Launchers and lanes

A launcher is a thin script that starts Claude Code against a different inference backend. Each one exports the Anthropic-compatible endpoint and key for the child claude only, seeds its own config directory so it never touches your normal ~/.claude, and fails closed on a missing key, an egress refusal or a low balance. Launchers live in scripts/; the delegation registry that decides which lane a task goes to is scripts/lanes/lanes.json (inspect it with /lanes).

Egress is governed by one policy file, scripts/guardrails/egress-matrix.json. No launcher has a --force bypass around it.

Status at a glance

Launcher	Backend	Status
scripts/claude-codex	Codex subscription through a local CLIProxyAPI proxy	Supported; runs the live claudex lane
scripts/claude-openrouter	OpenRouter, metered	Available, not health-checked
scripts/claude-deepseek	DeepSeek’s Anthropic-compatible endpoint, metered	Available, not health-checked
scripts/claude-glm	Z.ai GLM	Removed from the supported set (see below)

“Not health-checked” means the launcher is in the repo and works as described below, but no scheduled canary currently proves it end to end. Treat a failure as possible and check the provider before relying on it.

Common exit codes

The launchers share a convention:

Exit	Meaning
2	Missing API key, or claude / a required dependency not on PATH
3	Egress or PHI-guard refusal (also: node missing, so the matrix cannot be consulted)
4	Config-directory seed failed
5	Remaining credit or balance below the floor, or unknown (OpenRouter, DeepSeek)

Every launcher is bash 3.2-safe. Keys come from the process environment first, then the primary checkout’s .env; never put them in settings.json.

claude-codex

Runs Claude Code on the Codex subscription through a local CLIProxyAPI proxy (default http://127.0.0.1:8317, override with CODEX_PROXY_BASE_URL). Per-host bring-up: setup/cli-proxy-lane.md; full reference: the claude-codex section of tooling-catalog.md.

claude-codex is the launcher behind claudex, a live implementation lane in scripts/lanes/lanes.json: no opt-in variable is needed to dispatch it. A worker reaches it with headed-arm-worker.sh --lane claudex; a one-off dispatch with dispatch-lane.sh --lane claudex, which accepts the lane once 5 consecutive verified passes exist in the flow-runs ledger. Lane routing, effort, the readiness gate and the CLAUDEX_LANE_OK marker: internals/lane-calibration.md.

Variable	Default	Effect
CODEX_MODEL	gpt-6.1-sol	Main model slug
CLAUDE_CODE_EFFORT_LEVEL	medium	Effort sent to the Codex model; a chief-dispatched claudex worker runs xhigh through its brief’s effort key
CODEX_HAIKU, CODEX_SUBAGENT_MODEL	CODEX_MODEL	Small-model and subagent slugs
CODEX_CONTEXT_WINDOW	272000	Compaction window. Above about 272k input is billed at a higher rate; above about 372k exceeds the backend window and warns. spawn-claudex --context-tier 272k|353k|900k sets it per dispatch and always overrides an ambient value (unstated = 272k, the cheapest); dispatch-codex-exec.sh takes the same flag with the same rule, and /lanes shows the default and the enum on each of those lanes; the tier used is recorded as context_tier in the session meta.json

claude-openrouter

Runs Claude Code on OpenRouter’s native Anthropic-compatible endpoint with a 1M-context Claude tier. Two gates the other launchers do not have:

1. Egress matrix. It refuses until you declare an explicit openrouter provider and cell in scripts/guardrails/egress-matrix.json. Reaching a Claude model through OpenRouter is not covered by the anthropic cell.
2. Credit floor. It checks the remaining OpenRouter balance and refuses (exit 5) below OPENROUTER_MIN_CREDIT_USD (default 3) or when the balance is unknown. An unknown balance is reported loudly, never silently allowed.

Key: OPENROUTER_API_KEY.

claude-deepseek

Runs Claude Code against DeepSeek’s Anthropic-compatible endpoint (https://api.deepseek.com/anthropic).

Item	Detail
Key	DEEPSEEK_API_KEY (shell env, else the primary .env)
Station opt-in	HIMMEL_DEEPSEEK_INFERENCE_OK=1 in the process environment; .env supplies only the key, never the opt-in
Egress	Checked against the matrix; a refusal exits 3, with no override
Balance floor	Refuses (exit 5) below DEEPSEEK_MIN_BALANCE_USD (default 3) or when the balance cannot be read. Session cost is the balance delta from the start snapshot printed at launch
--seed-only	Seed the lane config directory and exit 0 before the balance probe and launch
--reseed	Rebuild the seeded config directory

claude-glm (removed)

The Z.ai GLM lane has been dropped and is not supported. The launcher and its historical notes remain in the tree, but do not plan on it. The claude-glm section of tooling-catalog.md describes the retired design. Use claude-codex or a native Claude subagent instead.

Not a lane: himmel-run

scripts/himmel-run is a token-discipline runner for the himmel-jira and himmel-gh plugin CLIs. It is not an inference backend and has no launcher behaviour.

See also

• setup/codex.md: running himmel under codex-cli itself.
• hermes-runbook.md: the hermes junior-tier model lane.
• orchestration-patterns.md: which work goes to which lane.
• configuration.md: every knob and off-switch.