FAUXCLAW

Real Claude. Fake Bill.
A free AI proxy for Claude Code that scratches your AI itch without scratching your wallet.

Fauxclaw routes Claude Code requests through multiple free providers – AWS CodeWhisperer (Kiro), OpenRouter free tier, iFlow, NVIDIA NIM, Groq, Gemini, DeepSeek, Mistral, and Ollama – with automatic failover, token refresh, and zero configuration beyond the initial setup.

No credit card. No AWS bill. Just Claude.

Quick Start

install, setup, and start

npm install -g fauxclaw && fxc setup && fxc start Or step by step bash

Install globally

npm install -g fauxclaw

Setup providers (Kiro OAuth, API keys)

fxc setup

Start the proxy

fxc start Then point Claude Code (or any Anthropic‑compatible client) to:

export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8083 export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=anything fxc chat That's it. Claude Code now works for free.

What You Get Provider Models Cost Auto Refresh Kiro (AWS CodeWhisperer) Claude Sonnet 4.5, Claude Haiku Free (AWS Builder ID) Yes OpenRouter Claude 3.5 Haiku, GPT-4o mini Free tier No iFlow DeepSeek R1, Qwen, Llama Free (token) No NVIDIA NIM Nemotron, Llama, Qwen Free (40 req/min) No Groq Llama 3.3 70B, Mixtral Free tier No Gemini Gemini 2.0 Flash, 1.5 Pro Free tier No DeepSeek DeepSeek Chat, DeepSeek R1 Free tier No Mistral Mistral Small, Large, Embed Free tier No Ollama Any local model (Llama, Mistral, etc.) Free (local) No Fallback chain: Kiro -> OpenRouter -> iFlow -> NVIDIA -> Groq -> Gemini -> DeepSeek -> Mistral -> Ollama

If one provider fails, rate-limits you, or your token expires, Fauxclaw automatically tries the next one. You won't even notice.

Commands fxc setup # Interactive provider setup fxc start # Start proxy server (for Claude Code) fxc chat # Interactive chat terminal (no Claude Code needed) fxc status # Show token expiry and provider health fxc metrics # Request latency, success rates, provider breakdown fxc doctor # Diagnose system issues and configuration problems fxc purge # Delete expired conversation sessions fxc help # Display this help information All commands are designed to be intuitive. Run fxc setup once, then fxc start forever.

Interactive Chat No Claude Code required. Just run:

fxc chat Or:

fxc c Then type your messages directly. Commands: /help, /clear, /status, /exit

Configuration Environment Variables Optional – most things are stored in ~/.fauxclaw/config.json after setup.

env FXC_PORT=8083 # Port to listen on FXC_HOST=127.0.0.1 # Bind address (use 0.0.0.0 for external access) FXC_API_KEY=your-secret-here # Require this in X-Proxy-Key header FXC_RATE_LIMIT=100 # Requests per minute per IP FXC_LOG=info # debug | info | warn | error FXC_TIMEOUT=30000 # Request timeout in milliseconds FXC_MAX_BUFFER=5242880 # Max buffer size for streaming (5MB) Config File Location All tokens, OAuth secrets, and API keys are stored in:

~/.fauxclaw/config.json Permissions are set to 0600 (owner read/write only) because it contains sensitive data.

How It Works Claude Code sends a request to http://localhost:8083/v1/messages

Fauxclaw tries providers in order:

Kiro – Uses AWS Builder ID OAuth device flow. Tokens refresh automatically every hour.

OpenRouter – Forwards to :free models. Requires a free API key.

iFlow – Adds HMAC signature and session headers. Requires a free token.

NVIDIA NIM – OpenAI‑compatible, free 40 requests per minute.

Groq – OpenAI‑compatible, fast free tier.

Gemini – OpenAI‑compatible, free tier via Google AI Studio.

DeepSeek – Anthropic‑compatible, free tier.

Mistral – OpenAI‑compatible, free tier.

Ollama – Local inference, completely free and offline.

If streaming (Claude Code streams by default), Fauxclaw translates:

Kiro's binary AWS EventStream -> Anthropic SSE

OpenAI‑compatible providers -> Anthropic SSE

If a provider fails, the circuit breaker opens for 60 seconds to avoid hammering it.

Your Claude session continues like nothing happened.

Web Dashboard Start the proxy, then open: http://localhost:8083/dashboard

Shows real-time metrics, provider status, and request statistics.

FAQ Is this legal? Yes. You're using AWS CodeWhisperer's free tier exactly as AWS intended – with your own AWS Builder ID. Fauxclaw is just a translation layer. No AWS ToS violation. No credit card required. No "hacks".

Do I need an AWS account? Yes, a free one. You'll authenticate once via https://view.awsapps.com/start during fxc setup. No billing info required.

Can I use this in production? Please don't. This is a weekend project held together by reverse‑engineered API calls and hope. But if you really want to:

Enable FXC_API_KEY for authentication

Bind to 127.0.0.1 (default) or put it behind a VPN

Add a reverse proxy with HTTPS (Caddy is free)

Monitor the logs – things will break

How long do Kiro tokens last? About 1 hour. But Fauxclaw automatically refreshes them in the background. You'll never see an expiry error.

Why "Fauxclaw"? Because it's a fake (faux) Claw (Claude/Claw Code) – and lobsters have claws. Also, "Fauxclaw" sounds like "faux claw", which is what you use when you don't have real claws. I'm not good at naming things, but here we are.

Does this work with other Anthropic clients? Yes. Any client that speaks the Anthropic Messages API (Claude Code, LibreChat, TypingMind, custom scripts) will work. Just point them to http://localhost:8083.

Contributing See BUILDME.md for:

Development setup (Node.js 18+)

Project structure (where everything lives)

Adding a new provider (step by step)

Debugging tips (binary frame hell)

Testing manually (curl commands)

Pull request guidelines

Short version: Keep it dependency‑free. No TypeScript. No build step. Test your changes.

License Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL-2.0)

This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this file, You can obtain one at https://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.

What this means for you:

Use Fauxclaw for anything – personal, commercial, internal

Modify it, but share your changes to the Fauxclaw codebase

Include it in proprietary software, as long as you don't modify Fauxclaw itself

Sell a service powered by Fauxclaw, no problem

Close-source your modifications to Fauxclaw, share them back

See the full license text for details.

Credits Fauxclaw stands on the shoulders of reverse‑engineered giants:

free-claude-code – Proxy architecture, model routing

9router – Kiro executor, token refresh

claudecodeui – Session management patterns

And a lot of staring at binary EventStream dumps at 3:42 AM.

npm install -g fauxclaw && fxc setup && fxc start

"Fake it till you make it, but today you made it."