Fix Python Claude API Proxy Script | Generated by AI

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Question: How do I fix the Python script that calls the pincc.ai Claude API proxy, and make it work correctly?

Answer:

Based on the document you shared and what the actual claude CLI does successfully (ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL + ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN), here is a complete analysis and fix.

Root Cause Analysis

The pincc.ai proxy is a Claude Code relay service. From the logs, you can see the real CLI works perfectly with:

ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="https://v2-as.pincc.ai" ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN="$PINCC_API_KEY" claude --print "Hello"
# Output: Hello! How can I help you today?

But the Python requests script keeps failing. The most likely reasons:

  1. Wrong auth header format — the relay may expect x-api-key not Authorization: Bearer
  2. Wrong model name — claude-sonnet-4-6 may not be accepted; the relay may want a specific model string
  3. Missing or wrong anthropic-beta header — the relay validates Claude Code client identity
  4. SSL / request library issues — the urllib3 version warning in your logs

Fixed Script

Try each approach in order:

Approach 1 — Use x-api-key (standard Anthropic format)

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import os
import requests

def main():
    api_key = os.environ.get("PINCC_API_KEY")
    if not api_key:
        raise ValueError("PINCC_API_KEY environment variable not set")

    response = requests.post(
        "https://v2-as.pincc.ai/v1/messages",
        headers={
            "Content-Type": "application/json",
            "anthropic-version": "2023-06-01",
            "x-api-key": api_key,              # ← standard Anthropic header
        },
        json={
            "model": "claude-sonnet-4-20250514",  # ← use full model string
            "max_tokens": 1024,
            "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}],
        },
    )
    print(response.status_code)
    print(response.json())

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Approach 2 — Match exactly what the CLI sends

From the document, the CLI uses ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN which maps to Authorization: Bearer. The key insight from the logs is the CLI also identifies itself with specific headers:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import os
import requests

def main():
    api_key = os.environ.get("PINCC_API_KEY")
    if not api_key:
        raise ValueError("PINCC_API_KEY environment variable not set")

    response = requests.post(
        "https://v2-as.pincc.ai/v1/messages",
        headers={
            "Content-Type": "application/json",
            "anthropic-version": "2023-06-01",
            "Authorization": f"Bearer {api_key}",
            "User-Agent": "claude-code/2.1.76 (external)",
            "anthropic-beta": "claude-code-20250219",
            "x-stainless-helper": "true",        # ← found in the CLI source
        },
        json={
            "model": "claude-sonnet-4-20250514",  # ← full model string
            "max_tokens": 1024,
            "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}],
        },
    )
    print(response.status_code)
    print(response.json())

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Approach 3 — Use httpx to avoid the urllib3 warning

The requests version warning (urllib3 (2.6.3) ... doesn't match a supported version) can sometimes cause SSL issues. Switch to httpx:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import os
import httpx

def main():
    api_key = os.environ.get("PINCC_API_KEY")
    if not api_key:
        raise ValueError("PINCC_API_KEY environment variable not set")

    with httpx.Client() as client:
        response = client.post(
            "https://v2-as.pincc.ai/v1/messages",
            headers={
                "Content-Type": "application/json",
                "anthropic-version": "2023-06-01",
                "x-api-key": api_key,
            },
            json={
                "model": "claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
                "max_tokens": 1024,
                "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}],
            },
        )
        print(response.status_code)
        print(response.json())

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Approach 4 — Use the official Anthropic SDK (most reliable)

The pincc.ai relay supports the standard ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL + ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN configuration. You can leverage this directly with the SDK:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import os
import anthropic

def main():
    client = anthropic.Anthropic(
        base_url="https://v2-as.pincc.ai",
        auth_token=os.environ.get("PINCC_API_KEY"),
    )

    message = client.messages.create(
        model="claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
        max_tokens=1024,
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}],
    )
    print(message.content)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Install with: pip install anthropic

Quick Debugging Tips

Print the full error response to see exactly what’s failing:

print(response.status_code)
print(response.text)  # raw response text, better than .json() when it fails

Common error meanings:

The Approach 4 (SDK) is the most recommended since it handles auth, retries, and model naming automatically and is known to work with relay proxies.

References:

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