From 8f166d1fa51f990d8c243c13bfa05c12d6b6df99 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Roy <roy.kim098@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2025 12:05:55 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Add an environment variable to configure claude launcher

---
 README.md            | 10 ++++++++++
 server/claude-cli.js | 45 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------
 2 files changed, 44 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index fcb505cb..6edcccc6 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -113,6 +113,16 @@ To use Claude Code's full functionality, you'll need to manually enable tools:
 
 ### Core Features
 
+#### Claude CLI alias
+
+If you use an alternative launcher like claude-code-router, you can set a custom alias for the Claude CLI that this server will spawn.
+
+- Env var: `CLAUDE_CODE_UI_CLAUDE_SPAWN_ALIAS`
+- Default: `claude`
+- Example: `CLAUDE_CODE_UI_CLAUDE_SPAWN_ALIAS=ccr code`
+
+This is honored across all Claude CLI spawns, including MCP routes.
+
 #### Project Management
 The UI automatically discovers Claude Code projects from `~/.claude/projects/` and provides:
 - **Visual Project Browser** - All available projects with metadata and session counts
diff --git a/server/claude-cli.js b/server/claude-cli.js
index c8a5ebbf..101a36ea 100755
--- a/server/claude-cli.js
+++ b/server/claude-cli.js
@@ -225,17 +225,40 @@ async function spawnClaude(command, options = {}, ws) {
         console.log('📝 Skip permissions disabled due to plan mode');
       }
     }
-    
-    console.log('Spawning Claude CLI:', 'claude', args.map(arg => {
-      const cleanArg = arg.replace(/\n/g, '\\n').replace(/\r/g, '\\r');
-      return cleanArg.includes(' ') ? `"${cleanArg}"` : cleanArg;
-    }).join(' '));
-    console.log('Working directory:', workingDir);
-    console.log('Session info - Input sessionId:', sessionId, 'Resume:', resume);
-    console.log('🔍 Full command args:', JSON.stringify(args, null, 2));
-    console.log('🔍 Final Claude command will be: claude ' + args.join(' '));
-    
-    const claudeProcess = spawnFunction('claude', args, {
+
+    // Resolve alias at runtime so .env changes are picked up
+    const CLAUDE_SPAWN_ALIAS = (
+      process.env.CLAUDE_CODE_UI_CLAUDE_SPAWN_ALIAS || "claude"
+    ).trim();
+    const [CLAUDE_CMD, ...CLAUDE_PREFIX_ARGS] =
+      CLAUDE_SPAWN_ALIAS.split(/\s+/).filter(Boolean);
+
+    console.log(
+      "Spawning Claude CLI:",
+      CLAUDE_SPAWN_ALIAS,
+      args
+        .map((arg) => {
+          const cleanArg = arg.replace(/\n/g, "\\n").replace(/\r/g, "\\r");
+          return cleanArg.includes(" ") ? `"${cleanArg}"` : cleanArg;
+        })
+        .join(" "),
+    );
+    console.log("Working directory:", workingDir);
+    console.log(
+      "Session info - Input sessionId:",
+      sessionId,
+      "Resume:",
+      resume,
+    );
+    console.log("🔍 Full command args:", JSON.stringify(args, null, 2));
+    console.log(
+      "🔍 Final Claude command will be:",
+      CLAUDE_SPAWN_ALIAS + " " + args.join(" "),
+    );
+
+    // Prepend any alias prefix args (e.g., when alias is "ccr code")
+    const finalArgs = [...CLAUDE_PREFIX_ARGS, ...args];
+    const claudeProcess = spawnFunction(CLAUDE_CMD, finalArgs, {
       cwd: workingDir,
       stdio: ['pipe', 'pipe', 'pipe'],
       env: { ...process.env } // Inherit all environment variables