Use Kimi K2 with Claude Code Router: A Developer's Guide

In the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-powered developer tools, two names have recently been generating significant buzz: Kimi K2, a state-of-the-art language model from Moonshot AI, and Claude Code Router, a versatile open-source tool for routing large language model (LLM) requests. While both are powerful in their own right, their true potential is unlocked when used in tandem. This combination allows developers to leverage the exceptional coding and reasoning capabilities of Kimi K2 within a highly customizable and locally-controlled environment.

This comprehensive guide will walk you through the process of setting up and using Kimi K2 with Claude Code Router. We will cover everything from obtaining the necessary API keys to configuring the router and running your first code generation requests. By the end of this article, you will have a powerful, personalized coding assistant at your fingertips, ready to tackle your most complex development challenges.

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Why Kimi K2 and Claude Code Router?

Before we dive into the technical details, let's briefly explore what makes this combination so compelling.

Kimi K2: A New Frontier in Code Intelligence

Kimi K2 is not just another large language model. Developed by Moonshot AI, it is a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) model with a staggering one trillion parameters. This sophisticated architecture allows Kimi K2 to excel in a wide range of tasks, but it truly shines in the domain of code. Its key strengths include:

• Exceptional Code Generation: Kimi K2 has been trained on a massive dataset of code, enabling it to generate high-quality, contextually-aware code in various programming languages.
• Advanced Reasoning: The MoE architecture allows Kimi K2 to reason through complex problems, making it an invaluable tool for debugging, algorithm design, and architectural planning.
• Long-Context Understanding: With a context window of up to 128,000 tokens, Kimi K2 can process and understand vast amounts of code, enabling it to work effectively with large codebases and complex project structures.
• Agentic Capabilities: Kimi K2 is designed for agentic workflows, meaning it can break down complex tasks into smaller, manageable steps and execute them autonomously.

Claude Code Router: Your Personal AI Gateway

Claude Code Router is an open-source tool that acts as a local proxy for your LLM requests. It allows you to intercept, modify, and route requests to different models based on your specific needs. This offers several key advantages:

• Flexibility and Customization: You are not locked into a single model or provider. You can easily switch between models, experiment with different settings, and even create custom routing rules.
• Cost-Effectiveness: By routing requests to the most cost-effective model for a given task, you can significantly reduce your API usage costs.
• Privacy and Security: Since the router runs locally, you have complete control over your data. Your code and prompts are not sent to any third-party services unless you explicitly configure them to be.
• Offline Capabilities (with local models): While we are focusing on Kimi K2 via an API, Claude Code Router can also be configured to work with locally-hosted models, providing a completely offline AI coding assistant.

By combining Kimi K2's raw power with Claude Code Router's flexibility, you can create a coding assistant that is perfectly tailored to your workflow and preferences.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, you will need to have the following:

• An OpenRouter API Key: OpenRouter provides a unified API for accessing a wide range of LLMs, including Kimi K2. You can sign up for a free account and obtain an API key from their website.
• Node.js and npm (or yarn): Claude Code Router is a Node.js application. You will need to have Node.js and a package manager (npm or yarn) installed on your system.
• Git: You will need Git to clone the Claude Code Router repository from GitHub.
• A Text Editor: You will need a text editor to modify the configuration files. Visual Studio Code is a popular choice, but any text editor will do.

Setting Up Your Environment

Now, let's get our hands dirty and set up the necessary tools.

Step 1: Get Your OpenRouter API Key

1. Navigate to the OpenRouter website.
2. Sign up for a free account or log in if you already have one.
3. Once you are logged in, navigate to your account settings or the API section to generate a new API key.
4. Copy the API key and store it in a safe place. We will need it later.

