Clother

One CLI to switch between Claude Code providers instantly.

Switching Claude Code providers usually means changing env vars, endpoints, models, and launcher scripts by hand. Clother gives you one install and one command pattern across Claude, Z.AI, Kimi, Alibaba, OpenRouter, local backends, China endpoints, and many other Anthropic-compatible providers.

• Installation
• Core Usage
• Provider Reference
• Troubleshooting
• VS Code Integration
• Platform Support
• Under the Hood
• Contributors
• Star History
• License

# 1. Install Claude Code CLI
curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

# 2. Install Clother via tap
brew tap jolehuit/tap
brew install clother

# 3. Start using it — all launchers are ready immediately
clother-native                          # Use your Claude Pro/Max/Team subscription
clother-zai                             # Z.AI (GLM-5)
clother-zai --yolo                      # Skip permission prompts
clother-kimi                            # Kimi (kimi-k2.5)
clother config                          # Configure providers

All clother-* provider launchers are installed directly into $(brew --prefix)/bin by the formula — no extra setup needed. brew upgrade clother keeps everything up to date.

Update:

clother update          # routes to brew upgrade under Homebrew
# or equivalently:
brew upgrade clother

# 1. Install Claude Code CLI
curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

# 2. Install Clother
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jolehuit/clother/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

# 3. Start using it
clother-native                          # Use your Claude Pro/Max/Team subscription
clother-zai                             # Z.AI (GLM-5)
clother-zai --yolo                      # Skip permission prompts
clother-kimi                            # Kimi (kimi-k2.5)
clother-ollama --model qwen3-coder      # Local with Ollama
clother config                          # Configure providers

Update:

clother update          # downloads and installs latest release

This installs:

• clother
• clother-* provider launchers
• resume compatibility for claude --resume ...

By default, Clother installs launchers to:

• the same directory as your existing claude binary, when claude is already on PATH
• otherwise macOS: ~/bin
• otherwise Linux: ~/.local/bin (XDG standard)

If the chosen bin directory is not on PATH, clother install prints a warning with the exact directory to add.

You can override this with --bin-dir or the CLOTHER_BIN environment variable:

# Using --bin-dir flag
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jolehuit/clother/main/scripts/install.sh | bash -s -- --bin-dir ~/.local/bin

# Using environment variable
export CLOTHER_BIN="$HOME/.local/bin"
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jolehuit/clother/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Clother keeps claude --resume ... working with Clother features after install.

clother update

Routes to brew upgrade clother under Homebrew, or downloads the latest release for curl installs. Also refreshes provider symlinks.

Each provider launcher comes with a default model (for example glm-5 for Z.AI). You can override it in two ways:

# One-time: pass --model through to Claude CLI
clother-zai --model glm-4.7

# Permanent: configure the provider and pick a different default
clother config zai

Use clother info <provider> to inspect the resolved model.

Clother keeps the resume command printed by Claude Code working across providers.

After a provider-launched session, Clother also prints a provider-aware reopen command such as:

clother-kimi --resume <session-id>

When resuming a non-Claude session into native Claude, Clother temporarily sanitizes incompatible non-Claude thinking blocks for the duration of that single launch, then restores the original session file afterwards.

OpenRouter launchers follow the clother-or-<alias> naming pattern. For example, if you alias moonshotai/kimi-k2.5 to kimi-k25, the launcher becomes clother-or-kimi-k25.

clother config openrouter               # Set API key + add models
# Example: alias moonshotai/kimi-k2.5 as kimi-k25
clother-or-kimi-k25                     # Use it

Tip: Find model IDs on openrouter.ai/models — click the copy icon next to any model name.

If a model doesn't work as expected, try the :exacto variant (e.g. moonshotai/kimi-k2-0905:exacto) which provides better tool calling support.

# Ollama
ollama pull qwen3-coder && ollama serve
clother-ollama --model qwen3-coder

# LM Studio
clother-lmstudio --model <model>

# llama.cpp
./llama-server --model model.gguf --port 8000 --jinja
clother-llamacpp --model <model>

clother config custom
clother-myprovider                      # Ready

All Alibaba variants (alibaba, alibaba-us, alibaba-cn) share the same API key and support these models:

Switch models with --model:

clother-alibaba --model kimi-k2.5
clother-alibaba --model glm-5
clother-alibaba-cn --model qwen3-coder-next

Clother works with the official Claude Code extension. Use Claude Code extension 2.6+.

To configure it:

1. Open VS Code Settings (Cmd+, or Ctrl+,).
2. Search for "Claude Process Wrapper" (claudeProcessWrapper).
3. Set it to the full path of your chosen launcher:
   • macOS: /Users/yourname/bin/clother-zai
   • Linux: /home/yourname/.local/bin/clother-zai
4. Reload VS Code.

Note: Requires Clother v2.6+ (which handles non-interactive shell output correctly).

macOS (zsh/bash) • Linux (zsh/bash) • Windows (WSL)

Clother is a single Go binary. The installer downloads the release artifact, installs clother into your bin directory, then creates:

• clother-* symlinks for providers
• a claude shim symlink for resume compatibility

At runtime, the binary resolves the selected profile from its own invocation name, loads config and secrets, sets the required Anthropic-compatible environment variables, then launches the real Claude binary outside the Clother bin directory.

Example for clother-zai:

export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="https://api.z.ai/api/anthropic"
export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN="$ZAI_API_KEY"
exec /path/to/the/real/claude "$@"

API keys stored in ~/.local/share/clother/secrets.env (chmod 600).

--yolo is accepted by Clother launchers and by the Clother claude shim as shorthand for --dangerously-skip-permissions.

Test the binary installer locally against a local directory or server:

CLOTHER_RELEASE_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8000 \
  ./scripts/install.sh install

• @darkokoa — China endpoints
• @RawToast — Kimi endpoint fix
• @sammcj — Security hardening
• @aprakasa — Linux compatibility fixes in load_secrets()
• @luciano-fiandesio — Install directory improvement (issue)

MIT © jolehuit