Claude Code Setup

Claude Code is the AI coding assistant that powers the agent pipeline. This page covers installing it and configuring it for the self-hosted dev platform workflow.

What this page covers

Installing Claude Code via npm
Authenticating with the Anthropic API
Installing RTK (Rust Token Killer) for token efficiency
Global CLAUDE.md configuration
Connecting Claude Code to a LiteLLM gateway
MCP (Model Context Protocol) server setup for YouTrack and Gitea integration

Installing Claude Code

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

Authenticate:

claude auth login

Installing RTK

RTK compresses verbose CLI output (build logs, test results, git diffs) before it reaches Claude Code, reducing token consumption by 60–99%.

npm install -g rtk
rtk init --global

See RTK Reference for full documentation.

Global CLAUDE.md

Claude Code reads ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md for global instructions. Place RTK usage conventions, commit message conventions, and any project-agnostic rules here.

MCP server setup

The agent pipeline uses MCP servers to interact with YouTrack and Gitea without leaving Claude Code:

YouTrack MCP — reads and updates issues
Gitea MCP — opens PRs, reads diffs, posts reviews

MCP server configuration will be documented here.