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What is claude-shield?

caceb001/claude-shield — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

★ 29RustAudience · developerComplexity · 4/5LicenseSetup · moderate

In one sentence

A Rust CLI and background daemon that patches specific older Claude Code CLI builds to remove timezone and proxy-URL checks the author documented.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Claude Shield))
    What it does
      Patches older Claude Code builds
      Timezone check removal
      Proxy URL audit
    Tech stack
      Rust
      Cargo
    Use cases
      Scan installed version
      Patch and restore
      Background daemon
    Audience
      Developers
      Affected users

Code map

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filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Scan an installed Claude Code CLI version for the behavior described in the README.

USE CASE 2

Patch or restore the targeted binary using same-length byte replacement.

USE CASE 3

Run a background daemon that reapplies the patch automatically after CLI updates.

USE CASE 4

Audit configured proxy and base URL settings against the documented domain list.

What is it built with?

RustCargo

How does it compare?

caceb001/claude-shieldmatthart1983/diskwatchmic92/hestia
Stars292929
LanguageRustRustRust
Setup difficultymoderateeasyeasy
Complexity4/52/53/5
Audiencedeveloperdeveloperops devops

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires a Rust/Cargo toolchain to build from source, plus an existing local Claude Code CLI installation to operate on.

MIT license: free to use, modify, and redistribute, including commercially, as long as the copyright notice is kept.

So what is it?

Claude Shield is a Rust command line tool and background daemon that the author built in response to specific versions of Anthropic's Claude Code CLI, from 2.1.91 through 2.1.196, which the README says contained hidden checks that read the local system timezone and compared custom API endpoint URLs against an internal list of domains. The tool is described as a privacy protection utility that patches those checks out of an already installed Claude Code binary and keeps watching for updates so the patch can be reapplied automatically. The README explains the behavior it targets in three parts: reading the local timezone to see if it matches certain restricted regions, checking any custom API base URL a user has configured against a hidden list of domains, and altering certain punctuation characters inside a system prompt line under specific conditions. Claude Shield is written in Rust with no external Cargo dependencies, and it applies same-length byte level changes to the installed binary rather than rewriting whole files, so the patched file stays the same length as the original. The tool ships as a single native binary with several commands: scan to check the currently installed Claude Code version, patch to apply the byte level changes, restore to undo them, audit to inspect proxy and base URL configuration, and start, status, logs, and stop to run and manage a background daemon that uses native file system events on macOS and Linux to reapply patches automatically after the CLI updates. It also includes an optional local HTTP gateway that can run on the machine to process outgoing requests before they reach Anthropic's servers. The README notes that Anthropic removed the mechanism this tool targets starting in Claude Code version 2.1.197, and that scanning a newer install correctly reports no known mechanism detected. The project is released under the MIT license. This is aimed at developers who were affected by the specific older Claude Code versions described in the README and want technical detail on what those versions did and how this tool responds to it.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Explain in plain terms what versions of Claude Code this tool targets and why, based on the README.
Prompt 2
Walk me through building Claude Shield from source with cargo build --release.
Prompt 3
What do the scan, patch, restore, and audit commands each do in this tool?
Prompt 4
Summarize how the sentinel daemon detects and reapplies patches after an update.

Frequently asked questions

What is claude-shield?

A Rust CLI and background daemon that patches specific older Claude Code CLI builds to remove timezone and proxy-URL checks the author documented.

What language is claude-shield written in?

Mainly Rust. The stack also includes Rust, Cargo.

What license does claude-shield use?

MIT license: free to use, modify, and redistribute, including commercially, as long as the copyright notice is kept.

How hard is claude-shield to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is claude-shield for?

Mainly developer.

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