Using prxy.monster with Claude Code

Copy-paste setup: grab the ready-made prompt on the skills page and paste it into your agent — it wires the base URL + key in one shot.

Claude Code speaks Anthropic Messages traffic, so it can point at prxy.monster with the Anthropic base URL. The value is the module pipeline around those calls: MCP pruning, cache hits, context preservation, and cost guards.

Setup time: 30 seconds.

Configure

export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://api.prxy.monster
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=prxy_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Restart Claude Code. That’s it.

Claude Code uses @anthropic-ai/sdk under the hood. It respects ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL automatically — no settings change, no config file edit, no restart of anything other than Claude Code itself.

Code change

None. Claude Code is a CLI; you don’t touch its code. Just the two env vars above.

Verify

prxy doctor

(or, if you don’t have the CLI:)

curl https://api.prxy.monster/health

Open Claude Code and watch its first few requests. They should succeed if routing and provider credentials are configured.

What you get

Concretely, on a typical Claude Code session:

Pain	Fix
MCP overhead — ~67k tokens loading every MCP definition before you type	`mcp-optimizer` — prunes irrelevant tools per query. ~67k → ~8k.
Rate limit at 20 minutes	`semantic-cache` returns repeats free. `exact-cache` catches identical re-asks.
Auto-compaction wipes context	`compaction-bridge` preserves the working set across compaction events. `rehydrator` restores the relevant context on the next message.
Sessions don’t compound — every Monday starts from zero	`patterns` logs successful fixes and re-injects them. The model gets faster on problem types you’ve solved before.
Long sessions hit context wall	`ipc` compresses old messages progressively (verbatim → truncated → summary → single sentence).

Recommended pipeline for Claude Code

This is the killer config:

PRXY_PIPE=mcp-optimizer,compaction-bridge,rehydrator,semantic-cache,patterns,ipc

Set it on the key with PATCH /v1/keys/:id using pipelineConfig, or set per-process in local mode:

export PRXY_PIPE=mcp-optimizer,compaction-bridge,rehydrator,semantic-cache,patterns,ipc

(Note: PRXY_PIPE is read by the proxy, not by Claude Code — for cloud, store the pipeline on the API key; for local, set it in the container environment.)

Streaming

Claude Code uses streaming heavily. prxy.monster passes through Anthropic’s per-block SSE format unmodified. Cache hits replay as synthetic SSE, indistinguishable to Claude Code’s parser.

Pricing reality check

You’re already paying Anthropic for tokens. prxy.monster doesn’t add per-token cost — you BYOK to Anthropic, and we charge a flat tier for the gateway.

Net effect for a typical Claude Code user:

Anthropic bill: same to lower when cache or optimization reduces provider work.
prxy.monster bill: $20/mo Pro, or Team for shared quota.
Your time: significantly more productive minutes per dollar.

Common issues

anthropic-beta headers — pass-through. Prompt caching, tool use, and other beta features all work.
MCP servers — Claude Code’s MCP wiring is unaffected. The mcp-optimizer module sees the tool definitions Claude Code sends and prunes irrelevant ones before the request hits Anthropic.
/clear — works the same. The patterns module preserves your learned patterns across /clear.
Local mode — point ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=http://localhost:3099 to your local Docker container (see Local quickstart).

Worked example

Drop-in .env and a step-by-step setup walkthrough: github.com/Ekkos-Technologies-Inc/prxy-monster-examples/tree/main/examples/claude-code-setup