Use your Claude Pro/Max subscription to power OpenClaw, OpenCode, Cline, and any OpenAI-compatible IDE — $0 API cost

#ai #programming #productivity #opensource

You're already paying for Claude. Why pay again for the API?

If you have a Claude Pro ($20/mo) or Max ($100-200/mo) subscription, you already have access to Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku. But most AI-powered IDEs and agent frameworks want an API key — which means paying a second time at $15/MTok for Opus.

OCP (OpenClaw Claude Proxy) solves this. It exposes your Claude subscription as a standard OpenAI-compatible API on localhost. Any tool that speaks the OpenAI protocol can use it:

OpenClaw — multi-agent orchestration
OpenCode — AI coding assistant
Cline — VS Code AI extension
Continue.dev — open-source AI assistant
Aider — AI pair programming
Any tool that accepts an OpenAI base URL

One subscription. Multiple instances. All IDEs. $0 extra.

How It Works

Your IDE / Agent → OCP (localhost:3456) → claude CLI → Anthropic (via your subscription)

OCP translates OpenAI-compatible /v1/chat/completions requests into claude -p CLI calls. Anthropic sees normal Claude Code usage under your existing subscription. No separate API key needed.

# Point any OpenAI-compatible tool at OCP
export OPENAI_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:3456/v1
export OPENAI_API_KEY=dummy  # OCP doesn't need a real key

Setup in 60 Seconds

# Prerequisites: Node.js 18+, Claude CLI installed & authenticated
git clone https://github.com/dtzp555-max/openclaw-claude-proxy
cd openclaw-claude-proxy
node setup.mjs    # auto-configures + installs as system service

That's it. The proxy runs as a daemon (launchd on macOS, systemd on Linux), auto-starts on boot, and auto-recovers from crashes. Your IDE doesn't know the difference — it just sees an OpenAI API.

Monitor Your Usage in Real Time

With a Max subscription shared across multiple IDEs and agents, you need to know where you stand. The built-in ocp CLI gives you instant visibility:

$ ocp usage
Plan Usage Limits
─────────────────────────────────────
  Current session       3% used
                      Resets in 4h 32m  (Tue, Mar 24, 10:00 PM)

  Weekly (all models)   3% used
                      Resets in 6d 6h  (Tue, Mar 31, 12:00 AM)

  Extra usage         off

Model Stats
Model          Req   OK  Er  AvgT  MaxT  AvgP  MaxP
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
haiku            1    1   0    6s    6s     0K    0K
opus             2    2   0   20s   26s   42K   43K
sonnet           2    2   0   24s   24s   41K   41K
Total            5

Proxy: up 0h 37m | 5 reqs | 0 err | 0 timeout

See your session utilization, weekly limits, per-model request stats, response times, and prompt sizes — all at a glance.

If you use OpenClaw with Telegram or Discord, these commands also work as native slash commands: /ocp usage, /ocp status, /ocp settings.

Tune Settings Without Restart

Running Opus with large prompts? Bump the timeout. Too many concurrent agents? Cap the limit. All at runtime:

$ ocp settings maxPromptChars 200000
✓ maxPromptChars = 200000

$ ocp settings tiers.opus.base 180000
✓ tiers.opus.base = 180000

Tunable parameters: timeout, firstByteTimeout, maxConcurrent, sessionTTL, maxPromptChars, and per-model timeout tiers.

Available Models

Model ID	Maps to	Notes
`claude-opus-4-6`	Claude Opus 4.6	Most capable
`claude-sonnet-4-6`	Claude Sonnet 4.6	Best speed/quality balance
`claude-haiku-4`	Claude Haiku 4.5	Fastest, lightweight tasks

All OCP Commands

ocp usage              Session/weekly limits & model stats
ocp status             Quick health overview
ocp health             Full proxy diagnostics
ocp settings           View all tunable parameters
ocp settings <k> <v>   Change a setting at runtime
ocp logs [N] [level]   Recent proxy logs
ocp models             List available models
ocp sessions           Active CLI sessions
ocp clear              Clear all sessions
ocp restart            Restart proxy or gateway

Multi-Instance Sharing

The real power: one proxy, multiple consumers. I run 6 OpenClaw agents + Claude Code interactive sessions, all hitting the same OCP instance on localhost:3456. The proxy handles concurrency (default: 8 parallel requests), session management, and adaptive timeouts per model.

OpenClaw Agent 1 (Sonnet) ──┐
OpenClaw Agent 2 (Opus)  ───┤
OpenCode (Sonnet)        ───┼──→ OCP :3456 ──→ claude CLI ──→ Your subscription
Cline (Haiku)            ───┤
Aider (Sonnet)           ───┘

All sharing the same Max subscription. Check ocp usage anytime to see how much headroom you have.

Built-in Safety

Prompt truncation — auto-caps prompts at 150K chars to prevent runaway context from eating your quota
Adaptive timeouts — Opus gets 150s, Sonnet 120s, Haiku 45s base first-byte timeout, scaling with prompt size
Localhost only — binds to 127.0.0.1, not exposed to the network
Optional Bearer auth — set PROXY_API_KEY if you want token protection

Try It

git clone https://github.com/dtzp555-max/openclaw-claude-proxy
cd openclaw-claude-proxy
node setup.mjs
ln -sf $(pwd)/ocp /usr/local/bin/ocp
ocp usage   # see your subscription status