Running Claude Code via NVIDIA NIM Proxy

free-cc.md

This guide walks you through routing Claude Code to NVIDIA NIM using a local proxy server.

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have uv installed on your system to manage Python tools.

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Step 1: Get an NVIDIA NIM API Key

1. Visit the NVIDIA API Keys settings page.
2. Generate a new API key and save it securely. You will need this to authenticate with the NIM models.

Step 2: Install and Start the Proxy Server

Install the proxy tool using uv and launch the server.

# Install the free-claude-code proxy
uv tool install --force git+https://github.com/Alishahryar1/free-claude-code.git

# Launch the proxy server
fcc-server

Note: Keep this terminal window open. The server runs on port 8082. You can access the admin panel at http://127.0.0.1:8082/admin.

Step 3: Configure Environment Variables

Open a new terminal window. You must set these environment variables to intercept Claude Code traffic and route it to your local server.

# Set the dummy authentication token
export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN="freecc"

# Redirect the base URL to your local proxy
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="http://localhost:8082"

See the comment below on how you can add this to your .bashrc as a custom function

Step 4: Launch and Verify Claude Code

In the same terminal where you just configured the environment variables, launch Claude Code.

# Start Claude Code
claude

Once inside the Claude Code interface, verify that the routing is working properly by running the status command:

/status

Ram N

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Reference Links

• Free Claude Code Model Picker Documentation
• NVIDIA NIM Setup

Here's a nice custom function to add to your .bashrc to turn it on or off.

# Function to point Anthropic traffic to your local proxy
anthropic_proxy_on() {
    export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN="freecc"
    export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="http://localhost:8082"
    echo "🤖 Anthropic proxy enabled (Localhost:8082)"
}

# Function to clear it and go back to normal
anthropic_proxy_off() {
    unset ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN
    unset ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL
    echo "🌐 Anthropic proxy disabled (Default routing)"
}