Use your Claude API key

With a Claude API key saved, Bitácora runs your notes on its own: you click Run and the changes reach the canvas without opening your chat. What the AI spends is paid by your Anthropic account, not by Bitácora. If you'd rather use your Claude plan, you don't need a key: connect Claude.

Get the key

1. Go to the Anthropic Console and create a key. Settings has the same link: Don’t have one? Create it in the Anthropic Console.
2. Copy the whole key. It starts with sk-ant-.

Save it in Bitácora

1. Click the gear in the header to open Settings and go to Artificial intelligence.
2. In My AI keys › Save a new key, leave Claude in AI provider.
3. Paste the key in API key and, if you like, give it a Key name. If you leave it empty, it's called "My key".
4. Click Save key. Bitácora checks it with Anthropic and stores it encrypted.

The first one you save becomes The general one: the key your projects use unless you give them another. Nobody sees the whole key, only whose it is and its last characters.

Several keys

In the My AI keys list you see each key and how many projects use it. If it says Saved without checking, Anthropic didn't respond when you saved it: if it doesn't run, paste the key again.

• Click its name to change it. Enter saves it and Esc leaves it as it was.
• Make it my general key sets it as the default.
• Delete removes it everywhere: the projects that ran with it have no key until you set another.

Choose which key each project runs with

The project's Owner does this, in the Run the notes panel, under Runs with:

• My general key.
• Key for this project: one of your other keys, only for this project.
• None: use the connector (MCP): the project doesn't use a key and you run from your chat.

If you paste a new key inside the panel, it's saved as "Key for" plus the project name, and it only works there; your general key doesn't change. Under More key options you have Make it my general key and Open in Settings.

Lend your key to a shared project

If you work on someone else's project and your role lets you run, the same panel shows Lend my key to this project. If you have several keys, you choose which one to lend. From then on that project runs with it, and your team can move batches without you being there. Stop lending my key undoes it.

How much it spends

In Settings › Plan, the person who runs the studio sees AI spend this month: the total in dollars, the calls, and the tokens, by project and by person, plus previous months. It's the spend for the whole studio.

Troubleshooting

• "That does not look like a Claude API key": part of it is missing, or it isn't a Claude key. Copy the whole key from the console.
• "Anthropic does not recognize that key": the key was copied wrong or it was deactivated in the console. Create another one.
• "Your role in this workspace does not allow running notes": running requires the Can run with AI role.