# claude-mode

Switch Claude Code system-wide between **Anthropic**, **OpenRouter**, **Z.AI**, and a
local **LM Studio** server — with named per-tier model presets.
Windows / PowerShell 5.1, no external dependencies.

```
claude-mode                       # interactive menu
claude-mode anthropic             # subscription login
claude-mode openrouter            # remote gateway      (preset: default)
claude-mode zai                   # Z.AI GLM coding plan (preset: zai)
claude-mode lmstudio              # local server         (preset: lmstudio)
```

Works for the CLI, the VS Code extension, and the desktop app from a single
switch. Restart Claude Code afterwards — nothing else.

---

## The interactive menu

Run `claude-mode` with no arguments. The mode you're already in is omitted —
there's nothing to switch to:

```
claude-mode   (currently: openrouter / default)
  switch mode:
   1) Anthropic  - your subscription login, no gateway
   2) Z.AI       - GLM coding plan
   3) LM Studio  - local server, offline, free

   4) show full status
   5) edit presets
   6) run doctor
   0) quit
```

Pick a provider and it lists that provider's presets with the default marked;
**Enter** accepts it. Option 5 walks preset → tier → new model ID, and if you
edit the preset that's currently live it re-applies immediately.

When stdin is redirected (scripts, CI) the menu is skipped and `status` prints
instead, so `claude-mode` is still safe in a pipeline.

## Why settings.json and not a profile export

Three ways to make this persist. I picked the second.

**1. Export the variables from `$PROFILE`.**
The obvious move, and the wrong one here. It only covers processes launched from
a PowerShell session that loaded the profile — which is exactly *not* how you use
Claude Code. The VS Code extension is spawned by VS Code, not by your shell, so
it would never see the exports. Same for the desktop app, `cmd.exe`, and any
terminal opened before the switch. Worse, the failure is silent: you switch to
`anthropic`, a shell opened five minutes ago still has `ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL` set,
and that session quietly keeps billing OpenRouter.

**2. Rewrite the `env` block in `~/.claude/settings.json`.** ← chosen
Claude Code reads this file on every startup, from every launch context. One
write, and the next `claude` — CLI, extension, desktop — picks it up. A switch is
atomic: one file, one source of truth. `claude-mode anthropic` *deletes* the
managed keys rather than blanking them, so nothing can linger and break native
auth. The cost is that config is global rather than per-terminal.

**3. Persistent User-scope environment variables (`setx`).**
Also global and reboot-proof, but strictly worse: new processes only, values sit
in the registry in plaintext, and a stale entry silently outranks whatever
`claude-mode` writes. This tool treats them as a fault condition — `status` and
`doctor` flag them and offer removal, backing the old value up first.

The `claude` wrapper in the profile is a **safety net, not the mechanism**. It
strips inherited process-level copies of all thirteen managed variables before
launching `claude.exe`. Everything still works without it — including in VS Code,
which never loads the profile.

## Why API keys are not in settings.json

`settings.json` is a config file you'll hand-edit, diff, and possibly paste into
a bug report. A `sk-or-` or Z.AI token does not belong there.

Keys are stored **DPAPI-encrypted** in `~/.claude-mode/vault/*.cred` — encrypted
against your Windows account on this machine, so copying the file elsewhere or
reading it as another user yields nothing — with the file ACL restricted to you.
Claude Code receives the key at runtime through `apiKeyHelper`, which decrypts
and prints it. `settings.json` holds only the base URL and model IDs.

In `anthropic` mode the helper is removed from settings.json *and* returns
nothing when state says `anthropic` — belt and braces. LM Studio's `lmstudio`
token is a placeholder, not a secret, so it's written inline and the helper stays
out of it.

## Commands

```
claude-mode                            interactive menu
claude-mode status                     active mode, preset, model map

claude-mode anthropic                  native login (deletes all managed keys)
claude-mode openrouter [preset]        default preset: default
claude-mode zai [preset]               default preset: zai       (alias: z.ai, z-ai)
claude-mode lmstudio [preset]          default preset: lmstudio

claude-mode presets                    list presets (* = active)
claude-mode preset show <name>
claude-mode preset new <name> [from]   copy an existing preset
claude-mode preset set <name> <tier> <model-id>
claude-mode preset all <name> <model-id>     point every tier at one model
claude-mode preset rm <name>

claude-mode set-key [ref]              store a key (hidden prompt, DPAPI)
claude-mode models [filter]            models available from the active provider
claude-mode doctor                     verify auth, endpoint, model ids, stray env vars
```

Omitting the preset uses a **fixed** per-provider default, not "most recently
used" — so `claude-mode openrouter` always means `default`.

