patch-cc 0.2.0

Interactive patcher for the Claude Code native binary

patch-cc

An interactive patcher for the Claude Code native binary. Pick the tweaks you want — inline and live thinking, detailed tool calls, subagent model overrides, your own startup name — and apply them to your installed claude in one keystroke. Pure Python; no Node, no Bun.

Requirements

• Linux or macOS
• Python 3.11+
• uv — how patch-cc is run and installed below. Install it with curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh. Not using uv? pipx install patch-cc (or pip install patch-cc) works too; it is an ordinary PyPI package.
• macOS only: the Xcode command line tools, for codesign — a patched binary has to be re-signed or macOS refuses to run it.

uvx patch-cc                   # fullscreen menu, no install needed

The menu is a single centered panel: move with ↑ ↓, toggle with space, press s to save. Patches that carry a setting — subagent models, Codex models, the startup name, the --version marker — open a centered modal on enter, and the row then shows what you chose. Everything choosable is a picker: the agent names and model aliases are discovered from your binary itself (and the Codex ones from your plan), so the menu can never offer something your build would reject. Typing exists only for the genuinely free-text values.

A patched binary records what was applied inside itself, so the menu always comes up showing the real current state, and patch-cc status answers exactly.

Prefer it always available on your PATH? Install it:

uv tool install patch-cc
patch-cc                       # then just run it

What it can do

Group	Patch
Output & diffs	Detailed tool calls	Show full read/search calls, not collapsed summaries
	Colour new files as diffs	Created files render with + lines and green
Thinking	Fix blank thinking blocks	Opt out of the server-side experiment that can empty every thinking block
	Always show thinking	Thinking blocks stay inline — no ctrl+o
	Stream thinking live	See reasoning as it is generated, inline and in order
Subagents	Show subagent prompts	Prompt blocks visible during normal use
	Override subagent models	Pick the model per built-in agent (discovered from your binary)
Chrome	Disable spinner tips	No rotating tips on the spinner
	Custom startup name	Defaults to <your username>'s Code
	Mark --version	Appends (patched) — or any marker you choose
Codex	Codex models	Use OpenAI/Codex-plan models in Claude Code — see Codex models

Usage

Everything the menu does is also a non-interactive subcommand (shown with uvx; drop it if you installed the tool):

uvx patch-cc apply                            # the default patch set
uvx patch-cc apply tool-calls live-thinking   # just these
uvx patch-cc apply --brand                    # + branding as <username>'s Code
uvx patch-cc apply --brand "Ada's Code"       # + branding, explicit name
uvx patch-cc apply --model Explore=haiku --model general-purpose=opus
uvx patch-cc apply --suffix "(mine)"          # custom --version marker
uvx patch-cc apply --codex gpt-5.6-sol        # + a Codex model (see below)
uvx patch-cc apply --from-cache               # replay your last remembered selection
uvx patch-cc status                           # exactly what is applied
uvx patch-cc doctor                           # do all patches match this build?
uvx patch-cc doctor path/to/claude            # ...or match some other binary
uvx patch-cc list                             # every patch, described
uvx patch-cc restore                          # put the original back

--brand, --model and --codex imply their patches; agents and models are validated against what your installed binary actually ships, and Codex model ids against what your plan offers. apply --help lists all three.

Codex models

Bring your ChatGPT/Codex-plan models (GPT-5.x) into Claude Code and use them alongside your Claude ones — in the /model picker, as a subagent override, with /effort driving how hard they think. It is two halves: a patch that teaches your binary to accept and route the models you pick, and a small localhost gateway that translates between Claude Code and OpenAI. Only the models you pick are diverted — every Anthropic request stays byte-identical, so your Claude plan is untouched. Nothing extra to install: the gateway is pure Python and ships with patch-cc; you just sign in to a ChatGPT or Codex plan.

uvx patch-cc codex login                 # sign in to your ChatGPT/Codex plan
uvx patch-cc                             # Codex models → pick models → save with `s`
uvx patch-cc codex serve                 # start the gateway; keep it running

Which models you want is a patch setting like the startup name, so the menu's Codex models row is where you pick them — it lists what your plan offers, live. Everything the menu does the command line does too:

uvx patch-cc apply --codex gpt-5.6-sol --codex gpt-5.5
uvx patch-cc apply --help                # lists the model ids your plan offers
uvx patch-cc apply --from-cache           # replay your last selection

Then pick a model like any other:

claude --model sol                       # shortcut → newest gpt-5.6-sol
claude --model gpt-5.6-sol               # the full id also works, as does /model

• Shortcuts (sol, terra, luna, …) are the last word of the model id; the newest in a family wins, the way opus means the latest Claude Opus. They are derived from the ids you picked — there is nothing to configure.
• Your binary is the record. The models and the port live in the patched binary, so patch-cc status names exactly what is registered, and codex serve finds the right port with nothing to tell it.
• They read as native everywhere. A registered model is added to the binary's own model table, so its real name shows in the status line and the welcome banner, its plan-reported effort levels are declared, and /advisor sol works like any other model. Ask for an effort the model doesn't run and the gateway quietly runs the closest lower one — the same clamping Claude Code documents for its own models.
• The gateway has to be running. Every surface that names it says whether it is — the apply report as soon as you bake, patch-cc status, and codex status — so you never learn it from a request that hangs instead.
• The gateway holds your OpenAI token and listens only on localhost. No Anthropic-model request is ever diverted to it. The Codex ones that are still carry Claude Code's own auth header — the gateway ignores it and never forwards it, but treat the port as trusted: whatever binds it first sees it.
• After a Claude update, re-bake — the patch reverts with the binary — but the gateway is separate and keeps running. Until you do, a Codex model you had saved as your default reads as unavailable; the models live in the patch. Change the port and the gateway needs a restart to follow it.

After a Claude update

Claude auto-updates roughly daily and replaces the binary, which reverts the patch. Re-run patch-cc — the menu remembers your last selection — replay it without the menu via patch-cc apply --from-cache, or re-apply your set explicitly:

uvx patch-cc apply --brand --model Explore=haiku

uvx patch-cc status tells you whether the current binary is patched, and the startup name / --version marker are visible tells too.

Why native-only, and why it stays small

Claude Code now ships only as a Bun single-file executable; the npm package is a wrapper that downloads it. patch-cc edits the JavaScript bundle embedded in the binary's .bun section in place. It also drops the module's 154 MB of stale precompiled bytecode — editing the source invalidates it anyway — so a patched binary is smaller than the original (≈113 MB vs 267 MB), not larger.

See docs/INTERNALS.md for the container format and docs/PLAYBOOK.md for repairing a patch after an update. Changing anything here starts at docs/CONDUCT.md — how this is built, and what a patch has to prove before it ships.

Credits

The patch set is a Python port of a-connoisseur/patch-claude-code, with the subagent-model override idea from aleks-apostle/claude-code-patches. Registering Codex models inside the bundle follows clodex; the routing here is done in the bundle rather than with clodex's TLS interception.

License

MIT