Deepclaude

deepclaude

Use Claude Code's autonomous agent loop with DeepSeek V4 Pro, OpenRouter, or any Anthropic-compatible backend. Same UX, 17x cheaper.

What this does

Claude Code is the best autonomous coding agent — but it costs $200/month with usage caps. DeepSeek V4 Pro scores 96.4% on LiveCodeBench and costs $0.87/M output tokens.

deepclaude swaps the brain while keeping the body:

Everything works: file reading, editing, bash execution, subagent spawning, autonomous multi-step coding loops. The only difference is which model thinks.

Quick start (2 minutes)

1. Get a DeepSeek API key

Sign up at platform.deepseek.com, add $5 credit, copy your API key.

2. Set environment variables

Windows (PowerShell):

macOS/Linux:

3. Install

Windows:

macOS/Linux:

4. Use it

How it works

Claude Code reads these environment variables to determine where to send API calls:

deepclaude sets these per-session (not permanently), launches Claude Code, then restores your original settings on exit.

Supported backends

Setup per backend

DeepSeek (default - just needs DEEPSEEK_API_KEY):

OpenRouter (optional):

Fireworks AI (optional):

Cost comparison

DeepSeek's automatic context caching makes agent loops extremely cheap - after the first request, the system prompt and file context are cached at $0.004/M (vs $0.44/M uncached).

What works and what doesn't

Works
- File reading, writing, editing (Read/Write/Edit tools)
- Bash/PowerShell execution
- Glob and Grep search
- Multi-step autonomous tool loops
- Subagent spawning
- Git operations
- Project initialization (/init)
- Thinking mode (enabled by default)

Doesn't work or degraded

Intelligence difference
- Routine tasks (80% of work): DeepSeek V4 Pro is comparable to Claude Opus
- Complex reasoning (20%): Claude Opus is stronger -…