Claude Code (CLI)

Point Claude Code at Control Tower and every request it makes — to Claude, or to any other model you route it to — goes through your gateway: it is attributed to its own key, counted in the Ledger, drawn on the Airspace and subject to your gates. Control Tower's /mcp endpoint also gives Claude Code the tools of every MCP server you have registered, behind the same key.

#Quick reference

You need a Control Tower with at least one provider that serves Claude models (Anthropic, Bedrock or Vertex AI — see Models & providers), and Claude Code installed (claude --version).

#Model setup

#Step 1: Create a key for Claude Code

In the console, open Keys → Create key. Name it after the agent — claude-code, or one key per developer such as claude-code-dana — and set its Team so its traffic groups with the rest of the team. Click Create.

The key (ct_sk_…) is shown once. Budgets, rate limits and which models it may use can be set here too (Keys, budgets & rate limits).

#Step 2: Copy the settings

Under the new key, open the Claude Code · Anthropic tab of the Connect panel. It shows the exact settings with your address and key filled in.

#Step 3: Point Claude Code at Control Tower

Set the two variables in the shell you start Claude Code from, then start it:

export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=http://localhost:4000
export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN=ct_sk_…
unset ANTHROPIC_API_KEY          # a direct Anthropic key would compete with the gateway key
claude

To make it permanent, put the two exports in your shell profile (~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc), or in Claude Code's own settings file, ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "http://localhost:4000",
    "ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN": "ct_sk_…"
  }
}

Claude Code asks for Claude models by their usual names, and Control Tower resolves them to a connected provider — adding them on first use. To pin a model, set ANTHROPIC_MODEL to any name Control Tower serves, including an alias with fallbacks.

#Step 4: Check it works

Send a prompt:

claude -p "Which gateway are you going through?"

The key's Connect panel turns green on the first request:

And the request is in Flights, under the key's name, with its model, tokens, cost and latency:

On the Airspace, claude-code now has a line to the model it used — see Verify on the map.

#MCP setup

Control Tower serves every registered MCP server at one endpoint, /mcp, with tools named <server>__<tool>. A key sees only the tools it may use, and gates and approvals apply to each call.

#Step 1: Add Control Tower as an MCP server

claude mcp add --transport http controltower http://localhost:4000/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer ct_sk_…"

This saves the server for the current project only (local scope); add --scope user to use it in every project. Use the same key as for the model, so tool calls and model calls are one agent on the map. The MCP clients tab of the Connect panel has this command with your key filled in.

#Step 2: Check the connection

claude mcp list

In a Claude Code session, /mcp lists the tools. To connect to one tool server only, use its own endpoint, http://localhost:4000/mcp/<slug>, where tools keep their original names.

#Verify on the map

Click claude-code to trace everything it reaches. To control it, drag from it to a model or tool to put a gate on that path — for example, require approval before it runs a destructive tool.

#Troubleshooting

More in Troubleshooting.

#Next steps

• Keys, budgets & rate limits — a budget per developer or per team
• Airspace, gates & approvals — gate what Claude Code may do
• MCP gateway — register the tool servers Claude Code should reach