free-claude-code adds GLM-5 support via NVIDIA NIM, expands to OpenRouter and Discord

free-claude-code, a lightweight proxy that converts Claude Code's Anthropic API requests into other provider formats, has been updated with GLM-5 support through NVIDIA NIM and several new features. The tool allows developers to use Claude Code's agentic coding interface without an Anthropic subscription by routing requests to alternative backends.

Key updates

NVIDIA added tool calling fixes for z-ai/glm5 to their NIM inventory, and free-claude-code now fully supports it. The NVIDIA NIM free tier provides 40 requests per minute with no credit card required.

• OpenRouter support: Use any model on OpenRouter's platform as your backend, including their free models
• Discord bot integration: Control Claude Code remotely via Discord in addition to the existing Telegram bot support
• LMStudio local provider support: Run models fully locally
• Claude Code VSCode extension support

Technical advantages

• Zero cost options: NVIDIA NIM free tier (40 reqs/min) and Open Router free models require no payment
• Interleaved thinking preservation: Native interleaved thinking tokens are preserved across turns, allowing models like GLM-5 and Kimi-K2.5 to leverage reasoning from previous turns
• 5 built-in optimizations: Fast prefix detection, title generation skip, suggestion mode skip, and other optimizations reduce unnecessary LLM calls
• Remote control: Telegram and Discord bots enable sending coding tasks from mobile devices with session forking and persistence
• Configurable rate limiter: Sliding window rate limiting for concurrent sessions
• Easy model support: New models launching on NVIDIA NIM can be used with no code changes
• Extensibility: Modular code structure makes it easy to add custom providers or messaging platforms

Supported models

Popular models include z-ai/glm5, moonshotai/kimi-k2.5, minimaxai/minimax-m2.5, qwen/qwen3.5-397b-a17b, and stepfun-ai/step-3.5-flash. The full list is available in nvidia_nim_models.json. With OpenRouter and LMStudio, virtually any model can be used as a backend.

The developer is currently working on automatic model selection based on availability and quality. The project is open source with issues and PRs welcome.