Claude Code Meets llama.cpp on Windows

This is a practical workaround post more than a canonical install guide: Claude Code officially supports Windows 10+ but expects Anthropic API access, with Bedrock and Vertex AI as the documented alternate backends.

• –The local-llm angle is the whole story here: the user is trying to keep the stack light enough for weak hardware, which is exactly where llama.cpp shines.
• –If they are aiming for Claude Code over an OpenAI-compatible local endpoint, the fragile part will be compatibility, not raw model loading.
• –Qwen 3.5 0.8B is tiny enough to run comfortably, but the tradeoff is obvious: speed and memory savings versus code quality and reasoning depth.
• –For beginners, the hardest part is usually plumbing the environment, not the model itself: Node, Windows shell setup, backend configuration, and endpoint wiring.
• –This sits in the growing “AI coding tool, self-hosted backend” niche, where users want Claude-like workflows without paying the hardware or cloud tax.