Installation

frites is a coordinating ensemble proxy for Claude Code and Codex. You point your existing agent at frites, and every prompt is answered by a council of agents instead of one, using the subscriptions you are already logged into (no API keys).

The fastest path is the always-on transparent-proxy gateway. Install it once, point your editor at it, and every prompt flows through the council from then on.

Prerequisites

• claude and/or codex installed and logged in. frites drives the agents you already have. Children use the accounts you are already authenticated against: Claude keychain OAuth, Codex ChatGPT sign-in. No API keys are required. (For how auth and billing work, see auth and billing.)

• Node.js >= 22.

• macOS, or a major Linux distribution with systemd user services.

Install

npm install -g @frites/cli
frites install

frites install starts the transparent-proxy gateway on http://127.0.0.1:6767 as an always-on background service.

• On macOS, it writes a launchd user agent.

• On Linux, it writes and enables a systemd --user unit.

In both cases the service auto-starts on login and restarts on crash. To install on a different port, pass --port:

frites install --port 7000

For the full set of install/status/restart/stop/uninstall commands and the launchd vs systemd details, see service management.

What the gateway does

The gateway is a transparent proxy: it impersonates the model endpoint your editor talks to and intercepts every prompt with zero "use frites" friction. It handles Q&A and reasoning turns, and it drives the host's full agentic loop by emitting the Read / Edit / Bash tool calls your editor executes on the real files. For each prompt it decides whether fanning the request out to a council is worth the spend, runs the agents independently, then synthesizes a single vetted answer.

Idle costs nothing

The service is always running, but it only spends when you send prompts. While idle it sits on 127.0.0.1 waiting, so idle = $0. Cost scales with how often you fan out (see cost telemetry).

Next steps

Point your editor at the gateway, then open a new session:

• Configure Claude Code: set ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL and ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN.

• Configure Codex: add the frites model provider to ~/.codex/config.toml.

• First run: confirm reachability and watch the council work on your first request.

• Service management: install, status, restart, stop, and uninstall.