Originally published at recca0120.github.io Claude Code's developer experience is excellent, but the API costs add up fast. free-claude-code is an open-source proxy that lets you keep using Claude Code's CLI, VS Code extension, and JetBrains integration while routing the underlying API calls to free-tier cloud APIs or self-hosted local models. How It Works Every Claude Code operation goes through the Anthropic API. This proxy sits in between: Claude Code CLI / VS Code / JetBrains ↓ free-claude-code proxy ↓ NVIDIA NIM / OpenRouter / Ollama / ... Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode The proxy exposes Anthropic-compatible endpoints ( /v1/messages , /v1/models , etc.), translates incoming requests to each provider's format, then translates the responses back to Anthropic's format. From the Claude Code client's perspective, it's just a regular Anthropic API.…