ClaudeGate

ClaudeGate is an open-source local proxy gateway built in Python that lets developers use Claude Code CLI and Anthropic SDK applications with any OpenAI-compatible AI model provider. It was created by Santosh-Prasad-Verma and released under the MIT License, with its first stable release (v1.0.0) published in August 2026. The project sits transparently between Claude Code CLI and upstream AI providers, translating Anthropic's Messages API protocol into standard OpenAI Chat Completions format.

What It Is

ClaudeGate is a protocol translation layer — a FastAPI-based ASGI server that runs locally on port 8082 and intercepts requests from Claude Code CLI or any Anthropic SDK application. It converts the Anthropic /v1/messages schema into OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions requests, then translates the responses back into Anthropic Server-Sent Events. This allows developers to power Claude Code with models from 24+ provider presets including OpenRouter, DeepSeek, Google Gemini, Groq, Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM, Azure OpenAI, and more — without modifying the Claude Code CLI itself.

Architecture and Protocol Translation

ClaudeGate's core engine processes requests through a pipeline of components:

• Constant-Time Auth & IP Validator: Validates x-api-key headers using hmac.compare_digest to prevent timing attacks, and restricts traffic to localhost by default.
• Request Sanitizer: Scrubs outgoing prompts for AWS keys, GitHub PATs, OpenAI tokens, and SSH private keys when SANITIZE_SECRETS=true.
• Protocol Converter: Handles bidirectional translation of tools, messages, system prompts, and function calls between Anthropic and OpenAI schemas.
• Upstream Client & Failover Controller: Manages async HTTP connections with automatic failover across primary and backup providers on 503, 429, or timeout errors.
• SSE Stream Adapter: Translates raw OpenAI chunk streams into Anthropic SSE events (content_block_start, content_block_delta, message_delta, message_stop) without crashing the ASGI worker.

A key engineering decision is yielding formatted ERROR::<status>::<message> tokens inside the streaming generator rather than raising HTTPException after HTTP headers are flushed, which would cause a fatal RuntimeError: response already started.

Provider Support and Model Routing

ClaudeGate ships with 24+ ready-to-use provider preset .env files covering:

• Free/cloud providers: OpenRouter, Groq, DeepSeek, Google Gemini, OpenAI, Moonshot Kimi, Alibaba Qwen, Mistral, Perplexity, Cohere, MiniMax, Meta, Z.ai GLM, Together AI, Fireworks AI, Cerebras, SambaNova, SiliconFlow, Nvidia Nemotron, Stealth Ox Alpha
• 100% local/offline: Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM (zero data leaves the machine)
• Enterprise: Azure OpenAI Service, AWS Amazon Q (via Kiro Bridge)

The model manager intelligently routes all Claude version slugs (Claude 3.5, 3.7, 4.x, 4.5, 5.x) to configurable BIG_MODEL, MIDDLE_MODEL, and SMALL_MODEL tiers, or passes through direct model slugs.

Setup Path

Installation requires Python 3.9+ and follows a four-step process: clone the repository, create a virtual environment and install dependencies from requirements.txt, run the interactive setup wizard (python start_proxy.py --setup) or load a preset directly (--preset openrouter), then configure Claude Code CLI to point to http://127.0.0.1:8082. Docker and Docker Compose support is also included for running ClaudeGate as a background daemon with health-check monitoring. The built-in --test command probes upstream connectivity and measures latency before use.

Update: v1.0.0 — Universal LLM Gateway & Bridge for Claude Code CLI

The first stable release (v1.0.0) was published on August 25, 2026. The repository was created on August 23, 2026, and last updated August 25, 2026, indicating this is a very recently launched project. The roadmap lists planned features including a real-time web dashboard at /dashboard for latency charts and token velocity, SQLite-backed prompt caching for deduplication, a dynamic complexity router for automatic task-difficulty classification, and Unix Domain Socket support for zero-network communication.