free-code Claude CLI

Skill by ara.so — Daily 2026 Skills collection.

free-code is a buildable fork of Anthropic's Claude Code CLI — a terminal-native AI coding agent. It removes all telemetry and phone-home callbacks, strips Anthropic's injected system-prompt guardrails, and unlocks 54 experimental feature flags that are disabled in the public npm release. It supports five model providers: Anthropic, OpenAI Codex, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, and Anthropic Foundry.

Installation

One-liner (recommended)

bash

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/paoloanzn/free-code/main/install.sh | bash

This installs Bun if needed, clones the repo, builds with experimental features, and symlinks

free-code

on your

PATH

Manual build

bash

# Requires Bun >= 1.3.11
curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash

git clone https://github.com/paoloanzn/free-code.git
cd free-code
bun run build
./cli

Key CLI Commands

bash

# Start interactive REPL
free-code

# One-shot prompt
free-code -p "explain this codebase"

# Specify model
free-code --model claude-opus-4-6

# OAuth login (runs /login slash command)
free-code /login

# Run from source (slower, no build step)
bun run dev

Slash commands inside the REPL

/login          Authenticate with your chosen provider
/help           List all available commands
/clear          Clear conversation context
/compact        Compact context window
/memory         View/edit memory files

Build Variants

Command	Output	Features
`bun run build`	`./cli`	VOICE_MODE only (production-like)
`bun run build:dev`	`./cli-dev`	VOICE_MODE only, dev stamp
`bun run build:dev:full`	`./cli-dev`	All 54 experimental flags unlocked
`bun run compile`	`./dist/cli`	Alternative output path

Enable specific feature flags

bash

# Unlock ultrathink + ultraplan only
bun run ./scripts/build.ts --feature=ULTRATHINK --feature=ULTRAPLAN

# Dev build with bridge mode added
bun run ./scripts/build.ts --dev --feature=BRIDGE_MODE

# Full experimental unlock
bun run build:dev:full

Model Provider Configuration

Switch providers entirely via environment variables — no code changes needed.

Anthropic (default)

bash

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY"
free-code --model claude-opus-4-6

Available models:

claude-opus-4-6

claude-sonnet-4-6

claude-haiku-4-5

Override model defaults:

bash

export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL="claude-opus-4-6"
export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL="claude-sonnet-4-6"
export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL="claude-haiku-4-5"
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="https://api.anthropic.com"  # custom endpoint

OpenAI Codex

bash

export CLAUDE_CODE_USE_OPENAI=1
free-code --model gpt-5.3-codex

Available models:

gpt-5.3-codex

gpt-5.4

gpt-5.4-mini

AWS Bedrock

bash

export CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK=1
export AWS_REGION="us-east-1"
# Uses standard AWS credential chain: env vars, ~/.aws/config, or IAM role
free-code

Additional Bedrock variables:

bash

export ANTHROPIC_BEDROCK_BASE_URL="https://..."   # custom endpoint
export AWS_BEARER_TOKEN_BEDROCK="$TOKEN"           # bearer token auth
export CLAUDE_CODE_SKIP_BEDROCK_AUTH=1             # skip auth (testing only)

Google Cloud Vertex AI

bash

# Authenticate first
gcloud auth application-default login

export CLAUDE_CODE_USE_VERTEX=1
free-code

Anthropic Foundry

bash

export CLAUDE_CODE_USE_FOUNDRY=1
export ANTHROPIC_FOUNDRY_API_KEY="$ANTHROPIC_FOUNDRY_API_KEY"
free-code --model my-deployment-id

Experimental Features Reference

Build with

bun run build:dev:full

to unlock all 54 flags, or pass

--feature=FLAG

individually.

High-value flags

Flag	What it does
`ULTRATHINK`	Type "ultrathink" in a prompt to boost reasoning depth
`ULTRAPLAN`	Remote multi-agent planning (Opus-class) via Claude Code web
`VOICE_MODE`	Push-to-talk voice input and dictation
`TOKEN_BUDGET`	Real-time token budget tracking and warnings
`HISTORY_PICKER`	Interactive prompt history picker
`EXTRACT_MEMORIES`	Auto-extracts memories after each query
`VERIFICATION_AGENT`	Validation agent that checks task completion
`AGENT_TRIGGERS`	Local cron/trigger tools for background automation
`BRIDGE_MODE`	IDE remote-control bridge (VS Code, JetBrains)
`BASH_CLASSIFIER`	AI-assisted bash permission decisions
`BUILTIN_EXPLORE_PLAN_AGENTS`	Preset explore/plan agent configs
`TEAMMEM`	Team-shared memory files with watcher hooks
`COMPACTION_REMINDERS`	Smart reminders around context window compaction

