wtf is cscience?

cscience, published as the npm package @cometix/cscience, lets a developer run Claude Science, an Anthropic product, on their own computer using their own Anthropic API key instead of logging in through the usual OAuth flow. It is installed globally with the Bun package manager and requires Bun version 1.1.0 or higher along with an Anthropic API key. On first run, the tool creates a configuration file at a hidden folder in the user's home directory. The user edits that file to add their API key, then runs the tool again to start a local server and open Claude Science in a browser. Commands are available to start the server on a custom port, check whether the background process is running, and stop it. The configuration file also supports a custom API base URL, an alternative OAuth bearer token, and a way to define a custom list of available models. According to the README, the package works by distributing a modified build of Claude Science. It uses a JavaScript parsing library called Acorn to read the minified application code, then applies 13 targeted changes so the app accepts an API key instead of requiring OAuth login, falls back to environment variables for credentials, allows local HTTP proxy addresses, and adjusts a few other authentication and model related checks. The README states these changes are based on parsing the code's structure rather than plain text matching, and that each change is checked to make sure the resulting code still parses correctly. The package is distributed as platform-specific builds for macOS on Apple Silicon and Intel chips, and for Linux on x64, with the installer automatically pulling the right one. Developers can also build it from source by cloning the repository, installing dependencies with npm, and running a build script for their platform or all platforms at once. The project is released under the MIT license and is aimed at developers who already have an Anthropic API key and want to run Claude Science locally without the standard login process.