Step 2: Install Claude Code Router

1. Open your terminal or command prompt.
2. Clone the Claude Code Router repository from GitHub using the following command:

   git clone https://github.com/musistudio/claude-code-router.git
   

3. Navigate into the newly created directory:

   cd claude-code-router
   

4. Install the necessary dependencies using npm or yarn:

   # Using npm
   npm install
   
   # Or using yarn
   yarn install
   

Configuring Claude Code Router for Kimi K2

With the setup complete, it's time to configure Claude Code Router to use Kimi K2 via the OpenRouter API.

Step 1: Set Your OpenRouter API Key

Claude Code Router needs to know your OpenRouter API key to authenticate with the API. The recommended way to do this is by setting an environment variable.

• On macOS and Linux:

  export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
  

• On Windows:

  set OPENROUTER_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
  

Replace "YOUR_API_KEY" with the actual API key you obtained from OpenRouter.

Step 2: Configure the Model

Next, we need to tell Claude Code Router to use Kimi K2 as the default model. To do this, we will modify the configuration file.

1. Open the claude-code-router directory in your text editor.
2. Locate the configuration file. This is typically a config.json or a similar file. If one doesn't exist, you may need to create it based on a provided template (e.g., config.example.json).
3. In the configuration file, you will need to specify the model you want to use. The model name for Kimi K2 on OpenRouter is moonshotai/kimi-k2. You will also need to specify the API endpoint. The configuration might look something like this:

   {
     "default_model": "kimi-k2",
     "models": {
       "kimi-k2": {
         "api_key_env": "OPENROUTER_API_KEY",
         "api_base": "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1",
         "model_name": "moonshotai/kimi-k2"
       }
     }
   }
   

This configuration tells Claude Code Router to use a model named "kimi-k2" by default, and it provides the necessary details to connect to the OpenRouter API.

Using Your Kimi K2-Powered Coding Assistant

With everything configured, you are now ready to start using your new coding assistant.

Step 1: Start the Router

In your terminal, from the claude-code-router directory, start the router with the following command:

npm start

This will start the local proxy server. You should see a message in your terminal indicating that the server is running.

Step 2: Interact with Your Assistant

Claude Code Router provides a command-line interface (CLI) for interacting with the configured model. You can now start sending prompts to Kimi K2.

Here are a few examples of what you can do:

• Generate a Python script to fetch data from an API:

  claude-code "Write a Python script that fetches the latest posts from the JSONPlaceholder API and saves them to a CSV file."
  

• Debug a JavaScript function:

  claude-code "I have this JavaScript function that is not working as expected. Can you help me debug it?
  

  function calculateTotalPrice(items) {
    let total = 0;
    for (let i = 0; i < items.length; i++) {
      total += items[i].price;
    }
    return total;
  }
  

• Write a unit test for a Go function:

  claude-code "Write a unit test in Go for a function that calculates the factorial of a number."
  

Kimi K2 will process your requests and provide you with intelligent, code-aware responses directly in your terminal.

Advanced Usage and Customization

The true power of Claude Code Router lies in its customizability. Here are a few ideas for taking your setup to the next level:

• Add More Models: You are not limited to just Kimi K2. You can add other models from OpenRouter or other providers to your configuration file and create custom routing rules to use the best model for each task.
• Customize System Prompts: You can create custom system prompts to fine-tune the behavior of Kimi K2. For example, you can create a prompt that instructs the model to always provide code in a specific style or to explain its reasoning in detail.
• Integrate with Your IDE: Many IDEs have extensions that allow you to integrate with custom scripts and tools. You can configure your IDE to send code snippets and prompts to your local Claude Code Router instance, creating a seamless in-editor coding assistance experience.

Conclusion

By combining the cutting-edge capabilities of Kimi K2 with the flexibility of Claude Code Router, you can create a powerful and personalized AI coding assistant that will revolutionize your development workflow. This setup empowers you to harness the full potential of large language models while maintaining control over your tools and data.

The steps outlined in this guide provide a solid foundation for getting started. We encourage you to experiment with different models, prompts, and configurations to create a setup that is perfectly tailored to your needs. The future of software development is here, and with tools like Kimi K2 and Claude Code Router, you are at the forefront of this exciting new era.