proxy-mode-reference

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Reference guide for using external AI models via claudish CLI. Use when running multi-model reviews, understanding how /team invokes external models, or debugging external model integration issues. Includes routing prefixes for MiniMax, Kimi, GLM direct APIs.

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External Models via Claudish CLI — Reference Guide

⚠️ Learn and Reuse Model Preferences

Models are learned per context and reused automatically:

cat .claude/multimodel-team.json 2>/dev/null

Detect context from task keywords (debug/research/coding/review)
If contextPreferences[context] exists → USE IT (no asking)
If empty (first time) → ASK user → SAVE for that context
User says "change models" → UPDATE preferences

How External Models Work

External models are invoked deterministically via the claudish CLI. The orchestrator (e.g., /team command) calls claudish directly through Bash — no LLM delegation needed.

Orchestrator → Bash(claudish --model {MODEL_ID} --stdin) → External Model

This approach is 100% reliable because it's a direct CLI invocation, not a prompt-based delegation.

Invoking External Models

From /team Command (Automatic)

The /team command handles this automatically:

Internal models → Task(dev:researcher)
External models → Bash(claudish --model {MODEL_ID} --stdin)

Direct CLI Usage

# Pattern
claudish --model {MODEL_ID} --stdin --quiet < prompt-file.md > result.md

# Examples
claudish --model x-ai/grok-code-fast-1 --stdin --quiet < task.md > grok-result.md
claudish --model google/gemini-3-pro-preview --stdin --quiet < task.md > gemini-result.md

Required flags:

--model — The external model to use
--stdin — Read prompt from stdin (for large prompts)
--quiet — Suppress log messages (for clean output capture)

Multi-Backend Routing

Claudish routes to different backends based on model ID prefix:

Prefix	Backend	Required Key	Example
(none)	OpenRouter	`OPENROUTER_API_KEY`	`openai/gpt-5.2`
`g/` `gemini/`	Google Gemini API	`GEMINI_API_KEY`	`g/gemini-2.0-flash`
`oai/`	OpenAI Direct API	`OPENAI_API_KEY`	`oai/gpt-4o`
`mmax/` `mm/`	MiniMax Direct API	`MINIMAX_API_KEY`	`mmax/MiniMax-M2.1`
`kimi/` `moonshot/`	Kimi Direct API	`KIMI_API_KEY`	`kimi/kimi-k2-thinking-turbo`
`glm/` `zhipu/`	GLM Direct API	`GLM_API_KEY`	`glm/glm-4.7`
`ollama/`	Ollama (local)	None	`ollama/llama3.2`
`lmstudio/`	LM Studio (local)	None	`lmstudio/qwen`
`vllm/`	vLLM (local)	None	`vllm/model`
`mlx/`	MLX (local)	None	`mlx/model`
`http://...`	Custom endpoint	None	`http://localhost:8000/model`

⚠️ Prefix Collision Warning

OpenRouter model IDs may collide with routing prefixes. Check the prefix table above.

Collision-free models (safe for OpenRouter):

x-ai/grok-* ✅
deepseek/* ✅
minimax/* ✅ (use mmax/ for MiniMax Direct)
qwen/* ✅
mistralai/* ✅
moonshotai/* ✅ (use kimi/ for Kimi Direct)
anthropic/* ✅
z-ai/* ✅ (use glm/ for GLM Direct)
google/* ✅ (use g/ for Gemini Direct)
openai/* ✅ (use oai/ for OpenAI Direct)

Direct API prefixes for cost savings:

OpenRouter Model	Direct API Prefix	Notes
`openai/gpt-*`	`oai/gpt-*`	OpenAI Direct API
`google/gemini-*`	`g/gemini-*`	Gemini Direct API
`minimax/*`	`mmax/` or `mm/`	MiniMax Direct API
`moonshotai/*`	`kimi/*` or `moonshot/`	Kimi Direct API
`z-ai/glm-*`	`glm/` or `zhipu/`	GLM Direct API

Correct Usage Patterns

Single External Model

claudish --model x-ai/grok-code-fast-1 --stdin --quiet < task.md > result.md

Parallel External Models (in /team)

# All launched in a single message with run_in_background: true
Bash("claudish --model x-ai/grok-code-fast-1 --stdin --quiet < vote-prompt.md > grok-result.md 2>grok-stderr.log; echo $? > grok.exit")
Bash("claudish --model google/gemini-3-pro-preview --stdin --quiet < vote-prompt.md > gemini-result.md 2>gemini-stderr.log; echo $? > gemini.exit")

Verifying Results

# Check exit code
cat grok.exit  # 0 = success

# Check output size
wc -c < grok-result.md  # Should be >50 bytes

# Check stderr for errors
cat grok-stderr.log

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1: Not capturing exit code

# ❌ WRONG - no way to detect failures
claudish --model grok --stdin < task.md > result.md

# ✅ CORRECT - capture exit code
claudish --model grok --stdin < task.md > result.md 2>stderr.log; echo $? > result.exit

Troubleshooting

"claudish: command not found"

Fix: npm install -g claudish

"OPENROUTER_API_KEY not set"

Fix: export OPENROUTER_API_KEY=your-key

Non-zero exit code

Fix: Check stderr log for error details. Common causes: rate limits, invalid model ID, API key issues.