CLIProxyAPI

In my everyday setup, CC Switch solves the problem of switching providers under the same Claude Code CLI. CLIProxyAPI does the reverse: you are already signed in to a CLI subscription and want to use it as an API for Cursor, Cline, or your own scripts.

Repository: router-for-me/CLIProxyAPI. Manual: help.router-for.me. Desktop client: EasyCLIProxyAPI.

What it does

It starts a proxy on your machine. You sign in through each CLI’s OAuth flow (Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Google Antigravity / Gemini, Grok Build, and Kimi), and it exposes OpenAI-, Gemini-, Claude-, Codex-, and Grok-compatible endpoints. Point the client’s base_url to the local proxy.

Multiple accounts can be rotated. Upstream OpenAI-compatible services such as OpenRouter can also be configured. Streaming, tool calls, and image-and-text input are supported. The default port is 8317.

This is not the same as a reseller proxy. A reseller sells someone else’s key; this runs on your machine and uses the subscription you signed into yourself.

Installation

On macOS, use Homebrew. The service reads $(brew --prefix)/etc/cliproxyapi.conf by default. If you want to keep the configuration in your home directory, create the file first and then symlink it; a dangling symlink makes the service exit immediately:

brew install cliproxyapi
mkdir -p ~/.cli-proxy-api
# Prepare ~/.cli-proxy-api/config.yaml according to the official example first:
brew_conf="$(brew --prefix)/etc/cliproxyapi.conf"
ln -sfn "$HOME/.cli-proxy-api/config.yaml" "$brew_conf"
brew services start cliproxyapi

If you would rather avoid the commands, install EasyCLIProxyAPI to start and stop the service and edit its configuration from the tray.

Docker:

docker run --rm -p 8317:8317 \
  -v /path/to/config.yaml:/CLIProxyAPI/config.yaml \
  -v /path/to/auth-dir:/root/.cli-proxy-api \
  -v /path/to/plugins:/CLIProxyAPI/plugins \
  eceasy/cli-proxy-api:latest

Mount the plugins directory, or installed store plugins will disappear when the container restarts.

Follow the OAuth flow in the official documentation; Claude, Codex, Gemini, and Grok each have their own flow. Once signed in, point the API addresses in Cursor, Cline, or OpenCode to http://127.0.0.1:8317.

Usage statistics are no longer built in as of v6.10.0. For a dashboard, use CPA Usage Keeper or CPA-Manager-Plus.

How it fits with my existing tools

Need	Tool
Switch Claude Code to DeepSeek / GLM	CC Switch
Use a subscription as an API for other clients	CLIProxyAPI
Cheap access with direct connectivity from China	Official DeepSeek API
Write code in a repository	Cursor / Claude Code; do not treat the proxy as an IDE

Hermes can switch providers by itself, so it does not necessarily need this layer. CLIProxyAPI is more useful when a client only accepts an OpenAI or Claude endpoint but your access is a CLI subscription.

Do not treat it as free lunch

Most subscription terms are written around the “official client.” Turning an OAuth login into a generic API may violate the terms of service; you bear the risks of bans and rate limits. Account pools, rotation, and exposing the port to the public internet add more risk. Keep it on 127.0.0.1, add an access key, and do not expose it bare to the internet.

Quota windows still apply—the Codex 5-hour and 7-day windows, for example. A proxy does not create more quota; it only changes the entry point. Model names and channel aliases should follow the current documentation, since README version numbers for GPT, Claude, and Gemini change quickly.

My use case is narrow: turn it on when official quotas are tight and I want to use an existing subscription inside a tool that only accepts a standard API. For everyday coding, using the corresponding official client is still simpler.