search

claudeClaude Code

This guide walks you through setting up Claude Code to work with FastRouter.ai as your API provider.

hashtag
Introduction

Claude Code is Anthropic's official CLI tool that brings Claude's AI capabilities directly to your terminal and development workflow. It enables you to interact with Claude for coding tasks, file operations, git workflows, and more—all from the command line.

FastRouter.ai is an intelligent AI routing platform that offers access to multiple model providers with a single API, offering cost reduction, improved reliability, and enhanced performance through smart routing algorithms.

By integrating Claude Code with FastRouter.ai, you gain a centralized and enterprise-ready way to operate Claude across your organization. FastRouter acts as the control plane for all usage—allowing you to securely manage and rotate user API keys, standardize access across teams, and eliminate the risks of scattered credentials.

In addition, FastRouter provides built-in observability and governance, giving you clear visibility into usage patterns, spend, and performance. You can enforce rate limits to prevent abuse, define role-based access controls to ensure the right people have the right level of access, and set budgets to keep costs predictable. Together, this integration lets you scale Claude Code safely, efficiently, and with full operational control—without slowing down developers.

hashtag
Prerequisites

hashtag
Installation

hashtag
Step 1: Install Claude Code

Run the following command in your terminal to install Claude Code on Linux:

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

This will download and install the latest version of Claude Code on your system.

hashtag
Configuration

hashtag
Step 2: Navigate to Your Project Directory

Change to the directory where you want to use Claude Code:

hashtag
Step 3: Set Environment Variables

Run the following commands in your terminal to configure Claude Code to use FastRouter.ai:

Important Notes:

  • Replace [YOUR-FASTROUTER-API-KEY] with your actual FastRouter.ai API key

  • Setting ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="" (empty string) is required for proper functionality

  • These environment variables will only persist for your current terminal session

hashtag
Step 4: Persist Environment Variables (Optional)

To make these settings permanent across terminal sessions, add them to your shell profile file.

For Bash users (~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile):

For Zsh users (~/.zshrc):

For Fish users (~/.config/fish/config.fish):

hashtag
Verification

hashtag
Step 5: Launch Claude Code

Start Claude Code by running:

Claude Code should now be configured to route all API requests through FastRouter.ai.

hashtag
Troubleshooting

hashtag
Common Issues

Issue: Authentication errors

  • Verify your FastRouter.ai API key is correct

  • Ensure ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is set to an empty string ("")

  • Check that ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL is exactly https://api.fastrouter.ai

Issue: Environment variables not persisting

  • Make sure you've added the exports to the correct shell profile file

  • Run source ~/.bashrc (or appropriate file) to reload the configuration

  • Verify the variables are set with: echo $ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL

Issue: Claude Code not found after installation

  • Restart your terminal or open a new terminal window

  • Check if the installation path is in your PATH variable

  • Try running the installation command again

PreviousIDE Integrations

Last updated