http://localhost:8765/context/inject', {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
      body: JSON.stringify({
        query: request.messages?.find(m => m.role === 'user')?.content || '',
        entity: 'user',
        max_tokens: 8000
      })
    });

    const data = await resp.json();
    if (data?.context) {
      request.messages.unshift({
        role: 'system',
        content: data.context + '\n\n[End of memory context]'
      });
    }
    return request;
  }
}

module.exports = MemoryTransformer;

Add to config:

{
  "transformers": [
    { "path": "/home/user/.claude-code-router/transformers/memory-transformer.js" }
  ],
  "Providers": [{
    "name": "openrouter",
    "transformer": { "use": ["openrouter", "memory"] }
    // ...
  }]
}

Troubleshooting

Auth conflict error

If you see Both a token (ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN) and an API key (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY) are set:

unset ANTHROPIC_API_KEY

Model not found error

Claude Code may still validate some model names. Use the exact format:

/model openrouter,qwen/qwen3.6-plus:free

CCR not finding claude command

# Verify symlink exists
ls -la ~/bin/claude

# If not, create it
ln -sf $(which claude-code) ~/bin/claude

Architecture

┌─────────────┐     ┌─────────────┐     ┌─────────────┐
│ Claude Code │────▶│ CCR Server  │────▶│ OpenRouter  │
│  (CLI)      │◀────│ (port 3456) │◀────│   API       │
└─────────────┘     └──────┬──────┘     └─────────────┘
                           │
                    ┌──────▼──────┐
                    │ Transformers │
                    │ (memory,    │
                    │  etc.)       │
                    └─────────────┘

License

This is a guide, not a software project. CCR is by @musistudio. OpenRouter models have their own licenses.

Contributing

PRs welcome for:

• Additional provider configs
• More transformer examples
• Troubleshooting tips