## Presets shipped

| preset | provider | opus | sonnet | haiku | fable |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| `default` | openrouter | `deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash` | `qwen/qwen3.7-flash` | `openrouter/free` | `z-ai/glm-5.2` |
| `cheap` | openrouter | `deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro` | `deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash` | `qwen/qwen3.7-flash` | `openai/gpt-5.6-luna-pro` |
| `claude-via-or` | openrouter | `anthropic/claude-opus-5` | `anthropic/claude-sonnet-5` | `anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5` | `anthropic/claude-fable-5` |
| `zai` | zai | `glm-5.2` | `glm-5.2` | `glm-4.7` | `glm-5.2` |
| `lmstudio` | lmstudio | `kwaipilot_kat-coder-v2.5-dev` (all tiers) | | | |
| `lmstudio-qwen` | lmstudio | `qwen3.6-35b-a3b-uncensored-heretic-native-mtp-preserved` (all tiers) | | | |

Presets are plain JSON in `~/.claude-mode/presets/`. A preset declares its
`provider`; `claude-mode lmstudio default` is rejected rather than silently
pointing a local URL at remote model IDs.

## Context windows and early auto-compaction

**Symptom:** switch to a gateway and the session starts auto-compacting almost
immediately, even though every model involved has a huge context window.

**Cause:** behind a custom `ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL`, Claude Code has no way to
resolve a third-party model ID like `deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash` to a context
length. It falls back to a conservative default and starts compacting against
*that*, not against the model's real 1M window. Z.AI's own docs work around this
by setting `CLAUDE_CODE_AUTO_COMPACT_WINDOW=1000000` — they hit the same thing.

**Fix:** every preset carries a `contextTokens` field, which writes both knobs
(confirmed present in CLI 2.1.221):

```
CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_CONTEXT_TOKENS   = <contextTokens>
CLAUDE_CODE_AUTO_COMPACT_WINDOW  = <contextTokens>
```

| preset | contextTokens |
|---|---|
| `default`, `cheap`, `claude-via-or`, `zai` | 1,000,000 |
| `lmstudio`, `lmstudio-qwen` | 262,144 |

`doctor` cross-checks the declared window against each tier's *actual* model
window and names any tier that falls short — `default` maps haiku to
`openrouter/free` (200k), which it flags as harmless since haiku only runs short
background tasks. Switching without `contextTokens` prints a warning.

Adjust per preset:

```powershell
# edit ~/.claude-mode/presets/<name>.json  ->  "contextTokens": 262144
claude-mode doctor      # re-checks declared vs actual
```

## Z.AI mode

Replaces `npx @z_ai/coding-helper` — and does something it doesn't: **maps a
distinct model to each Anthropic tier** instead of forcing one model everywhere.

Per [Z.AI's Claude Code docs](https://docs.z.ai/devpack/tool/claude):

| setting | value |
|---|---|
| `ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL` | `https://api.z.ai/api/anthropic` |
| auth | your Z.AI API key — kept in the DPAPI vault, delivered via `apiKeyHelper` |
| `API_TIMEOUT_MS` | `3000000` |
| `CLAUDE_CODE_AUTO_COMPACT_WINDOW` | `1000000` |
| `CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC` | `1` |

All three extra variables are confirmed present in CLI 2.1.221. Setup:

```powershell
claude-mode set-key zai      # paste your key from https://z.ai/manage-apikey/apikey-list
claude-mode zai
claude-mode doctor           # sends a 1-token request to prove the key works
```

## LM Studio mode

Per [LM Studio's docs](https://lmstudio.ai/docs/integrations/claude-code): base
URL `http://127.0.0.1:1234` (**base only** — Claude Code appends `/v1/messages`),
token `lmstudio`, plus `CLAUDE_CODE_ATTRIBUTION_HEADER=0`. Gateway discovery
stays off; the Anthropic surface is `/v1/messages` only.

### Model IDs are not what the UI shows

LM Studio's `/v1/models` lists only **loaded** instances under their display
alias. `kat-coder-v2.5` is such an alias — once the model idle-unloads it
vanishes, and a request using that name returns `400 No models loaded`. The
JIT-loadable ID is the model key, `kwaipilot_kat-coder-v2.5-dev`. `claude-mode`
reads `/api/v0/models` instead, which lists every installed model with its load
state, so `models` and `doctor` show IDs that actually work.

