Connect your engine: your own Anthropic key
Conclave is your editorial room; the engine that powers it is your own Anthropic API key. You connect it once and run Conclaves with no platform limit, paying Anthropic only for what you consume.
What is an API key, and why do you need one?
An API key is like a personal key that Anthropic (the makers of Claude) gives you to use their AI. Conclave uses it to power your team of agents. You pay for the usage directly to Anthropic, at their real price, with no middleman or markup: we give you the room and the specialists; you bring the engine.
Getting and connecting your key, step by step
Five steps, just once. No coding needed: only copy and paste.
- 1
Create your account on the Anthropic Console
Go to console.anthropic.com and sign up with your email (or log in if you already have an account). It is the official site of Anthropic, the makers of Claude.
- 2
Add balance to your account
In the Billing section, add balance with a card. Anthropic works on prepaid credit: this balance is what gets spent with each Conclave. With 5-10 € you have plenty for many queries.
- 3
Set a monthly spend limit
In Billing, set a spend limit with the maximum amount you want to spend per month. That way you never pay more than you decide, no matter what. It is your safety net.
- 4
Create your API key
Open API Keys and click Create Key. Give it a name (for example, Conclave) and copy the key that starts with sk-ant-. Copy it whole: it is shown only once.
- 5
Paste it into Conclave and turn it on
Back in Conclave, open Settings, paste your key and flip the toggle. From then on, your team works with your engine. You can turn it off whenever you want.
What does it really cost?
You pay Anthropic the real cost of each Conclave, with no markup on our side. A typical Conclave (the CEO plus 2 or 3 specialists) usually costs between 0.30 € and 1.50 € on your Anthropic account, depending on team size and research depth. An Assistant query, cents. These are rough figures: your spend limit from step 3 is always the real ceiling.
Is it safe to give you my key?
Your key is stored encrypted (AES-256) and never shown in full: you only ever see the last 4 characters. It is decrypted in the server's memory during your queries and never sent to your browser or written to logs. You can delete it with one click whenever you want.
Frequent questions
Do I need to know how to code?
No. You just copy a key from the Anthropic Console and paste it once into Conclave. No code, no technical setup.
Why not just pay for it yourselves?
Because this way we don't charge you a markup on the AI: you pay Anthropic their real price and we only charge for the room subscription. Cheaper and more transparent for you.
Can I turn it off?
Anytime, with a toggle in Settings. Turning it off doesn't delete your saved key; you can re-enable it whenever you want.
What if I run out of Anthropic balance?
The query won't run and we'll tell you. You just top up balance in your Anthropic Console and carry on.