If you rely on cheap providers daily, you’ll eventually hit a rate limit or a brief outage mid-session. claude-code-mux is built for exactly that: a high-performance routing proxy (written in Rust) that sits in front of Claude Code with automatic failover, priority-based routing, and support for 15+ providers — Anthropic, OpenAI, Cerebras, MiniMax, Kimi, and more. When one backend stumbles, it switches to another and you keep working.
This is the Windows setup and where it fits versus the alternatives. For task-based routing instead, see Claude Code Router setup.
What it’s for
Two things set claude-code-mux apart:
- Automatic failover — if a provider errors or rate-limits, it falls back to the next one by priority, so a single hiccup doesn’t end your session.
- Performance — being Rust, it’s a fast, lightweight proxy with low overhead, and it runs natively on Windows as a compiled binary.
That makes it the pick when reliability across many cheap backends matters more than fine-grained per-task model selection.
Step 1: Install
claude-code-mux is a Rust binary. Grab a release or build it from the GitHub repository per its instructions. It runs natively on Windows; WSL also works if you prefer.
Step 2: Configure providers and priorities
Define the providers you want and their priority order in the config the README specifies — for example DeepSeek first, MiniMax as failover, Kimi as a third. Each entry has the provider’s endpoint and key. The mux uses priority to decide order and falls back on errors.
Typical mux config concepts (see repo for exact format)
| providers | List of backends with endpoint + key |
|---|---|
| priority | Order to try them (lower = first) |
| failover | Switch to next provider on error/limit |
| listen address | Local address Claude Code points at |
Step 3: Point Claude Code at the mux
Start the mux, then set Claude Code’s base URL to its local address:
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="http://127.0.0.1:PORT"
export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN="any-value-the-mux-accepts"
claudeUse the address and port the mux prints. Now Claude Code’s requests flow through the mux, which picks a provider and fails over as needed.
mux vs router vs proxy
Choosing a routing tool
| claude-code-mux | Failover + performance across many providers |
|---|---|
| Claude Code Router | Per-task model selection + transformers |
| claude-code-proxy | Back Claude Code with a specific subscription |
Pick claude-code-mux for reliability and speed across cheap backends, Claude Code Router for per-task routing, and claude-code-proxy to back a specific subscription. For a single Anthropic-compatible provider, you may not need any — see anthropic-compatible endpoints.
Troubleshooting
- Claude Code can’t connect — mux not running, or wrong port in
ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL. - Failover not triggering — check priority and that each provider’s key is valid.
- One provider always used — its priority is highest and it isn’t erroring; that’s expected.
- Config rejected — match the current format in the repo; it changes.
claude-code-mux checklist
- Binary installed (release or built) for your platform
- Providers and priorities configured per the README
- Mux running on a local address
- ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL pointed at the mux
- Failover tested by exhausting the primary provider
Wrapping up
claude-code-mux is the routing tool to choose when reliability matters: a fast Rust proxy that fails over across 15+ providers, so a rate limit or outage on one cheap backend doesn’t stop your work. Install the binary, define providers and priorities, point Claude Code at the local address, and it handles the rest. Keep it on localhost and treat it as the fast-moving community project it is.
For the alternatives, see Claude Code Router and LiteLLM gateway.
