Provider Template
A provider template is a bundled configuration that tells Claude Code which API endpoint to hit, which models to use, and what environment variables to set. Instead of manually configuring each instance, you pick a template and claude-multi handles the rest.
What’s in a template
Each template includes:
- A base URL pointing to the provider’s Anthropic-compatible endpoint
- Model mappings that tell Claude Code which model to use for Sonnet, Opus, and Haiku roles
- Environment variables for timeouts, thinking settings, context limits, and output caps
- A display name and description shown in the TUI
Built-in templates
claude-multi ships with templates for GLM, MiniMax, DeepSeek, OpenRouter, and others. You can see the full list by running claude-multi and selecting “Create instance.”
Custom templates
You can modify templates or create your own by editing src/templates.ts before building, or by changing the environment variables in an instance’s config directory after creation.
Where templates live
Templates are defined in src/templates.ts in the claude-multi source. When you create an instance, the template’s values get written into that instance’s settings.json and shell wrapper script.
Related terms
- Base URL
The API endpoint URL that Claude Code sends requests to. Each provider template sets a different base URL to route traffic to the right service.
- API Key
The authentication token that identifies your account with an LLM provider. Each claude-multi instance stores its own API key in its config directory.
- Model Mapping
The set of environment variables that tell Claude Code which model to use for each role (Sonnet, Opus, Haiku) when working with a non-Anthropic provider.