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mlsmaycon 7a9fcc25c9 [docs] Document the client checks that bypass the agent network endpoint

A few client-side checks call their vendor directly instead of following
the configured base URL, so they fail on exactly the locked-down networks
Agent Network is built for while inference keeps working. Fast mode reports
a connectivity error, or reports itself disabled by the organization when
the agent holds only a proxy-issued token, and model discovery stays off
until it is turned on explicitly.

Name the variables that settle each case, and say plainly which ones
allowing direct egress does not fix.

2026-08-22 21:14:05 +02:00

README.md

[docs] Document the client checks that bypass the agent network endpoint

2026-08-22 21:14:05 +02:00

README.md

NetBird Agent Network

Agent Network is NetBird's access control layer for AI agents and the people who run them. It gives every agent a real identity, tied to an identity provider (IdP), and governs what it can reach: LLM APIs and AI gateways it can call, and the internal resources it can access. Traffic flows only over the encrypted NetBird tunnel, scoped by policy, with no API keys or other credentials to leak. It also gives you control over cost and token usage.

Because every LLM request passes through an identity-aware proxy, you can:

Set spending and rate limits per agent, per user, or per team — with hard caps that stop requests once a budget is reached.
Restrict models and providers so agents can only call approved (and cost-appropriate) endpoints, keeping expensive models off-limits unless explicitly allowed.
Attribute usage by tracking token consumption and cost per identity, group, or cost center so every request is tied back to the agent and person responsible.
Reuse your existing AI gateway — point the proxy at a gateway you already run, keeping its routing and config in place while it adds identity on top, so you skip API key distribution.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/44d18286-d8ab-49f8-a457-98ccd66f3268

Beta. Agent Network is in beta, but it's stable and already running in production environments. It's fully open source and can be self-hosted on your own infrastructure, with no vendor lock-in and no data leaving your environment.

How it works

Say you have a simple use case: your Engineering or IT team needs access to Claude Code or Codex, and you want visibility into usage plus the ability to enforce budgets. How can you do that without creating a dedicated API key for every team?

With Agent Network you get a private endpoint inside your network, for example: https://mirror.netbird.ai Teams configure their agents to point to that endpoint instead of using individual API keys directly.

This endpoint is only reachable when users are connected to your NetBird network and authenticated through your IdP. Otherwise, it is not accessible from the public internet. You can then use this private endpoint to configure your AI agents, whether that is Claude Code, Codex, or another tool.

Quickstart

Full step-by-step setup: https://docs.netbird.io/agent-network/quickstart

Client settings that don't follow the endpoint

Most of an agent's traffic follows the base URL you hand it, but a few client-side checks call their vendor directly and never reach the proxy. On a network that blocks direct egress they fail even though inference works, so they are worth setting once when you roll the endpoint out.

For Claude Code:

Fast mode checks availability against api.anthropic.com rather than the configured base URL. Set CLAUDE_CODE_SKIP_FAST_MODE_ORG_CHECK=1 when the agent authenticates with ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN alone (the usual shape when the proxy injects the real provider key) or when a TLS-inspecting proxy answers the check itself. Set CLAUDE_CODE_SKIP_FAST_MODE_NETWORK_ERRORS=1 when the network refuses the connection outright. Fast mode is an Anthropic-API feature, so it is unavailable on a Bedrock- or Vertex-backed endpoint whatever you set.
Model discovery is off by default. Set CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_GATEWAY_MODEL_DISCOVERY=1 for the picker to list the models your policies authorise; the proxy filters the response to that set. The client gives discovery a three-second budget and treats any redirect as a failure, so the endpoint must serve /v1/models directly.
The WebFetch domain safety check also calls api.anthropic.com directly and is unaffected by the variables above.

Allowing direct egress to api.anthropic.com covers the network cases but not the credential one, where the check reaches Anthropic and is rejected because the agent presents a proxy-issued key.

Architecture

Agent Network is built on two existing NetBird capabilities:

Overlay network — the encrypted WireGuard mesh between peers.
Reverse proxy — a NetBird peer that terminates LLM requests, establishes the caller's identity, evaluates policies/limits/guardrails, injects the upstream provider key server-side, forwards to the API or gateway, and records usage.

LLM traffic is routed through the proxy's identity-aware pipeline, while internal resources (databases, internal APIs, self-hosted models) are reached directly over peer-to-peer WireGuard tunnels, governed by the same identities and access policies.

Where the code lives

There is no separate "agent-network" service — it reuses the reverse-proxy and management components:

proxy/ — the NetBird reverse proxy that serves the agent network endpoint and runs the per-request middleware pipeline.
management/internals/modules/reverseproxy/ — the management-side control plane: providers, policies, guardrails, limits, routing, and usage/access logs.

Documentation

Full documentation, architecture, and quickstart: https://docs.netbird.io/agent-network