Claude Code’s body, DeepSeek’s brain, 17× cheaper

What it does

deepclaude is a thin proxy and shell wrapper that tricks Claude Code into talking to cheaper, Anthropic-compatible backends instead of the official API. It leaves the agent loop, file editing, bash execution, and subagent spawning untouched; only the model receiving the prompts changes. The README claims the swap drops output pricing from $15 per million tokens to $0.87, and that routine coding tasks remain comparable to Claude Opus.

The interesting bit

The clever part isn’t the redirection—it’s the live switching. A local proxy on localhost:3200 intercepts API calls and lets you toggle between DeepSeek, OpenRouter, Fireworks AI, or Anthropic mid-session without restarting Claude Code, either via slash commands or keyboard shortcuts. It even tracks token spend and estimated savings against Anthropic’s list price in real time.

Key highlights

• Keeps Claude Code’s full autonomous agent loop, tool use, and git integration intact
• Supports DeepSeek V4 Pro (default), OpenRouter, Fireworks AI, or fallback to Anthropic Opus
• Live backend switching mid-session via proxy control endpoint
• Built-in cost tracking comparing actual spend vs. Anthropic’s $200/month capped plan
• Remote-control mode runs the agent in a browser while still using the cheaper backend for inference

Caveats

• Vision and image input are unsupported because DeepSeek’s Anthropic-compatible endpoint lacks them
• MCP server tools do not work through the compatibility layer
• Complex reasoning tasks (the top 20%, per the README) still lag behind Claude Opus, so you’ll want to keep the --backend anthropic escape hatch handy

Verdict

Worth a look if you’re already paying for Claude Code and want to burn API credits at roughly one-seventeenth the price on everyday tasks. Skip it if you rely heavily on vision inputs, MCP servers, or refuse to run a local Node proxy.