Environment Variables Quick Reference

bash

# Authentication
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY              # Anthropic API key
ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN           # Alternative auth token
CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN        # OAuth token via env (skips /login)

# Provider selection
CLAUDE_CODE_USE_OPENAI=1       # Switch to OpenAI Codex
CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK=1      # Switch to AWS Bedrock
CLAUDE_CODE_USE_VERTEX=1       # Switch to Google Vertex AI
CLAUDE_CODE_USE_FOUNDRY=1      # Switch to Anthropic Foundry

# Model overrides
ANTHROPIC_MODEL                # Override default model for session
ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL             # Custom API base URL

# Tuning
CLAUDE_CODE_API_KEY_HELPER_TTL_MS  # API key helper cache TTL in ms

Project Structure

scripts/
  build.ts              # Build script — feature flag injection lives here

src/
  entrypoints/cli.tsx   # CLI entry — Commander.js setup, arg parsing
  commands.ts           # Slash command registry
  tools.ts              # Agent tool registry
  QueryEngine.ts        # Core LLM query orchestration
  screens/REPL.tsx      # Interactive terminal UI (React + Ink)

  commands/             # /slash command implementations
  tools/                # Agent tools: Bash, Read, Edit, Glob, Grep, etc.
  components/           # Ink/React terminal UI components
  services/
    api/                # Anthropic + Codex API clients
    oauth/              # OAuth flows (Anthropic, OpenAI)
  state/                # Global app state store
  utils/model/          # Model config, provider routing, validation
  bridge/               # IDE bridge (BRIDGE_MODE)
  voice/                # Voice input (VOICE_MODE)
  skills/               # Skill system
  plugins/              # Plugin system
  tasks/                # Background task management

Common Patterns

Use ultrathink for hard problems

After building with

--feature=ULTRATHINK

> ultrathink refactor this authentication module to use JWTs

The keyword

ultrathink

in your prompt triggers extended reasoning mode.

Pipe files into one-shot mode

bash

cat src/auth.ts | free-code -p "find security issues in this file"
free-code -p "write tests for $(cat src/utils.ts)"

Run with a specific provider per session

bash

# One-off Bedrock session without changing env permanently
CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK=1 AWS_REGION=eu-west-1 free-code

# One-off Vertex session
CLAUDE_CODE_USE_VERTEX=1 free-code -p "review this PR diff"

Custom build for CI with minimal features

typescript

// scripts/build.ts accepts --feature flags
// Build only what you need for a headless CI agent:
// bun run ./scripts/build.ts --feature=VERIFICATION_AGENT --feature=AGENT_TRIGGERS

Troubleshooting

bun: command not found

bash

curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash
source ~/.bashrc  # or ~/.zshrc

free-code: command not found

after install

The install script symlinks to your PATH. If it's missing:

bash

cd free-code
ln -sf "$(pwd)/cli" /usr/local/bin/free-code

Build fails on experimental flags

Some of the 88 flags don't compile cleanly. Use

build:dev:full

which only enables the 54 working flags. For broken flags, check

FEATURES.md

for reconstruction notes:

bash

# Safe full-unlock build (54 working flags only)
bun run build:dev:full

Authentication errors with Bedrock

Verify your AWS credential chain is working independently:

bash

aws sts get-caller-identity
# If this fails, fix AWS credentials before setting CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK=1

Vertex AI auth errors

bash

gcloud auth application-default login
gcloud auth application-default print-access-token  # verify it works
export CLAUDE_CODE_USE_VERTEX=1
free-code

Context window fills up quickly

Enable compaction reminders and use the

/compact

command:

bash

bun run ./scripts/build.ts --feature=COMPACTION_REMINDERS
# Inside REPL when warned:
/compact

IPFS Fallback

If the GitHub repo is unavailable, the full source is permanently mirrored:

CID: bafybeiegvef3dt24n2znnnmzcud2vxat7y7rl5ikz7y7yoglxappim54bm
URL: https://w3s.link/ipfs/bafybeiegvef3dt24n2znnnmzcud2vxat7y7rl5ikz7y7yoglxappim54bm

free-code-claude-cli

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

free-code Claude CLI

Installation

One-liner (recommended)

Manual build

Key CLI Commands

Slash commands inside the REPL

Build Variants

Enable specific feature flags

Model Provider Configuration

Anthropic (default)

OpenAI Codex

AWS Bedrock

Google Cloud Vertex AI

Anthropic Foundry

Experimental Features Reference

High-value flags

Environment Variables Quick Reference

Project Structure

Common Patterns

Use ultrathink for hard problems

Pipe files into one-shot mode

Run with a specific provider per session

Custom build for CI with minimal features

Troubleshooting

`bun: command not found`

`free-code: command not found`
after install

Build fails on experimental flags

Authentication errors with Bedrock

Vertex AI auth errors

Context window fills up quickly

IPFS Fallback