Claude Code setup

Run Claude Code through Mercato with three environment variables.

Claude Code talks to an Anthropic-compatible endpoint, which Mercato provides.

Configure

Add these to your shell profile or a project .env:

export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="https://api.mercatocoin.com"
export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN="$MERCATO_API_KEY"
export ANTHROPIC_MODEL="anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5"

Then start Claude Code as usual with claude.

Pick models

Use a fast model for background tasks to stretch your balance and the pool:

export ANTHROPIC_SMALL_FAST_MODEL="anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5"

Any model on the market works, including non-Claude ones, because the Messages surface is model-agnostic.

Verify

Ask something short, then open Usage: the request shows the model, token counts and the discounted price. Long agent sessions burn tokens quickly, which is where a Core or Singularity tier makes the biggest difference.