Claude Subscription Provider

Use your existing Claude Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise subscription to access Claude models through SwarmLLM — no API key or per-token charges needed.

Feature-gated: Build with --features claude-subscription to enable. This feature is isolated behind a compile-time flag for easy removal.

How It Works

When enabled, SwarmLLM spawns the claude CLI as a subprocess for each Claude model request:

Client Request (OpenAI or Anthropic format)
  → SwarmLLM API (openai.rs / anthropic/mod.rs)
    → Provider resolution: model starts with "claude-"
      → Claude subscription enabled? → Spawn subprocess
      → Else: use Anthropic API key (existing behavior)
    → claude -p --output-format stream-json --model <model> "<prompt>"
    → Parse NDJSON → Translate to API format → Return response

Both the OpenAI (/v1/chat/completions) and Anthropic (/v1/messages) endpoints are supported, with streaming and non-streaming modes.

Setup

1. Install the Claude CLI

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

2. Log in with your subscription

claude login

This opens a browser window. Sign in with your Claude Pro/Max/Team/Enterprise account.

3. Build SwarmLLM with the feature

cargo build --no-default-features --features dev,claude-subscription

4. Enable via the dashboard

Open Settings → Cloud Providers → Claude Subscription, click "Check Status" to verify your CLI is detected, then enable the toggle.

Or via API:

curl -X PUT http://localhost:8800/api/admin/providers \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <your-api-key>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"claude_subscription_enabled": true}'

5. Send requests

# OpenAI format
curl http://localhost:8800/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <your-api-key>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "claude-sonnet-4-6",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}],
    "stream": true
  }'

# Anthropic format
curl http://localhost:8800/v1/messages \
  -H "x-api-key: <your-api-key>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "claude-sonnet-4-6",
    "max_tokens": 100,
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}],
    "stream": true
  }'

Multi-Turn Conversations

Multi-turn conversations work by serializing the full message history into the prompt on each request. The format uses XML tags that Claude understands natively:

System messages → <system>...</system>
Assistant messages → <previous_response>...</previous_response>
User messages → bare text

This is the same stateless approach used by OpenAI-compatible APIs — the client sends the full conversation every time, and the server doesn't maintain session state.

Configuration

All configuration is in the providers.claude_subscription section, manageable via the admin API or dashboard:

Field	Default	Description
`enabled`	`false`	Route Claude requests through the CLI
`claude_binary`	`"claude"`	Path to the `claude` binary
`default_model`	(from request)	Override model for all requests
`max_concurrent`	`3`	Max concurrent subprocess invocations
`timeout_secs`	`300`	Timeout per request (seconds)
`working_dir`	(system temp)	Working directory for the subprocess

By default, the subprocess runs in the system temp directory to avoid loading project-specific CLAUDE.md files, hooks, and MCP servers. Set working_dir to a project path if you want Claude to have project context for its responses.

Routing Priority

When a claude-* model is requested:

Claude subscription (if enabled and CLI detected) — subprocess path, uses subscription
Anthropic API key (if configured) — direct API proxy, pay-per-token
Error — no provider available

The subscription provider takes priority over the API key. Disable the subscription toggle to fall back to API key billing.

Rate Limits

Subscription rate limits are per rolling 5-hour window (not per-second RPM like API keys). The concurrency limiter (default 3) prevents spawning too many concurrent processes. Community reports suggest ~3-5 parallel Opus sessions before degradation.

Rate limit info is returned in the NDJSON output and logged. The GET /api/admin/claude-subscription/status endpoint shows the current rate limit tier.

Removal

If this feature needs to be removed:

git rm src/api/claude_sub.rs
# Remove "claude-subscription = []" from Cargo.toml
grep -rn 'claude.subscription\|claude_sub' src/ frontend/
# Remove the ~6 #[cfg] blocks found by grep

Single commit, clean removal. No deep dependencies on the rest of the codebase.

SwarmLLM Documentation