unstream-proxy

Some Anthropic-compatible API relays are broken. They don't stream responses properly, tool calls come back garbled, and the token counts they report are inflated enough to wreck your client's context window. unstream-proxy sits between your client (Claude Code, for example) and the relay, and fixes that.

It's a single Python file with no dependencies. If you have Python, you can run it.

What it fixes

• Streaming: rebuilds broken or missing streams into a proper Anthropic event stream
• Tool calls: routes them natively where the relay supports it, text fallback otherwise
• Token counts: corrects the relay's inflated numbers so your context window stays honest
• Your API key passes straight through, so nothing secret is stored

Requirements

• Python 3.8 or newer (check with python3 --version)
• An upstream relay URL and a working API key for it

Setup

1. Get the code

git clone https://github.com/Fanorisky/unstream-proxy.git
cd unstream-proxy

2. Point it at your relay

Open config.json and set TARGET_URL to your relay's base URL:

"TARGET_URL": "https://your-relay-url.example.com"

Leave API_KEY empty. Your client sends its own key and the proxy forwards it.

3. Start it

The simplest way, which runs until you press Ctrl+C:

python3 Proxy.py

You should see:

proxy listening on http://127.0.0.1:8181 -> https://your-relay-url.example.com

The proxy is now running on port 8181.

Connect your client

Tell your client to talk to the proxy instead of the relay directly. For Claude Code, add this to ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "http://127.0.0.1:8181",
    "ANTHROPIC_MODEL": "claude-opus-4-8",
    "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "your-real-relay-key"
  }
}

• ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL is the proxy's address. Keep it as is.
• ANTHROPIC_MODEL is whatever model name your relay serves.
• ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is your real key for the relay. The proxy forwards it.

Restart your client and you're done.

Keep it running in the background (optional)

If you want the proxy to stay up and restart on reboot, use pm2:

npm install -g pm2       # one-time
pm2 start config.json    # start
pm2 logs anthropic-proxy # watch logs
pm2 stop anthropic-proxy # stop

Options

Set these as environment variables, or in config.json under env:

variable	default	meaning
PORT	8181	port the proxy listens on
HOST	127.0.0.1	bind address (keep it local unless you know what you're doing)
TARGET_URL	(none)	your relay's base URL
API_KEY	(empty)	optional fallback key, used only if the client sends none

Troubleshooting

• 401 or "invalid key": the key in your client config is wrong or empty. The proxy forwards whatever the client sends, so that key has to be valid for the relay.
• Everything goes to the wrong server: you forgot to change TARGET_URL.
• Client ignores the proxy: env in settings.json overrides your shell, so make sure ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL there points at http://127.0.0.1:8181.

Security

The proxy has no authentication of its own. Keep HOST set to 127.0.0.1 so only your own machine can reach it. Anyone who can reach the port can use your relay key.