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Claude Code

Claude Code is Anthropic's coding agent CLI. With Lemonade, you can run Claude Code against local models through Lemonade's Anthropic-compatible API.

This guide focuses on the most common launch flows.

Prerequisites

  1. Install Claude Code:
curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

or:

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
  1. Make sure Lemonade Server is running (lemond).

Launch Claude Code with Lemonade

Use:

lemonade launch claude [options]

Lemonade automatically configures Claude Code to use your local server.

Use Case 1: First-time user (discover + import + launch)

If you are not sure which model to use yet, start with:

lemonade launch claude

You will get an interactive menu where you can: - Select a recipe to import and launch. - Browse downloaded models. - Browse recommended llama.cpp models (download may be required), then launch.

All remote recipes in this flow are sourced from: https://github.com/lemonade-sdk/recipes

Use Case 2: You already know the model

If you already downloaded a model or already imported the recipe, skip the interactive flow:

lemonade launch claude -m Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-GGUF

Equivalent long form:

lemonade launch claude --model Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-GGUF

When --model is provided, launch goes straight to starting the agent and loading that model.

Passing Claude arguments with --agent-args

You can pass any extra Claude CLI flags through Lemonade:

lemonade launch claude --model Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-GGUF --agent-args "--approval-mode never"

Resume a previous Claude session:

lemonade launch claude --agent-args="--resume 6a670b84-ac78-47e0-8c2a-c3e85efdd979"

If Claude supports a flag, you can pass it through --agent-args.

For more launch examples and full option details, see: docs/lemonade-cli.md

For Claude Code product details, see Anthropic's docs: https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/agents-and-tools/claude-code