Skip to main content

A lightweight proxy server that converts Anthropic Messages API to OpenAI API

Project description

local-openai2anthropic

Python 3.12+ License: Apache 2.0 PyPI

English | 中文

A lightweight proxy that lets applications built with Claude SDK talk to locally-hosted OpenAI-compatible LLMs.


What Problem This Solves

Many local LLM tools (vLLM, SGLang, etc.) provide an OpenAI-compatible API. But if you've built your app using Anthropic's Claude SDK, you can't use them directly.

This proxy translates Claude SDK calls to OpenAI API format in real-time, enabling:

  • Local LLM inference with Claude-based apps
  • Offline development without cloud API costs
  • Privacy-first AI - data never leaves your machine
  • Seamless model switching between cloud and local
  • Web Search tool - built-in Tavily web search for local models

Supported Local Backends

Currently tested and supported:

Backend Description Status
vLLM High-throughput LLM inference ✅ Fully supported
SGLang Fast structured language model serving ✅ Fully supported

Other OpenAI-compatible backends may work but are not fully tested.


Quick Start

1. Install

pip install local-openai2anthropic

2. Configure Your LLM Backend (Optional)

Option A: Start a local LLM server

If you don't have an LLM server running, you can start one locally:

Example with vLLM:

vllm serve meta-llama/Llama-2-7b-chat-hf
# vLLM starts OpenAI-compatible API at http://localhost:8000/v1

Or with SGLang:

sglang launch --model-path meta-llama/Llama-2-7b-chat-hf --port 8000
# SGLang starts at http://localhost:8000/v1

Option B: Use an existing OpenAI-compatible API

If you already have a deployed OpenAI-compatible API (local or remote), you can use it directly. Just note the base URL for the next step.

Examples:

  • Local vLLM/SGLang: http://localhost:8000/v1
  • Remote API: https://api.example.com/v1

Note: If you're using Ollama, it natively supports the Anthropic API format, so you don't need this proxy. Just point your Claude SDK directly to http://localhost:11434/v1.

3. Start the Proxy (Recommended)

Run the following command to start the proxy in background mode:

oa2a start

First-time setup: If ~/.oa2a/config.toml doesn't exist, an interactive setup wizard will guide you through:

  • Enter your OpenAI API Key (for the local LLM backend)
  • Enter the base URL of your local LLM (e.g., http://localhost:8000/v1)
  • Configure server host and port (optional)
  • Set server API key for authentication (optional)

After configuration, the server starts at http://localhost:8080.

Daemon management commands:

oa2a logs               # Show last 50 lines of logs
oa2a logs -f            # Follow logs in real-time (Ctrl+C to exit)
oa2a status             # Check if server is running
oa2a stop               # Stop background server
oa2a restart            # Restart with same settings

Manual Configuration

You can also manually create/edit the config file at ~/.oa2a/config.toml:

# OA2A Configuration File
openai_api_key = "dummy"
openai_base_url = "http://localhost:8000/v1"
host = "0.0.0.0"
port = 8080

Option B: Run in foreground

oa2a                    # Run server in foreground (blocking)
# Press Ctrl+C to stop

4. Use in Your App

import anthropic

client = anthropic.Anthropic(
    base_url="http://localhost:8080",  # Point to proxy
    api_key="dummy-key",  # Not used
)

message = client.messages.create(
    model="meta-llama/Llama-2-7b-chat-hf",  # Your local model name
    max_tokens=1024,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}],
)

print(message.content[0].text)

Using with Claude Code

You can configure Claude Code to use your local LLM through this proxy.

Configuration Steps

  1. Edit Claude Code config file at ~/.claude/settings.json:
{
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "http://localhost:8080",
    "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "dummy-key",
    "ANTHROPIC_MODEL": "meta-llama/Llama-2-7b-chat-hf",
    "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL": "meta-llama/Llama-2-7b-chat-hf",
    "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL": "meta-llama/Llama-2-7b-chat-hf",
    "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL": "meta-llama/Llama-2-7b-chat-hf",
    "ANTHROPIC_REASONING_MODEL": "meta-llama/Llama-2-7b-chat-hf"
  }
}
Variable Description
ANTHROPIC_MODEL General model setting
ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL Default model for Sonnet mode (Claude Code default)
ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL Default model for Opus mode
ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL Default model for Haiku mode
ANTHROPIC_REASONING_MODEL Default model for reasoning tasks

Complete Workflow Example

Make sure ~/.claude/settings.json is configured as described above.

