deepseek-claude-proxy

A minimal proxy that lets Claude Code use DeepSeek as its backend.

What it does

Claude Code speaks the Anthropic Messages API natively. DeepSeek provides an Anthropic-compatible endpoint at https://api.deepseek.com/anthropic. This proxy sits between them and handles one thing: mapping Claude model names to DeepSeek model names.

Claude Code  →  deepseek-claude-proxy  →  DeepSeek /anthropic
                (model name mapping)

Quick Start

export DEEPSEEK_API_KEY=sk-your-key

# Run directly
npx deepseek-claude-proxy

# Or install globally
npm install -g deepseek-claude-proxy
deepseek-claude-proxy

Then point Claude Code at it:

export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=any-string-works
claude

Docker

echo "DEEPSEEK_API_KEY=sk-your-key" > .env
docker compose up -d

Configuration

All via environment variables:

| Variable | Default | Description | |----------|---------|-------------| | DEEPSEEK_API_KEY | (required) | Your DeepSeek API key | | DEEPSEEK_MODEL | deepseek-v4-pro | Model name to use | | DEEPSEEK_ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL | https://api.deepseek.com/anthropic | DeepSeek Anthropic endpoint | | PROXY_PORT | 8080 | Server port | | PROXY_API_KEY | (optional) | Require this token in client requests |

How it works

The proxy is ~120 lines of TypeScript with zero npm dependencies (Node 20+ only).

When Claude Code sends a request with model: "claude-sonnet-4-6", the proxy replaces it with DEEPSEEK_MODEL (default: deepseek-v4-pro). Non-Claude model names pass through unchanged. Everything else — streaming, tool use, thinking blocks — is forwarded as-is.

Endpoints

| Method | Path | Description | |--------|------|-------------| | POST | /v1/messages | Messages API proxy | | GET | /health | Health check | | GET | /v1/models | Model listing |

Library usage

import { createApp } from "deepseek-claude-proxy";

const server = createApp();
server.listen(8080);

License

MIT