Environment variables

claude-multi runtime variables

These control claude-multi itself. Set them in your shell before launching.

Variable	Default	Description
CLAUDE_MULTI_INK	true	Set to false to use the simpler prompts-based UI instead of the Ink TUI
CLAUDE_MULTI_HOME	~	Override the base directory for config storage. claude-multi looks for config.json at $CLAUDE_MULTI_HOME/.claude-multi/
CLAUDE_MULTI_UPDATE_CHECK	false	Set to true to check for claude-multi and Claude Code updates on launch

Example:

# Use the simpler UI
CLAUDE_MULTI_INK=false claude-multi

# Store config in a custom location
CLAUDE_MULTI_HOME=/tmp/test-env claude-multi add test --provider deepseek --api-key sk-...

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Claude Code instance variables

These live in each instance’s settings.json under the env key. Provider templates fill them in when you create the instance.

Core API variables

Variable	Description	Example
ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN	API key for the provider	sk-your-key-here
ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL	Provider’s Anthropic-compatible API endpoint	https://api.deepseek.com/anthropic

Model mapping variables

Variable	Description	Maps to
ANTHROPIC_MODEL	Primary model	Claude Code’s internal opus slot
ANTHROPIC_SMALL_FAST_MODEL	Fast/cheap model for quick tasks	Claude Code’s internal haiku slot
ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL	Sonnet-tier model	Used when Claude Code requests a “sonnet” class model
ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL	Opus-tier model	Used when Claude Code requests an “opus” class model
ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL	Haiku-tier model	Used when Claude Code requests a “haiku” class model

Sub-agent variables

Variable	Description	Example
CLAUDE_CODE_SUBAGENT_MODEL	Model used by sub-agents for background tasks, exploration, and code review	deepseek-v4-flash
CLAUDE_CODE_EFFORT_LEVEL	Reasoning effort level for the main model	low, medium, high, max

Timeout

Variable	Description	Example
API_TIMEOUT_MS	Request timeout in milliseconds	600000

Context window / auto-compaction variables

Claude Code compresses older conversation history once usage crosses a share of the context window, instead of failing when the model hits its token limit. It assumes a 200K window by default, so a provider with a smaller real window needs these overrides. Without them, compaction runs too late and the API call fails mid-session.

Variable	Description	Example
CLAUDE_CODE_AUTO_COMPACT_WINDOW	The model’s actual context window size, in tokens	131072 (Qwen’s 128K)
CLAUDE_AUTOCOMPACT_PCT_OVERRIDE	Percentage of the window that triggers compaction	75

Models that match or exceed the 200K default, like GLM-5.3 with its 1M window, use a [1m] suffix on the model name instead, so you do not need an override.

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Per-provider defaults

Each provider template sets these variables to its own values.

GLM (glm)

{
  "ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN": "",
  "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "https://api.z.ai/api/anthropic",
  "API_TIMEOUT_MS": "3000000",
  "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL": "glm-5-turbo",
  "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL": "glm-5.3-flash[1m]",
  "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL": "glm-5.3[1m]",
  "ANTHROPIC_MODEL": "glm-5.3[1m]",
  "ANTHROPIC_SMALL_FAST_MODEL": "glm-5-turbo",
  "ENABLE_THINKING": "true",
  "REASONING_EFFORT": "high",
  "MAX_THINKING_TOKENS": "8000",
  "ENABLE_STREAMING": "true",
  "MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS": "128000"
}

The glm template maps opus to glm-5.3[1m], sonnet to glm-5.3-flash[1m], and haiku/small-fast to glm-5-turbo (200K). Both glm-5.3[1m] and the flash variant use the [1m] suffix for their 1M context window; GLM-5.3-Flash is natively multimodal with 3x the GLM-5.3 quota on the Coding Plan. Requests for glm-5.2 or glm-5.1 are automatically routed to glm-5.3 on the Coding Plan endpoint, so existing configs keep working.

MiniMax (minimax)

{
  "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "https://api.minimax.io/anthropic",
  "ANTHROPIC_MODEL": "MiniMax-M3",
  "ANTHROPIC_SMALL_FAST_MODEL": "MiniMax-M3",
  "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL": "MiniMax-M3",
  "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL": "MiniMax-M3",
  "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL": "MiniMax-M3",
  "CLAUDE_CODE_SUBAGENT_MODEL": "MiniMax-M3",
  "CLAUDE_CODE_EFFORT_LEVEL": "max"
}

DeepSeek (deepseek)

{
  "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "https://api.deepseek.com/anthropic",
  "ANTHROPIC_MODEL": "deepseek-v4-pro[1m]",
  "ANTHROPIC_SMALL_FAST_MODEL": "deepseek-v4-flash",
  "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL": "deepseek-v4-flash",
  "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL": "deepseek-v4-pro[1m]",
  "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL": "deepseek-v4-flash",
  "CLAUDE_CODE_SUBAGENT_MODEL": "deepseek-v4-flash",
  "CLAUDE_CODE_EFFORT_LEVEL": "max",
  "API_TIMEOUT_MS": "600000"
}

Xiaomi MiMo (mimo)

{
  "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "https://api.xiaomimimo.com/anthropic",
  "ANTHROPIC_MODEL": "mimo-v2.5-pro",
  "ANTHROPIC_SMALL_FAST_MODEL": "mimo-v2.5",
  "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL": "mimo-v2.5",
  "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL": "mimo-v2.5-pro",
  "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL": "mimo-v2.5",
  "API_TIMEOUT_MS": "600000"
}

The mimo-token template uses the same models but a different base URL (token-plan-cn.xiaomimimo.com). Replace it with your regional endpoint from the subscription console.

Moonshot Kimi (kimi)

{
  "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "https://api.moonshot.ai/anthropic",
  "ANTHROPIC_MODEL": "kimi-k2.6",
  "ANTHROPIC_SMALL_FAST_MODEL": "kimi-k2.5",
  "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL": "kimi-k2.6",
  "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL": "kimi-k2.7-code",
  "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL": "kimi-k2.5",
  "API_TIMEOUT_MS": "600000"
}

Alibaba Qwen (qwen)

{
  "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "https://dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com/apps/anthropic",
  "ANTHROPIC_MODEL": "qwen3-coder-next",
  "ANTHROPIC_SMALL_FAST_MODEL": "qwen3-coder-flash",
  "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL": "qwen3-coder-plus",
  "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL": "qwen3-coder-next",
  "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL": "qwen3-coder-flash",
  "API_TIMEOUT_MS": "600000"
}

The qwen-coding template uses the same models but a different base URL (coding-intl.dashscope.aliyuncs.com).

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Where to set variables

claude-multi variables: Set in your shell profile (.zshrc, .bashrc, .profile) or export them before running claude-multi.

Instance variables: Edit ~/.claude-<name>/settings.json directly, or let the provider template fill them in when you create the instance. They apply to that instance only and do not affect other instances or your default ~/.claude setup.