Claude Code

Claude Code routes through LunaRoute with environment variables: ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL points it at the gateway and ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN carries your lr_ key as a Bearer token. Both are read from the environment, so nothing here edits Claude Code’s own config.

This is the CLI, not the Desktop app

Claude Desktop does not read these variables — it routes from its own third-party inference configuration. See Claude Desktop for the app.

No key yet?

Open your dashboard Connect page and copy an lr_… key — the Claude Code tab there has a copy-paste setup, already filled in with your key.

1. Try it for one session

Install the CLI (CLI setup) and sign in once:

npm install -g @lunaroute/cli
lunaroute login
lunaroute run claude-code

run starts Claude Code wired to LunaRoute for that session only — it sets the variables in the child process, writes no file, and edits nothing in ~/.claude/. Quit, and you are back to your normal setup. That makes it the cheapest way to try LunaRoute; claude is an alias for the same command, so lunaroute run claude behaves identically.

• lunaroute run claude-code --model <id> starts on a specific model (default: the first chat model in your catalog).
• Everything after -- goes straight to Claude Code: lunaroute run claude-code -- --resume.
• It uses your stored login, so run lunaroute login first (a LUNAROUTE_API_KEY in your environment is not enough for run — it errors with Not logged in).
• Claude Code must already be installed; run only launches it.

2. Set it up permanently

lunaroute setup claude-code

It prints the variables to add to your shell profile:

Variable	Value	Why
LUNAROUTE_API_KEY	your lr_… key	The credential every other line references.
ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL	https://gw.lunaroute.com	Routing root; Claude Code appends /v1/messages itself.
ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN	$LUNAROUTE_API_KEY	Sent as Authorization: Bearer. lr_ keys are recognised and stripped before the request is forwarded.
ANTHROPIC_MODEL	a catalog model id	Your default model.
ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL	the same model id	Pins Claude Code’s background model (titles, summaries, compaction) at LunaRoute instead of Anthropic’s Haiku id, which LunaRoute does not serve.
CLAUDE_CODE_GATEWAY_HINT_HEADERS	1	Lets LunaRoute fast-path auxiliary requests (auto-mode classifier) instead of queueing them behind your session.
CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_GATEWAY_MODEL_DISCOVERY	1	Populates /model with LunaRoute’s models; without it the picker lists only your ANTHROPIC_MODEL.
ANTHROPIC_CUSTOM_HEADERS	X-LunaRoute-Client: claude-desktop	Selects LunaRoute’s Claude-shaped alias list for /model — deliberate, not a typo.

Pick a model in /model — the list is LunaRoute’s Claude-shaped aliases (claude-opus-lr29, …) — or set ANTHROPIC_MODEL to a plain catalog id to skip aliases.

setup prints them and writes nothing to your shell profile — paste them in yourself:

• Linux/macOS — add the exports to ~/.zshrc/~/.bashrc, then restart Claude Code. Or run lunaroute run claude-code in the meantime.
• Windows (PowerShell, 5.1-safe) — the CLI prints $env:NAME = 'value' lines for the session plus the persistent form, and tells you to open a new window: user-scope variables do not reach shells that are already running. Add these to your shell profile does not apply on Windows.

If you would rather use ~/.claude/settings.json, note that its env values are literal — the key would be written into the file instead of read from $LUNAROUTE_API_KEY. That reaches the Claude Code CLI on any platform, but it is still not how Claude Desktop routes.

3. Where it wrote, and how to undo

• lunaroute run claude-code wrote nothing — exit and you are done.
• lunaroute setup claude-code wrote nothing either; it printed. Undo by deleting the lines you pasted (or the env block in ~/.claude/settings.json) and starting Claude Code again.
• The CLI keeps its own credential separately, outside Claude Code: lunaroute login (or setup --key) stores your lr_… key in ~/.config/lunaroute/. If you want that gone too, run lunaroute logout. Neither command above uploaded or edited anything else.
• Nothing here touches Claude Desktop. To undo the Desktop app, use lunaroute setup claude-desktop --remove.

4. Verify without opening Claude Code

curl https://gw.lunaroute.com/v1/models \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LUNAROUTE_API_KEY" \
  -H "X-LunaRoute-Client: claude-desktop"

On Windows (PowerShell, 5.1-safe) — never the bare name curl, which PowerShell 5.1 aliases to Invoke-WebRequest; curl.exe is also fine and ships with Windows 10 1803+:

Invoke-RestMethod -Uri https://gw.lunaroute.com/v1/models `
  -Headers @{ Authorization = "Bearer $env:LUNAROUTE_API_KEY"; "X-LunaRoute-Client" = "claude-desktop" }

You should get the Claude-shaped alias list the /model picker shows. The same request without the X-LunaRoute-Client header returns the normal catalog, which Claude Code rejects.

Platforms and WSL

The CLI, run and setup claude-code are verified on Linux; the Windows forms above are the ones the CLI itself prints. WSL is a separate environment — Windows user variables do not cross into a distribution (WSLENV is the bridge), the npm/Node install is separate per side, and a lunaroute login on one side is invisible on the other. Install, log in and run again inside the distribution; CLI setup covers the details, including the npx failure modes on Windows.

Related

• Claude Desktop — the desktop app, whose routing is not env vars.
• CLI — install, run, setup, and the Windows/WSL notes.
• Harness setup — the other harnesses.
• Models API — the catalog /v1/models serves.