CC Switch: The Provider Switcher for Claude Code

CC Switch is a free, MIT-licensed desktop app that switches Claude Code between API providers and configurations in one click, replacing manual edits to ~/.claude/settings.json. Built by developer Jason Young at farion1231/cc-switch, it has grown to 112,000+ GitHub stars as of July 2026 and now manages seven tools: Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, OpenClaw, and Hermes Agent.

What Is CC Switch?

CC Switch is a configuration manager for AI coding agents that lets you hop between API providers, model endpoints, and account setups without touching JSON, TOML, or .env files by hand. The project at github.com/farion1231/cc-switch launched in August 2025, is written in Rust and TypeScript on Tauri 2, and sits at 112,000+ stars as of July 2026, which makes it the dominant tool for this job by a wide margin.

The problem it solves is real for anyone running Claude Code against more than one backend. Claude Code reads its provider from environment variables, so pointing it at DeepSeek, Kimi, GLM, or an OpenRouter-style relay normally means exporting ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL and an API key in every shell, or hand-editing settings files. CC Switch stores each provider as a named profile and swaps the live one from a GUI or the system tray.

Scope note for the name: "cc" stands for Claude Code, but since v3.x the app also manages Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, OpenClaw, Claude Desktop, and Hermes Agent from the same window, including "universal providers" that sync one credential across Claude Code, Codex, and Gemini CLI at once.

How CC Switch Works Under the Hood

For Claude Code, CC Switch works by writing the selected provider's endpoint and key into the env block of ~/.claude/settings.json, which Claude Code hot-reloads without a restart. A switched profile looks like this:

{
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "sk-your-provider-key",
    "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "https://api.your-provider.com/anthropic"
  }
}

Both variables are documented in the official Claude Code environment variable reference: ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL overrides the API endpoint, and ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is used instead of your Claude Pro or Max subscription even when you are logged in. That last detail matters, because it means switching to a third-party provider silently stops billing your subscription and starts billing the key.

Other tools get the same treatment in their own formats: Codex profiles write ~/.codex/auth.json and ~/.codex/config.toml (terminal restart required), and Gemini CLI profiles write ~/.gemini/.env. All profiles live in a local SQLite database at ~/.cc-switch/cc-switch.db with atomic writes and auto-rotated backups, and the design is deliberately low-intrusion: uninstall CC Switch and every CLI keeps working with its last-written config.

How to Install CC Switch

CC Switch installs from GitHub Releases or Homebrew, and requires Windows 10+, macOS 12+, or a mainstream Linux distro (Ubuntu 22.04+, Debian 11+, Fedora 34+). As of the v3.16.5 release on July 1, 2026:

# macOS
brew install --cask cc-switch
# or download the signed .dmg from GitHub Releases

# Windows: .msi installer or portable .zip (x64 / arm64)
# Linux: .deb, .rpm, or .AppImage
# Arch: paru -S cc-switch-bin

Two distribution warnings. First, there is no npm package: the registry has nothing legitimate under cc-switch, so treat any npm install instructions you find as suspect. Second, the README stresses that ccswitch.io is the only official website. Download from the official releases page, where the macOS builds are signed and notarized.

After installing, add a provider from the preset list (roughly 70 Claude-compatible entries ship in the source, from Anthropic official to DeepSeek, Kimi, GLM, SiliconFlow, AWS Bedrock, and NVIDIA NIM), paste your key, and click to activate. If Claude Code itself is the part you are still learning, start with our Claude Code guide first.

Key Features Beyond Provider Switching

CC Switch has expanded from a settings swapper into a control panel for your whole coding-agent stack. The headline features in the current 3.16.x line:

• System tray switching: change the active provider per app from the tray without opening the window (per-app submenus since v3.13.0).
• Local proxy with failover: an optional proxy layer adds request-format conversion, health monitoring, circuit breaking, and automatic failover between providers.
• Unified MCP management: one panel edits MCP servers across the supported apps with bidirectional sync, complementing the manual workflow in our Claude Code MCP guide.
• Prompts and skills: cross-app syncing of CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, and GEMINI.md files, plus one-click skill installs from GitHub or ZIP.
• Usage dashboard: spend, request, and token tracking across providers, with billing accuracy work landing as recently as v3.16.3.
• Cloud sync: profile sync across machines via Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud, or WebDAV.

CC Switch Alternatives Compared

CC Switch is the right default for GUI-based provider switching, but it is not the only approach, and two alternatives solve genuinely different problems. Star counts below are as of July 2026.

The distinction that trips people up most: CC Switch changes which provider Claude Code talks to for everything until you switch again, while Claude Code Router sits in the request path and can route individual requests to different models by rule. If your goal is "GLM for grunt work, Claude for hard problems, automatically," you want the router. If your goal is "flip my whole setup between my Anthropic account and my relay in one click," you want CC Switch.

Limitations and Tradeoffs

CC Switch switches configurations, not logged-in accounts. It cannot juggle multiple Claude Pro or Max OAuth sessions for you; the FAQ's own answer for returning to a subscription is activating an official-login preset and re-authenticating. Codex multi-account switching works only because Codex stores credentials in files CC Switch can rewrite.

Be aware of the incentive structure too. The README carries a long sponsor section, and many of the third-party relay presets are paid placements with promo codes, so treat preset inclusion as advertising rather than endorsement and vet any relay before routing code and credentials through it. Note also that per Anthropic's docs, pointing ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL at a non-first-party host disables some features such as MCP tool search by default. Finally, if you only ever use one provider, a desktop app is overkill; a shell alias that exports two environment variables does the same job with zero moving parts.

Related Guides

• Claude Code Router: What It Is and When It Is Worth Using
• Claude Code MCP: How to Add and Manage MCP Servers
• Claude Code Guide: CLI, Desktop, Web, and Real-World Fit
• Claude Code Best Practices in 2026: What Actually Holds Up