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Route Claude Code through Amazon Bedrock via Portkey. Get full observability, cost tracking, budget controls, and cross-region inference support. See Claude Code overview for why platform teams use Portkey.
Important: Always use the latest version of Claude Code. Older versions may not work with Portkey’s gateway.

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Quick Start

1

Create a Virtual Key

Go to Virtual Keys → Create → Select Amazon Bedrock.Enter your AWS credentials:
  • AWS Access Key ID
  • AWS Secret Access Key
  • AWS Region (e.g., us-east-1)
Save and copy the virtual key ID.
2

Get Your Portkey API Key

Go to API Keys → Generate a new key.
3

Configure Claude Code

Edit ~/.claude/settings.json (user-level) or .claude/settings.json (project-level):
{
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_BEDROCK_BASE_URL": "https://api.portkey.ai/v1",
    "ANTHROPIC_CUSTOM_HEADERS": "x-portkey-api-key: YOUR_PORTKEY_API_KEY\nx-portkey-provider: bedrock\nx-portkey-virtual-key: YOUR_VIRTUAL_KEY",
    "ANTHROPIC_MODEL": "us.anthropic.claude-sonnet-4-20250514-v1:0",
    "CLAUDE_CODE_SKIP_BEDROCK_AUTH": 1,
    "CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK": 1
  }
}
Replace:
  • YOUR_PORTKEY_API_KEY with your Portkey API key
  • YOUR_VIRTUAL_KEY with your virtual key ID
Model names are required. Bedrock uses different model IDs than Anthropic Direct API. Without these settings, requests will fail.
Cross-region inference: The us. prefix enables cross-region inference, routing requests to the nearest available region. Remove the prefix to use a specific region.
The CLAUDE_CODE_SKIP_BEDROCK_AUTH and CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK must be set as numbers (not strings).
That’s it! All Claude Code requests now route through Bedrock via Portkey. Monitor usage in the Portkey Dashboard.

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Using a Config

For advanced features like fallbacks, caching, or retries, create a Portkey Config:
1

Create a Config

Go to Configs → Create Config:
{
  "virtual_key": "YOUR_VIRTUAL_KEY",
  "override_params": {
    "model": "us.anthropic.claude-sonnet-4-20250514-v1:0"
  },
  "cache": { "mode": "simple" },
  "retry": { "attempts": 3, "on_status_codes": [429, 500, 502, 503] }
}
Save and copy the Config ID.
2

Update Claude Code Settings

Add the config to your settings:
{
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_BEDROCK_BASE_URL": "https://api.portkey.ai/v1",
    "ANTHROPIC_CUSTOM_HEADERS": "x-portkey-api-key: YOUR_PORTKEY_API_KEY\nx-portkey-config: YOUR_CONFIG_ID",
    "ANTHROPIC_MODEL": "us.anthropic.claude-sonnet-4-20250514-v1:0",
    "CLAUDE_CODE_SKIP_BEDROCK_AUTH": 1,
    "CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK": 1
  }
}

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Adding Metadata

Track Claude Code usage by team, project, or user: 
{
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_BEDROCK_BASE_URL": "https://api.portkey.ai/v1",
    "ANTHROPIC_CUSTOM_HEADERS": "x-portkey-api-key: YOUR_PORTKEY_API_KEY\nx-portkey-provider: bedrock\nx-portkey-virtual-key: YOUR_VIRTUAL_KEY\nx-portkey-metadata: {\"_user\": \"john.doe\", \"team\": \"engineering\"}",
    "ANTHROPIC_MODEL": "us.anthropic.claude-sonnet-4-20250514-v1:0",
    "CLAUDE_CODE_SKIP_BEDROCK_AUTH": 1,
    "CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK": 1
  }
}

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Advanced Configuration

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Fallbacks

Route to backup providers when Bedrock fails. Create a config with fallback targets: 
{
  "strategy": { "mode": "fallback" },
  "targets": [
    { "virtual_key": "bedrock-virtual-key" },
    { "virtual_key": "anthropic-virtual-key" },
    { "virtual_key": "vertex-virtual-key" }
  ]
}

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Load Balancing

Distribute requests across multiple providers or regions: 
{
  "strategy": { "mode": "loadbalance" },
  "targets": [
    { "virtual_key": "bedrock-us-east", "weight": 0.5 },
    { "virtual_key": "bedrock-us-west", "weight": 0.5 }
  ]
}

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Caching

Reduce costs and latency for repeated queries: 
{
  "virtual_key": "YOUR_VIRTUAL_KEY",
  "cache": { "mode": "simple" }
}

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Retries

Automatically retry failed requests: 
{
  "virtual_key": "YOUR_VIRTUAL_KEY",
  "retry": { "attempts": 3, "on_status_codes": [429, 500, 502, 503] }
}

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Budget Limits

Set spending controls on your virtual key:
  1. Go to Virtual Keys → Select your Bedrock virtual key
  2. Click Edit → Budget & Limits
  3. Configure:
    • Cost limit: Maximum spend (e.g., $500/month)
    • Rate limit: Requests per minute/hour
Budget limits prevent runaway costs from agentic coding sessions.

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Troubleshooting

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Claude Code Version Issues

Cause: Older versions of Claude Code may not be compatible. Fix: Update to the latest version: 
claude update
Or reinstall: 
curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

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Complete Example

Full configuration with all features enabled: 
{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": [
      "Bash(npm run lint)",
      "Bash(npm run test:*)",
      "Read(~/.zshrc)"
    ],
    "deny": [
      "Bash(curl:*)"
    ]
  },
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_BEDROCK_BASE_URL": "https://api.portkey.ai/v1",
    "ANTHROPIC_CUSTOM_HEADERS": "x-portkey-api-key: YOUR_PORTKEY_API_KEY\nx-portkey-config: YOUR_CONFIG_ID\nx-portkey-metadata: {\"_user\": \"john.doe\", \"project\": \"backend-api\"}",
    "ANTHROPIC_MODEL": "us.anthropic.claude-sonnet-4-20250514-v1:0",
    "CLAUDE_CODE_SKIP_BEDROCK_AUTH": 1,
    "CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK": 1
  }
}
With Portkey Config: 
{
  "strategy": { "mode": "fallback" },
  "targets": [
    { "virtual_key": "bedrock-virtual-key" },
    { "virtual_key": "anthropic-virtual-key" }
  ],
  "cache": { "mode": "simple" },
  "retry": { "attempts": 3, "on_status_codes": [429, 500, 502, 503] }
}

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Next Steps

Access Controls

Set up fine-grained permissions and audit logging

Budget Management

Prevent overspending with hard budget limits
Last modified on March 9, 2026