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The Claude Desktop App brings Claude to your desktop with a chat interface and a built-in Code tab powered by Claude Code. By routing the Code tab through Bifrost, you get multi-provider routing, virtual keys, budget controls, and full observability.
If your Allowed Headers are already set to *, you can skip this note. If not and you face issues integrating Bifrost with Claude Desktop, try switching to * or adding the specific headers required by your client. By default, Bifrost whitelists: Content-Type, Authorization, X-Requested-With, X-Stainless-Timeout, and X-Api-Key.

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How It Works

The Claude Desktop App has two tabs with different routing behavior:
TabTrafficBifrost Integration
Code tabUses the Anthropic Messages API (Claude Code under the hood)Route inference through Bifrost’s /anthropic endpoint
Chat tabConnects directly to claude.aiConnect to Bifrost’s /mcp endpoint for MCP tools
This guide covers configuring the Code tab for inference routing and the Chat tab for MCP tool access.

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Setup

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1. Configure settings.json

Open ~/.claude/settings.json and add the Bifrost endpoint and API key under the env key: 
{
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "your-bifrost-virtual-key",
    "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "http://localhost:8080/anthropic"
  }
}
For production deployments: 
{
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "your-bifrost-virtual-key",
    "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "https://bifrost.example.com/anthropic"
  }
}
You can open this file by running /config inside Claude Code, or by editing ~/.claude/settings.json directly. These settings are shared between the Desktop app and the CLI.

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2. Start a New Session

Close any active session in the Code tab and start a new one for the settings to take effect.

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Native App Routing via the Gateway Provider (Developer Mode)

The steps above route the Code tab through Bifrost. The Claude Desktop app can also route its native inference through a custom gateway directly, without touching ~/.claude/settings.json. This is configured in the app’s Developer settings by setting the inference provider to Gateway.
The Developer settings and the Gateway inference provider are surfaced by Claude Desktop and may require Developer mode (or managed/enterprise enablement) to appear. If you don’t see them, this flow isn’t available in your build.

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1. Enable Developer Mode and Select Gateway

  1. Open Settings and enable Developer mode.
  2. Go to the Developer tab and find the Inference provider setting.
  3. Set the inference provider to Gateway.
Selecting Gateway as the inference provider in Claude Desktop Developer settings

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2a. Authenticate with a Virtual Key (Direct)

Fill in the gateway fields to point Claude Desktop at Bifrost:
FieldValue
Gateway base URLhttps://<your-bifrost-host>/anthropic
Auth schemex-api-key or bearer (both work)
Gateway API keyYour Bifrost virtual key
A few things to get right:
  • Use the /anthropic path. Claude Desktop appends /v1/messages to the base URL, and Bifrost serves the Anthropic Messages API under /anthropic (so requests land on /anthropic/v1/messages).
  • The virtual key is the credential. With either auth scheme, set the key to your Bifrost virtual key — Bifrost recognizes a virtual key sent as Authorization: Bearer <vk> or X-Api-Key: <vk>.
Configuring the gateway base URL, auth scheme, and API key in Claude Desktop
After saving, restart Claude Desktop so it picks up the gateway configuration.

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2b. Authenticate with SSO

Instead of a static virtual key, you can set the gateway auth scheme to Interactive sign-in and have Claude Desktop authenticate against your identity provider. The Gateway base URL is the same as in 2a (https://<your-bifrost-host>/anthropic, including the /anthropic suffix) — only the auth scheme changes.
Configuring the gateway base URL, auth scheme, and API key in Claude Desktop through IdP
This will allow users to log in directly onto their Bifrost through the configured IdP.

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Why You Only See Anthropic Models

When you list models through the gateway, you’ll notice that only Claude-family models show up in Claude Desktop — even though Bifrost is configured with models from many providers. This is expected. Claude Desktop deliberately displays only its own Claude-family models, and quietly hides everything else returned by the gateway. It is a client-side decision made by the Claude Desktop app — it is not a limitation or misconfiguration on the Bifrost side. Bifrost returns every model you’ve allowed (you can confirm this by calling its list-models endpoint directly); the app simply chooses not to show the non-Claude ones in its picker. If you need to use non-Claude models from Bifrost in Claude tooling, route through the Code tab instead (configured in the Setup section above), where model tiers can be pinned or aliased to any provider.

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MCP Integration (Chat Tab)

The Chat tab supports MCP servers configured in claude_desktop_config.json. Connect to Bifrost’s MCP endpoint to give the Chat tab access to all your aggregated MCP tools: Config file locations:
  • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bifrost": {
      "url": "http://localhost:8080/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer your-bifrost-virtual-key"
      }
    }
  }
}
MCP servers in claude_desktop_config.json are for the Chat tab only. For MCP in the Code tab, configure servers in ~/.claude.json or your project’s .mcp.json file. See MCP Gateway for full setup details.

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Enterprise Deployment

For organization-wide Bifrost routing, deploy a managed-settings.json file via MDM (Jamf, Kandji, Intune):
  • macOS: /Library/Application Support/ClaudeCode/managed-settings.json
  • Windows: C:\Program Files\ClaudeCode\managed-settings.json
{
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "https://bifrost.example.com/anthropic",
    "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "org-bifrost-virtual-key"
  }
}
Managed settings cannot be overridden by individual users, ensuring all Code tab traffic routes through Bifrost.

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Observability

All Claude Desktop Code tab requests through Bifrost are logged. Monitor them at http://localhost:8080/logs - filter by provider, model, or search through conversation content to track usage patterns across your organization.

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Next Steps