guide

Claude Code

A terminal app and a VS Code / Cursor / JetBrains plugin. No settings window here — environment variables.

Three fields. Copy, don’t type

url https://cheapai.lol
model claude-opus-4.8

Claude Code appends /v1/messages itself. So the URL here has no /v1. If the app wants a full path — https://cheapai.lol/v1/messages.

paste in a terminal, put your key in
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://cheapai.lol
export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN=sk-…
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=
export ANTHROPIC_MODEL=claude-opus-4.8

Do it in order. Don’t skip

  1. If Claude Code isn't installed yet: npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

  2. Two ways from here: way 1 sets it up permanently, way 2 lasts for the current terminal window.

  3. WAY 1. Find the settings file: ~/.claude/settings.json on macOS and Linux, C:\Users\YourName\.claude\settings.json on Windows. The .claude folder may not exist — on Windows create it in PowerShell: mkdir "$env:USERPROFILE\.claude" -Force

  4. Create settings.json in that folder with: {"env": {"ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "https://cheapai.lol", "ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN": "sk-…", "ANTHROPIC_MODEL": "claude-opus-4.8"}} — your full key instead of sk-…. This sticks for good.

  5. WAY 2. Copy the commands from the card below into a terminal. They last while the window is open. export does not work on Windows — in PowerShell write $env:ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="https://cheapai.lol" and $env:ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN="sk-…"

  6. The key goes into ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN and ANTHROPIC_API_KEY stays empty — otherwise Claude Code assumes you pay Anthropic directly and asks you to sign in.

  7. Run: claude

  8. Type “hi”. A reply means you're set.

Check

Run claude in a terminal and type hi. A reply means the variables are right.

If it didn’t start

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