### The `[Server Error] ... Unable to generate parser for this template` spam

Cause: some GGUF chat templates hard-assert message ordering —

```jinja
{%- if message.role == "system" %}
    {%- if not loop.first %}
        {{- raise_exception('System message must be at the beginning.') }}
```

Runtimes that auto-generate a tool-call parser probe the template with synthetic
message sequences; those probes trip the assertion and the request dies. It's a
model-template bug, not a Claude Code or claude-mode bug — it's been reported
against several models
([LM Studio #1999](https://github.com/lmstudio-ai/lmstudio-bug-tracker/issues/1999),
[llama.cpp #20733](https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/issues/20733)).

Scanning your installed models' templates:

| model | template |
|---|---|
| `qwen3.6-35b-a3b-uncensored-heretic-native-mtp-preserved` | clean |
| `qwen3.6-35b-a3b` | clean |
| `qwen2.5-coder-7b-instruct`, `google/gemma-4-12b-qat` | clean |
| **`kwaipilot_kat-coder-v2.5-dev`** | **asserts** |
| **`qwen/qwen3.5-9b`**, **`prism-ml/bonsai-27b`** | **assert** |

`doctor` now reports this per model, and `models` flags affected entries with
`TEMPLATE RISK`. **The fix is to use a model without the flag** — which is
exactly the `lmstudio-qwen` preset, verified end-to-end with a cold JIT load,
streaming, and tool calls.

Honest caveat: KAT-Coder's template *does* contain the assertion, but I could not
reproduce the failure against it here — cold JIT, streaming, tools, system
blocks, and multi-turn `tool_result` all succeeded. Whether it trips seems to
depend on which parser strategy the runtime picks. If it spams, switch:

```powershell
claude-mode lmstudio lmstudio-qwen
```

Other notes: use a model with **>25k context** (`doctor` warns below that), and
the model must be **installed** — JIT loading handles "not loaded" fine.

If you enable authentication in LM Studio, move that preset to a vault key:

```powershell
claude-mode set-key lmstudio
# then in ~/.claude-mode/presets/lmstudio.json:
#   "auth": { "mode": "vault", "keyRef": "lmstudio" }
```

## CLI version

Verified against `claude.exe` **2.1.221** by scanning the binary — every variable
this tool writes is referenced by it:

`ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL` · `ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN` · `ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_{OPUS,SONNET,HAIKU,FABLE}_MODEL` ·
`CLAUDE_CODE_SUBAGENT_MODEL` · `CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_GATEWAY_MODEL_DISCOVERY` ·
`CLAUDE_CODE_ATTRIBUTION_HEADER` · `CLAUDE_CODE_AUTO_COMPACT_WINDOW` ·
`CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC` · `API_TIMEOUT_MS` · `apiKeyHelper`

(On 2.1.89 the fable and gateway-discovery vars did not exist; the update to
2.1.221 added both.)

## Setup

```powershell
cd c:\Users\smoido\Projects\cli\claude-code-switcher
.\install.ps1
```

Installs to `~/.claude-mode/` (ACL: you only), drops `claude-mode.cmd` into
`~/.local/bin` (already on your User PATH, next to `claude.exe`), and adds a
marked block to `~/Documents/WindowsPowerShell/profile.ps1`.
`~/.claude/settings.json` is **not** touched by the installer — only by an actual
mode switch, which backs it up to `~/.claude-mode/backups/` first (last 20 kept).

If the profile doesn't load: `Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned`.

## Restarting sessions

Claude Code reads all of this **once at startup**. A switch does not affect a
running session — that's how the process loads config, not something scripting
can change.

- **CLI** — exit and relaunch `claude`
- **VS Code** — `Ctrl+Shift+P` → *Developer: Reload Window*
- **Desktop app** — quit and reopen

`claude-mode status` shows what the *next* launch will use.

## Layout

```
~/.claude-mode/
  claude-mode.ps1              main script
  state.json                   mode, active preset, and the exact env keys last written
  presets/*.json               provider + model maps
  vault/*.cred                 DPAPI-encrypted keys (openrouter, zai, ...)
  backups/                     settings.json snapshots + removed env-var values
  bin/claude-key-helper.cmd    apiKeyHelper shim
~/.local/bin/claude-mode.cmd   PATH entry point (works from any shell)
~/Documents/WindowsPowerShell/profile.ps1
                               claude-mode + claude functions, between markers
```

`state.json` records which env keys the last switch actually wrote, so a custom
`extraEnv` key (Z.AI's timeouts, LM Studio's attribution header) is removed when
you switch away — even though no other preset knows that key exists.

## Uninstall

```powershell
claude-mode anthropic                              # clean settings.json first
Remove-Item ~\.claude-mode -Recurse -Force
Remove-Item ~\.local\bin\claude-mode.cmd
# then delete the block between the >>> claude-mode >>> markers in profile.ps1
```