Quick start

This guide uses CLIProxyAPI, the default engine. The steps are the same for the others.

1. Start the engine. Open Providers, choose the CLIProxyAPI tab and press the play button next to the endpoint. The status pill in the sidebar turns green when the engine is running.
2. Connect a provider. In the same tab, click Add Account on a provider such as Claude or OpenAI and finish the sign-in in your browser. For API-key providers, click the key icon and paste your key.
3. Check the models. The Available models section lists every model the running engine exposes. If it is empty, the engine is not running or no account is connected.
4. Configure your agent. Open Agents, click Configure next to an installed agent, choose the models and press Apply. Tunnel Agent writes the agent's config file and keeps a backup.

That's it: run your agent as usual and its requests go through the local endpoint.

Using any other client#

Anything that speaks the OpenAI API works. Copy the endpoint from the Providers header and an API key from Configuration → CLIProxyAPI → API keys:

export OPENAI_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8317/v1
export OPENAI_API_KEY=<a key from Configuration>

curl "$OPENAI_BASE_URL/models" -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY"

Tip

Turn on Configuration → CLIProxyAPI → Auto-start so the engine starts with the app, and General → Launch at login to keep Tunnel Agent in the system tray.