cc-gateway

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Alpha — This project is under active development. Test with a non-primary account first.

Disclaimer — See full disclaimer below.

Why

Claude Code collects 640+ telemetry event types across 3 parallel channels, fingerprints your machine with 40+ environment dimensions, and phones home every 5 seconds. Your device ID, email, OS version, installed runtimes, shell type, CPU architecture, and physical RAM are all reported to the vendor — continuously.

If you run Claude Code on multiple machines, each device gets a unique permanent identifier. There is no built-in way to manage how your identity is presented to the API.

CC Gateway is a reverse proxy that sits between Claude Code and the Anthropic API. It normalizes device identity, environment fingerprints, and process metrics to a single canonical profile — giving you control over what telemetry leaves your network.

Features

• Full identity rewrite — device ID, email, session metadata, and the user_id JSON blob in every API request are normalized to one canonical identity
• 40+ environment dimensions replaced — platform, architecture, Node.js version, terminal, package managers, runtimes, CI flags, deployment environment — the entire env object is swapped, not patched
• System prompt sanitization — the <env> block injected into every prompt (Platform, Shell, OS Version, working directory) is rewritten to match the canonical profile
• Billing header stripped — the x-anthropic-billing-header (which contains a per-session fingerprint hash) is removed entirely, consistent with the official CLAUDE_CODE_ATTRIBUTION_HEADER=false toggle. This also enables cross-session prompt cache sharing, reducing system prompt costs by ~85%
• Process metrics normalization — physical RAM (constrainedMemory), heap size, and RSS are masked to canonical values so hardware differences don't leak
• Zero-login client setup — clients receive a single launcher script. No browser OAuth, no ~/.zshrc changes, no config files
• Centralized OAuth — the gateway manages token refresh internally; client machines never contact platform.claude.com
• Instant startup — gateway uses your existing access token on launch. No network call until the token actually expires
• Proxy-aware — supports HTTPS_PROXY / HTTP_PROXY env vars for outbound connections (Clash, V2Ray, etc.)
• Telemetry leak prevention — strips baseUrl and gateway fields that would reveal proxy usage in analytics events

Quick Start

One command. Requires Node.js 22+ and an existing Claude Code login on this machine.

git clone https://github.com/motiful/cc-gateway.git
cd cc-gateway
npm install
bash scripts/quick-setup.sh

This will:

1. Extract your OAuth credentials from macOS Keychain (access token + refresh token)
2. Generate a canonical device identity and client token
3. Write config.yaml
4. Generate a client launcher at ./clients/cc-<hostname>
5. Start the gateway on http://localhost:8443

Use it

In another terminal:

./clients/cc-<hostname>

That's it. Claude Code launches, traffic routes through the gateway. No env vars to set, no files to edit.

Behind a proxy?

HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:7890 bash scripts/quick-setup.sh

The gateway will route all outbound traffic (API calls + token refresh) through your proxy.

Add Clients

Each person gets their own launcher script with a unique token. The admin generates it:

bash scripts/add-client.sh alice
bash scripts/add-client.sh bob

This creates ./clients/cc-alice and ./clients/cc-bob. Send each file to the respective person.

Client setup (what you tell them)

chmod +x cc-alice
./cc-alice install        # installs as 'ccg' command
ccg                       # start Claude Code through gateway

That's it. All Claude arguments work: ccg --print "hello", ccg --resume, etc.

Optional: make claude go through gateway too

ccg hijack                # alias claude → ccg (new terminals auto-apply)
claude                    # now goes through gateway
ccg release               # undo — restore native claude

All commands

ccg                       Start Claude Code through gateway
ccg install               Install as 'ccg' system command
ccg uninstall             Remove 'ccg' and clean up
ccg hijack                Make 'claude' also go through gateway
ccg release               Restore 'claude' to native
ccg native [args]         Run native claude once (bypass gateway)
ccg status                Show gateway connection and hijack status
ccg help                  Show help

ccg and claude coexist by default. Hijack is opt-in and reversible. Supports zsh, bash, and fish.

What Gets Rewritten

Layer Field Action Identity device_id in metadata + events → canonical ID email → canonical email Environment env object (40+ fields) → entire object replaced Process constrainedMemory (physical RAM) → canonical value rss, heapTotal, heapUsed → randomized in realistic range Headers User-Agent → canonical CC version x-api-key → real OAuth token (injected by gateway) x-anthropic-billing-header → stripped Prompt text Platform, Shell, OS Version → canonical values Working directory → canonical path /Users/xxx/, /home/xxx/ → canonical home prefix Billing x-anthropic-billing-header system block → stripped entirely Leak fields baseUrl (ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL) → stripped gateway (provider detection) → stripped

Deployment

Local (development)

npm run dev    # tsx watch, auto-reload

Docker (production)

bash scripts/admin-setup.sh

This interactive script:

1. Extracts OAuth credentials
2. Generates config + first client launcher
3. Builds and starts the Docker container
4. Asks for the gateway address clients should connect to

After setup, add more clients with:

bash scripts/add-client.sh <name>
# Restart to pick up new tokens:
docker compose restart

Multi-machine deployment

Mac-A ──┐
Mac-B ──┼──→ gateway-server:8443 ──→ api.anthropic.com
Mac-C ──┘

Important: All machines — including the admin — should use the gateway. Direct connections from the admin machine would create a second device fingerprint visible to Anthropic.