Terminal 1 - Start your local LLM:

vllm serve meta-llama/Llama-2-7b-chat-hf

Terminal 2 - Start the proxy (background mode):

# First run: interactive setup wizard will guide you
oa2a start

Terminal 3 - Launch Claude Code:

claude

Now Claude Code will use your local LLM instead of the cloud API.

To stop the proxy:

oa2a stop

Features

  • Streaming responses - Real-time token streaming via SSE
  • Tool calling - Local LLM function calling support
  • Vision models - Multi-modal input for vision-capable models
  • Web Search - Built-in Tavily web search for local models
  • Thinking mode - Supports reasoning/thinking model outputs

Web Search 🔍

Enable web search for your local LLM using Tavily.

Setup:

  1. Get a free API key at tavily.com

  2. Add to your config (~/.oa2a/config.toml):

tavily_api_key = "tvly-your-api-key"
  1. Use web_search_20250305 tool in your app - the proxy handles search automatically.

Options: tavily_max_results (default: 5), tavily_timeout (default: 30), websearch_max_uses (default: 5)


Configuration

Config file: ~/.oa2a/config.toml (auto-created on first run)

Option Required Default Description
openai_base_url - Local LLM endpoint (e.g., http://localhost:8000/v1)
openai_api_key - API key for local LLM
port 8080 Proxy port
host 0.0.0.0 Proxy host
api_key - Auth key for this proxy
tavily_api_key - Enable web search
log_level INFO DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR

Architecture

Your App (Claude SDK)
         │
         ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│  local-openai2anthropic  │  ← This proxy
│  (Port 8080)        │
└─────────────────────┘
         │
         ▼
Your Local LLM Server
(vLLM / SGLang)
(OpenAI-compatible API)

Development

git clone https://github.com/dongfangzan/local-openai2anthropic.git
cd local-openai2anthropic
pip install -e ".[dev]"

pytest

License

Apache License 2.0

Project details


Download files

Download the file for your platform. If you're not sure which to choose, learn more about installing packages.

Source Distribution

local_openai2anthropic-0.3.10.tar.gz (172.2 kB view details)

Uploaded Source

Built Distribution

If you're not sure about the file name format, learn more about wheel file names.

local_openai2anthropic-0.3.10-py3-none-any.whl (48.5 kB view details)

Uploaded Python 3

File details

Details for the file local_openai2anthropic-0.3.10.tar.gz.

File metadata

  • Download URL: local_openai2anthropic-0.3.10.tar.gz
  • Upload date:
  • Size: 172.2 kB
  • Tags: Source
  • Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? Yes
  • Uploaded via: twine/6.1.0 CPython/3.13.7

File hashes

Hashes for local_openai2anthropic-0.3.10.tar.gz
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 551b38d902d1fc804bc45e24c942f545194890e52bc9b19f9454c127da38cb2a
MD5 c1ab6f702b27c6dc59225478a6d5cd08
BLAKE2b-256 ccf17f6e9376d2195d62f039a07ec782984a30f053afcce79127127c4ceff5e2

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for local_openai2anthropic-0.3.10.tar.gz:

Publisher: publish.yml on dongfangzan/local-openai2anthropic

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file local_openai2anthropic-0.3.10-py3-none-any.whl.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for local_openai2anthropic-0.3.10-py3-none-any.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 791fbc180e7ac6d1bbf770e52fdb6651acbaed59232ad0f30094662ba460d041
MD5 54a1a95e71c6fed3bb0a275e4cf66509
BLAKE2b-256 65ff2717bce48179a8296606534ab12e9e2c2501cb945bb741650881a19c47b8

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for local_openai2anthropic-0.3.10-py3-none-any.whl:

Publisher: publish.yml on dongfangzan/local-openai2anthropic

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

Supported by

AWS Cloud computing and Security Sponsor Datadog Monitoring Depot Continuous Integration Fastly CDN Google Download Analytics Pingdom Monitoring Sentry Error logging StatusPage Status page