Skip to main content
Use Claude Desktop’s third-party inference settings to route requests through the Sphinx API gateway.

​
Video Tutorial

​
Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:
  • The latest version of Claude Desktop
  • Access to Claude Desktop
  • Your organization is enabled for the Sphinx LLM Gateway
  • Your Sphinx API key

​
Configure the API gateway

1

Open Claude Desktop

Launch Claude Desktop and sign in with your company email.
Claude requires you to sign in at least once with an email or enterprise SSO. This account will NOT be used after this process is complete. You will instead be using Sphinx’s private backend, which maintains stricter security standards.
2

Enable Developer Mode

From the application menu, select Help → Troubleshooting → Enable Developer Mode.
On Windows, the Help menu is located in the top-left corner of the Claude Desktop window. Click the menu button, then select Help → Troubleshooting → Enable Developer Mode.
Claude Desktop for Windows with the top-left menu open, showing Help, Troubleshooting, and Enable Developer Mode

Enable Developer Mode from the Help menu in Claude Desktop for Windows

Confirm the warning when prompted. Claude Desktop restarts and adds a Developer menu to the application menu bar.
If the Developer menu is already visible, Developer Mode is enabled and you can continue to the next step.
3

Open the third-party inference settings

Select Developer → Configure Third-Party Inference.
4

Choose Gateway

In the configuration dialog, select Gateway.
5

Enter the gateway credentials

Complete the form with the following values:Enter the gateway base URL exactly as shown.
6

Test the connection

Click Test Connection.Continue only after Claude Desktop confirms that the connection was successful.
7

Restart with the gateway

Restart Claude Desktop. When prompted to choose how to continue, select Continue with Gateway.
After you log in with the gateway, your Claude Desktop application will no longer send data directly to Anthropic. All AI usage will instead go through Sphinx’s secure API gateway.

​
Additional steps for Windows users

This section applies only to Windows users. If you are using macOS, skip to Verify Claude Desktop.
To use Cowork with the Sphinx LLM Gateway on Windows, complete these steps after restarting Claude Desktop with the gateway:
1

Open Claude Desktop

Launch Claude Desktop after it restarts with the gateway.
2

Open Cowork

Click Cowork in the top-left panel.
3

Install the virtualization software

When Claude Desktop reports that the Virtual Machine Platform is not available, click Enable to install the required Windows virtualization software.
Claude Desktop on Windows showing a Virtual Machine Platform not available message with an Enable button

Enable the Virtual Machine Platform required by Cowork on Windows

4

Restart your computer

After the virtualization software is installed, click Restart now to restart your computer and finish the setup.
Claude Desktop on Windows prompting the user to restart the computer to finish Virtual Machine Platform setup

Restart Windows to finish setting up the Virtual Machine Platform

5

Use Cowork with Sphinx

After your computer restarts, open Claude Desktop and select Cowork. You can now use Cowork with the Sphinx LLM Gateway.

​
Verify Claude Desktop Is Connected

Start a new chat and send a simple prompt, such as:
If Claude responds, Claude Desktop can reach AI models through the gateway.