For remote deployment, generate TLS certificates:

mkdir certs
openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 \
  -keyout certs/key.pem -out certs/cert.pem \
  -days 365 -nodes -subj "/CN=cc-gateway"

Uncomment the tls section in config.yaml, then generate client launchers pointing to the server address:

bash scripts/add-client.sh alice "" <gateway-ip>:8443 https

Alternative: Tailscale (zero config networking)

If all devices have Tailscale installed, run the gateway on any machine in the mesh. No TLS needed (Tailscale encrypts the tunnel), no public IP needed, no port forwarding.

Architecture

…

Defense in depth:

Layer Mechanism What it prevents Launcher env vars ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL + DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL + ATTRIBUTION_HEADER=false CC voluntarily routes to gateway, disables side channels, skips billing hash Clash (optional) Domain-based REJECT rules Any accidental or future direct connections to Anthropic Gateway Body + header + prompt rewriting All 40+ fingerprint dimensions normalized to one device

OAuth Lifecycle

The gateway manages the full OAuth token lifecycle:

1. Startup — uses the existing access token from your keychain. Zero network calls.
2. Auto-refresh — 5 minutes before expiry, the gateway silently refreshes via platform.claude.com.
3. Continuous — refresh tokens rotate automatically. The gateway runs indefinitely without admin intervention.
4. Failure recovery — if a refresh fails, retries every 30 seconds. Only a refresh token expiry (rare, months) requires re-running extract-token.sh.

Clients never contact platform.claude.com. They send requests to the gateway with their client token; the gateway injects the real OAuth token before forwarding upstream.

Clash Rules

Optional network-level safety net. Even if Claude Code bypasses env vars or adds new hardcoded endpoints in a future update, Clash blocks direct connections.

rules:
  - DOMAIN,gateway.your-domain.com,DIRECT    # Allow gateway
  - DOMAIN-SUFFIX,anthropic.com,REJECT        # Block direct API
  - DOMAIN-SUFFIX,claude.com,REJECT           # Block OAuth
  - DOMAIN-SUFFIX,claude.ai,REJECT            # Block OAuth
  - DOMAIN-SUFFIX,datadoghq.com,REJECT        # Block telemetry

See clash-rules.yaml for the full template.

Caveats

• MCP servers — mcp-proxy.anthropic.com is hardcoded and does not follow ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL. If clients use official MCP servers, those requests bypass the gateway. Use Clash to block this domain if MCP is not needed.
• CC updates — New Claude Code versions may introduce new telemetry fields or endpoints. Monitor Clash REJECT logs for unexpected connection attempts after upgrades.
• Token lifecycle — The gateway auto-refreshes the OAuth access token. If the underlying refresh token expires (rare), re-run extract-token.sh on the admin machine.

Changelog

v0.2.0 (2026-04-02)

Billing header strategy overhaul

• Stripped the x-anthropic-billing-header entirely (system prompt block + HTTP header) instead of rewriting the hash. This is consistent with the official CLAUDE_CODE_ATTRIBUTION_HEADER=false env var and enables cross-session prompt cache sharing (~85% cost reduction on system prompt).
• The CCH hash algorithm (reverse-engineered from cli.js) is implemented as a fallback but not active by default.

Zero-login client setup

• New add-client.sh generates self-contained launcher scripts (./clients/cc-<name>). Clients run one file — no ~/.zshrc changes, no config files, no browser login.
• Launcher uses ANTHROPIC_API_KEY for gateway auth instead of the fragile CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN + ANTHROPIC_CUSTOM_HEADERS approach.

Instant gateway startup

• OAuth now uses the existing access token from Keychain on launch. No network call until the token actually needs refreshing.
• config.yaml supports access_token + expires_at fields alongside refresh_token.

Proxy support

• Gateway respects HTTPS_PROXY / HTTP_PROXY / ALL_PROXY env vars for all outbound connections (API calls + token refresh).

Observability

• Connection-level request logging: every inbound request is logged with client IP before auth, and client name after auth.

Admin tooling

• admin-setup.sh — interactive Docker deployment with credential extraction and client generation.
• quick-setup.sh — one-command local setup that extracts full credentials (access + refresh + expiry).

v0.1.0 (2026-04-01)

Initial release. Identity rewriting, environment normalization, centralized OAuth, SSE passthrough.

References

This project builds on:

• Claude Code 封号机制深度探查报告 — Reverse-engineering analysis of Claude Code's 640+ telemetry events, 40+ fingerprint dimensions, and ban detection mechanisms
• cc-cache-audit — A/B test proving the billing header breaks prompt cache sharing, with the one-line fix
• instructkr/claude-code — Deobfuscated Claude Code source used for the telemetry audit

Star History

Why This Exists

I pay Anthropic $200/month. I have for almost a year.

I own a laptop, a desktop, and a tablet. Three d