Quick Start Guide

September 30, 2025 · View on GitHub

🚀 No setup required! You can start using start-claude immediately:

Immediate Usage (No Config Required)

# Start Claude Code directly with CLI overrides (no config needed)
start-claude --api-key sk-your-key --model claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929

# Use the short command alias (may not work on Windows - see Windows warning in README)
scc --api-key sk-your-key --model claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929

# Windows users: Enable override for better compatibility
start-claude override --enable

# Set environment variables on the fly
start-claude -e DEBUG=1 -e NODE_ENV=production --verbose

# Override base URL for custom endpoints
start-claude --base-url https://custom.api.com --model claude-3-opus

Setting Up Persistent Configurations

📚 For persistent configurations:

1. First Time Setup

Run start-claude and follow the interactive setup to create your first configuration.

2. Add a Configuration

start-claude add
# Or use editor mode
start-claude add -e

3. Use a Specific Configuration

start-claude myconfig
# Or
start-claude --config myconfig

4. List All Configurations

start-claude list

Basic Commands

  • start-claude - Start with default config or directly without config
  • start-claude <config> - Start with a specific configuration
  • start-claude manager - Open modern web-based configuration manager
  • start-claude --config <name> - Start with a specific configuration
  • start-claude --list - List all configurations
  • start-claude add - Add a new configuration
  • start-claude edit <name> - Edit an existing configuration
  • start-claude remove <name> - Remove a configuration
  • start-claude default <name> - Set a configuration as default

💡 Pro Tip: Windows users should use start-claude override --enable for the best experience, as the sc alias may conflict with system commands!

Modern Web Interface

Access the beautiful, modern configuration manager:

# Launch the web interface
start-claude manager
# Opens at http://localhost:3000 with your configurations

Features:

  • 🎨 Modern gradient-based UI with dark mode support
  • 🔍 Real-time search and filtering
  • 📱 Drag-and-drop configuration reordering
  • ⚙️ Centralized system settings
  • ✅ Real-time validation with detailed error messages

CLI Override Examples

⚡ Override settings without modifying configurations:

# Override API settings for a single session
start-claude --api-key sk-new-key --model claude-3-opus --base-url https://custom.api.com

# Set environment variables on the fly
start-claude -e DEBUG=1 -e CUSTOM_VAR=value myconfig

# Combine config with overrides
start-claude production --model claude-3-haiku --verbose

# Use overrides without any config
start-claude --api-key sk-key --model claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929 --max-turns 5

Priority Order (highest to lowest)

  1. CLI overrides (--api-key, --model, --base-url, -e)
  2. Configuration file settings
  3. System environment variables

Need help? Run start-claude --help to see all available options.