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