Use a custom provider in Claude Code

The seven keys yoink writes

Connecting an OpenRouter key saved as openrouter with --default z-ai/glm-4.7 writes this, with the token redacted:

{
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "https://openrouter.ai/api",
    "ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN": "<your key>",
    "ANTHROPIC_MODEL": "z-ai/glm-4.7",
    "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL": "z-ai/glm-4.7",
    "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL": "z-ai/glm-4.7",
    "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL": "z-ai/glm-4.7",
    "CLAUDE_CODE_SUBAGENT_MODEL": "z-ai/glm-4.7"
  }
}

yoink merges these into your existing env block and never writes or removes any other key. A theme, your permissions, or an unrelated variable such as DISABLE_TELEMETRY stay exactly where they were. Claude Code's own settings documentation explains the env block and the order in which settings files apply.

One backend at a time

pi, opencode and most other harnesses hold many providers side by side. Claude Code holds one. Connecting a provider to it therefore switches your active yoink profile to that provider, exactly like yoink use <name> does. Connecting a second provider replaces the seven values; it does not add a second entry.

Claude Code always needs a model. Without --default, yoink keeps the last model you used with this provider in Claude Code, or takes the provider's first selected model.

yoink connect openrouter --to claude-code --default z-ai/glm-4.7
yoink use openrouter
yoink use work

The last line switches back to a saved Claude account called work: yoink restores that login and strips the seven keys, so your subscription takes over again.

Which providers work

Claude Code needs an Anthropic Messages endpoint. Five presets have one: kimi-code, moonshot, openrouter, deepseek and zai. The openai and ollama presets do not, and yoink stops with a clear error instead of writing a config that cannot work:

✖ Claude Code: "ollama" has no Anthropic-compatible endpoint, which Claude Code requires.

A custom gateway works when its /v1/messages route answers yoink's probe. The guide to OpenRouter, Kimi, DeepSeek or z.ai in Claude Code walks through each of them.

Disconnect and restore your login

yoink disconnect openrouter --from claude-code removes the seven keys, drops the env block if nothing else is left in it, and marks the saved Claude profile that matches your live login as active. If the provider was not the active one, there is nothing to undo and the file is not touched.

Claude Code gets no settings.json.yoink.bak (Claude Desktop and Goose's provider file don't get one either). yoink only changes these seven keys inside env. If you had set any of them yourself, connecting overwrites them and disconnecting removes them.

Notices and gotchas

• Config directory. When CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR is set, yoink writes settings.json there instead of ~/.claude.
• Settings tracked in git. Dotfiles repositories often track ~/.claude/settings.json. yoink refuses to write an API key into a tracked file and names it; the interactive flow asks first, and yoink connect --allow-tracked writes it anyway.
• Claude Code running. The interactive picker asks before switching while Claude Code is running (default no). A running session keeps the config it loaded, so restart it after any change.
• One project only. The interactive picker offers to write the same seven keys into ./.claude/settings.local.json instead, leaving the global setup alone. See a different provider for one project.
• Import. yoink import reads ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL, ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN and ANTHROPIC_MODEL from the global file, names the provider after the host, and saves it without making it active.

FAQ