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Route Claude Cowork inference through the Orq.ai AI Gateway for fallbacks, EU residency, and cost control.

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Third-party inference (Cowork)

Claude Cowork’s third-party inference mode routes all model inference through a configured gateway instead of Anthropic’s first-party infrastructure. Orq.ai’s AI Gateway speaks the Anthropic Messages API and is fully compatible.

EU data residency

Pin traffic to EU-hosted models to meet data residency requirements.

Provider fallback

Route across providers automatically to avoid rate limits and outages.

Cost control

Route to cheaper models for routine tasks by configuring them in Cowork.

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Prerequisites

  • Claude Desktop installed with a Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise plan
  • Active Orq.ai account with an API key

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Setup

1

Enable Developer Mode

  1. Open Claude Desktop
  2. Click Help in the menu bar
  3. Hover over Troubleshooting
  4. Select Enable Developer Mode
  5. Restart Claude Desktop
A Developer menu appears in the menu bar after restart.
2

Open Gateway Configuration

  1. Click Developer in the menu bar
  2. Select Configure Third-party inference
  3. Select Gateway (Anthropic-compatible)
3

Enter Gateway Details

Fill in the three fields:
Cowork 3P inference gateway configuration screen showing Gateway selected as the connection type, with the Orq.ai base URL, API key, and bearer auth scheme filled in

Cowork gateway configuration with Orq.ai credentials

Click Apply locally to apply the configuration to this machine, or Export as MDM profile to deploy across an organization.
Get the API key from Orq.ai Settings under API Keys.
4

Add Models (optional)

Cowork automatically fetches available models from Orq.ai via the /v1/models endpoint, so no manual configuration is required. To pin a specific subset, add model slugs using the provider/model-name format:For the full catalog, see Supported Models.
5

Verify the Connection

A successful connection shows Cowork 3P | Gateway in the Cowork status indicator. All inference now routes through Orq.ai.

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Troubleshooting

Developer Mode is not enabled. Open Help → Troubleshooting → Enable Developer Mode, then restart Claude Desktop. The Developer menu appears only after a restart.
The connection did not apply. Reopen Developer → Configure Third-party inference, confirm Gateway is selected, and verify the base URL is https://api.orq.ai/v3/anthropic and the auth scheme is bearer.
Cowork fetches the catalog from the /v1/models endpoint. Confirm the base URL is https://api.orq.ai/v3/anthropic and the API key is a valid Orq.ai key. To pin a subset manually, add model slugs in the provider/model-name format.
Confirm the Cowork status indicator reads Cowork 3P | Gateway. If it still shows first-party inference, re-apply the configuration with Apply locally.

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See Also

API Keys

Create and manage Orq.ai API keys.

Supported Models

Full catalog of models available through the AI Gateway.

AI Gateway

Get started with the AI Gateway for routing, fallbacks, and cost control.

Anthropic Provider

Configure the Anthropic API key and explore Claude model options.