Iris
Iris is the client-front component. It runs on the machine where agents live — typically your development workstation or laptop — and intercepts outbound Anthropic API calls before they leave the machine.
No changes to agent code are required. Iris presents a local socket at 127.0.0.1:8080 that speaks the full Anthropic Messages API. Point your ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL environment variable at it and Iris handles the rest.
What Iris does
Section titled “What Iris does”- Intercepts — receives every outbound request your agents make to the Anthropic Messages API.
- Evaluates policy — checks the model name and any per-teammate tags against your routing table.
- Routes — forwards to the local fleet via minotaur, or passes through to
api.anthropic.com, or both in fallback mode. - Logs — records every routing decision locally for inspection with
pantheon iris log.
Installation
Section titled “Installation”Iris is installed as part of the standard install flow when you select the client front role:
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -fsSL https://pantheon.lhocke.dev/installs/install.sh | sh# Select: client frontThe installer configures a local socket, writes a default routing policy, and prompts for your orchestrator host’s hermes address.
Configuration
Section titled “Configuration”The routing policy lives at ~/.config/pantheon/iris.toml:
[iris]listen = "127.0.0.1:8080"orchestrator = "minotaur.local:7677" # hermes endpoint on your orchestrator host
[routing]default = "auto" # local | anthropic | auto
[routing.overrides]"claude-opus-*" = "anthropic""claude-sonnet-*" = "auto""*" = "local"Edit this file and run pantheon iris reload to apply changes without restarting.
pantheon iris status # show current routing table and fleet statepantheon iris log # tail routing decisions (live)pantheon iris log --tail 50 # last 50 decisionspantheon iris reload # reload config without restartpantheon iris stop # stop the local Iris socketEnvironment variable
Section titled “Environment variable”Set this in your shell profile or agent launcher so clients reach Iris:
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="http://127.0.0.1:8080"Claude Code, the Anthropic SDK, and most CLI tools respect ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL automatically.