kitty-bridge 0.2.0

Kitty Bridge — launch coding agents through a local API bridge

kitty-bridge

Use your favorite coding agent with any LLM provider.

Claude Code with MiniMax. Codex with GLM. Gemini CLI with OpenRouter. One command.

pip install kitty-bridge

Quick Start

1. Install

pip install kitty-bridge

Requires Python 3.10+.

2. Set up a profile

kitty setup

An interactive wizard walks you through picking a provider, a model, and entering your API key. Takes 30 seconds.

3. Launch your agent

kitty claude      # Claude Code → your provider
kitty codex       # Codex CLI → your provider
kitty gemini      # Gemini CLI → your provider
kitty kilo        # Kilo Code → your provider

That's it. Your coding agent now talks to the LLM you chose — not the one it was built for.

Example: Use GLM with Claude Code

$ pip install kitty-bridge
$ kitty setup
  ? Provider: openai
  ? Model: openai/gpt-5.4-pro
  ? API key: ********

$ kitty claude
  ✓ Bridge running on port <random_port>
  ✓ Claude Code launched
  > Hello! How can I help you today?

Balanced Profiles

A balanced profile combines multiple providers into one. Each request is sent to a randomly chosen healthy provider. If one provider goes down, the others pick up the slack automatically.

Why use it:

• Cost savings — spread requests across cheaper providers
• Rate limit resilience — never hit a single provider's limit
• Fault tolerance — if one provider is down, the others keep working

How to create one:

kitty profile
# → "Create balancing profile" → select 2+ member profiles

Example: Combine MiniMax, Novita, and Z.AI into one balanced profile called my-pool, then use it with any agent:

kitty my-pool claude
kitty my-pool codex

When you run this, each request goes to a random healthy member. If MiniMax returns an error, kitty silently retries on Novita or Z.AI — your agent never sees the failure.

Bridge Mode

Bridge mode starts a standalone OpenAI-compatible API server on your machine. Use it when you want to connect tools that speak the OpenAI API — IDEs, custom scripts, anything that accepts a base URL.

kitty bridge          # use default profile
kitty my-profile bridge   # use a specific profile

Point your tool at http://localhost:<port> and it just works.

Available endpoints:

Endpoint	Protocol	Used by
POST /v1/chat/completions	Chat Completions	General purpose
POST /v1/messages	Anthropic Messages	Claude Code
POST /v1/responses	OpenAI Responses	Codex
POST /v1/gemini/generateContent	Gemini	Gemini CLI
GET /healthz	Health check	Monitoring

Supported Agents

Agent	Command	What it is
Claude Code	kitty claude	Anthropic's coding agent
Codex CLI	kitty codex	OpenAI's coding agent
Gemini CLI	kitty gemini	Google's coding agent
Kilo Code	kitty kilo	Open-source coding agent

Supported Providers

Provider	Type ID	Notes
OpenAI	openai
Anthropic	anthropic	Direct Anthropic Messages API
OpenRouter	openrouter	Multi-provider router
MiniMax	minimax
Novita	novita
Z.AI (regular)	zai_regular	General-purpose endpoint
Z.AI (coding)	zai_coding	Coding-optimized endpoint
Fireworks	fireworks
Ollama	ollama	Local LLM deployment
OpenCode	opencode_go
AWS Bedrock	bedrock	Uses boto3 SigV4 auth
Azure OpenAI	azure	Requires deployment name
Google Vertex AI	vertex	Requires project and location

Commands

Command	Description
kitty setup	Create your first profile (interactive wizard)
kitty profile	Manage profiles (create, delete, set default, list)
kitty doctor	Diagnose installation issues
kitty cleanup	Restore agent config files after a crash
kitty bridge	Start a standalone API server
kitty claude	Launch Claude Code with default profile
kitty codex	Launch Codex with default profile
kitty gemini	Launch Gemini CLI with default profile
kitty kilo	Launch Kilo Code with default profile
kitty <profile> <agent>	Launch an agent with a specific profile
kitty <profile> bridge	Start bridge with a specific profile
kitty --no-validate <profile> <agent>	Skip API key validation
kitty --version	Print version
kitty --help	Print help

Technical Details

How it works

kitty sits between your coding agent and the upstream LLM provider:

Agent (Claude Code / Codex / Gemini / Kilo) → kitty bridge → upstream provider

When you run kitty claude:

1. kitty reads your profile (provider, model, API key)
2. Starts a local HTTP bridge on a random port
3. Configures the agent to send requests to the bridge instead of its default endpoint
4. The bridge translates each request to the provider's format and forwards it
5. Responses are translated back to the agent's native format
6. When the agent exits, kitty restores the agent's config files

Profiles

A profile binds a provider, model, and API key together. Stored in ~/.config/kitty/profiles.json.

kitty setup        # create a profile interactively
kitty profile      # manage existing profiles
kitty my-profile claude  # use a specific profile

Profile names must be 1-32 characters, lowercase letters, numbers, dashes, or underscores. Reserved words like setup, claude, codex, gemini, kilo, profile, bridge cannot be used as profile names.

Pre-flight validation

Before launching, kitty validates your API key with a lightweight test request. If the key is invalid, you get a clear error immediately — not a cryptic failure inside the agent.

kitty --no-validate my-profile claude  # skip validation (e.g. air-gapped/offline environments)

Cleanup

kitty restores agent config files after the agent exits. Three layers of cleanup:

1. Normal exit — finally block
2. Crash / SIGTERM — atexit handler
3. SIGKILL / kernel OOM — run kitty cleanup manually

Project structure

src/kitty/
├── bridge/          # HTTP bridge + protocol translation
├── cli/             # Command-line interface
├── credentials/     # API key storage
├── launchers/       # Agent-specific adapters
├── profiles/        # Profile management
├── providers/       # Upstream provider adapters
├── tui/             # Terminal UI components
└── types.py         # Shared types

FAQ

"API Error: Unable to connect to API (ConnectionRefused)"

The agent is trying to connect to a bridge that isn't running. Usually caused by a stale config from a previous crashed session:

kitty cleanup

"API Error: 401" or "token expired or incorrect"

Your API key has expired or been revoked. Run setup again:

kitty setup

"Prompt exceeds max length" (Z.AI error 1261)

The conversation has grown beyond the model's context window. Use /clear in the agent to reset.

Can I use kitty with Cursor, Windsurf, or other IDEs?

Yes — start a bridge, then point your IDE's "OpenAI base URL" setting at http://localhost:<port>:

kitty bridge
# Then configure your IDE to use http://localhost:<port>/v1/chat/completions

Can I run a local model?

Yes. Install Ollama, pull a model, then create a profile with provider ollama:

kitty setup
# Provider: ollama
# Base URL: http://localhost:11434/v1
# Model: llama3

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest
ruff check .
mypy src/kitty

License

MIT