Run Claude Cowork with Any API: The Open-Source Alternative

What if you could use Claude Cowork's powerful file management capabilities without being locked into Anthropic's official subscription? Thanks to an open-source project by developer @austinit, that's now possible.

This guide walks you through setting up a forked version of Claude Cowork that works with any Anthropic-compatible API—including Kimi K2, MiniMax, and other third-party providers.

The Problem: Claude Cowork's Limitations

Claude Cowork is an incredible AI collaboration tool, but it comes with some restrictions:

Limitation	Impact
Max subscription only	Must pay $100-200/month for Anthropic's official plan
No third-party APIs	Cannot use alternative Anthropic-compatible providers

For users who want to use third-party APIs or access models from other providers (like Kimi K2), this is a significant limitation.

The Solution: Austin's Open-Source Fork

Developer @austinit spent half a day building an open-source fork of Claude Cowork that allows you to use any Anthropic-compatible API.

Austin's original demo of the forked Cowork

Project Links

GitHub Repository: github.com/DevAgentForge/Claude-Cowork
Original agent-cowork project: github.com/DevAgentForge/agent-cowork

The demo above shows the fork running with MiniMax M2.1 model to automatically organize files—and it works beautifully!

Setup Guide: 15 Minutes to Get Started

Step 1: Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/DevAgentForge/Claude-Cowork
cd Claude-Cowork

Step 2: Open with Antigravity

This is the magical part of the setup process. When you open the project with Antigravity (Google's AI coding assistant), you can simply tell it: "I want to use Kimi's API" and it will automatically open the settings interface for you!

Step 3: Configure Your API

Reference the Kimi official documentation for configuration:

Configuration Guide: platform.moonshot.ai/docs/guide/agent-support

Kimi official configuration documentation

Fill in the following information according to the documentation:

API Key - Your Kimi API key from the Moonshot platform
API Endpoint - https://api.moonshot.cn/anthropic
Model Selection - Options include:
- kimi-k2 (standard)
- kimi-k2-turbo-preview (faster, 60-100 tokens/s)
- kimi-k2-thinking (256K context, multi-step reasoning)

Example Configuration

Your settings.json should look something like this:

{
  "alwaysThinkingEnabled": false,
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN": "sk-your-kimi-api-key-here",
    "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "https://api.moonshot.cn/anthropic",
    "ANTHROPIC_MODEL": "kimi-k2-turbo-preview"
  }
}

That's it! Configuration complete—you're ready to use Cowork with Kimi K2!

Real Results: Impressive Performance

After configuration, I asked it to help organize my desktop files. The results were amazing!

Organized desktop after running Cowork with Kimi K2

Look at that organized desktop—completely clean! All files were intelligently categorized and sorted. No more messy desktop chaos!

Cost Advantage: Incredible Value

As the community has noted:

"CTO is Claude Code, COO is Claude Cowork—and it only costs $200/month. That's cheaper than a full-time intern!"

This cost advantage is remarkable. Whether you're an individual developer or a small team, this is completely affordable.

Kimi K2 Pricing Reference

Model	Context	Best For
kimi-k2	Standard	General tasks
kimi-k2-turbo-preview	Standard	Fast responses (60-100 tok/s)
kimi-k2-thinking	256K	Complex reasoning tasks
kimi-k2-0905-preview	256K	Enhanced coding capability

Summary

This experience has been fantastic! Thanks to @austinit for developing this open-source project. Here's what you get:

✅ Use any Anthropic-compatible API (Kimi K2, MiniMax, etc.)
✅ Enjoy Claude Cowork's powerful features (file management, organization, automation)
✅ Super simple setup (15 minutes to get running!)
✅ Cost-effective (pay only for API usage)

If you want to experience Claude Cowork but don't want to be limited to the official API, strongly recommend trying this open-source version!

Quick Links

GitHub Repository: github.com/DevAgentForge/Claude-Cowork
Kimi API Documentation: platform.moonshot.ai/docs/guide/agent-support
Original Tweet: @austinit announcement

Related Guides

What is Claude Cowork? - Complete feature overview
Getting Started with Cowork - Official setup guide
Safety Tips - Best practices for file access

This guide is based on community contributions and open-source projects. We are not affiliated with Anthropic or Moonshot AI.

Last updated: January 14, 2026

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