How to Get Your Anthropic API Key

How to Get Your Anthropic API Key

Phonox uses Claude — Anthropic’s AI — to look at photos of your vinyl records and extract label, artist, title, and pressing details. To use Phonox you need an Anthropic API key. This guide walks you through getting one from scratch in about five minutes.

1. Create an Anthropic Console account

Go to platform.claude.com and click Sign up.

You can sign up with:

  • A Google account (fastest)
  • An email address + password

After signing in you land on the Console dashboard at platform.claude.com.

2. Add a payment method

Anthropic’s API is pay-as-you-go. You need a credit card on file before a key is activated.

  1. Click your organisation name (top-right) → Settings
  2. Select Billing in the left sidebar
  3. Click Add payment method and enter your card details

How much does it cost? Phonox uses claude-haiku for chat/analysis and claude-sonnet for vision. At typical collector usage (identifying 20–50 records per session), expect well under $1 per month. You can set a hard spend limit in the Billing panel so there are never surprises.

3. Generate an API key

  1. In the Console, click Settings → API Keys
    Direct URL: platform.claude.com/settings/keys

  2. Click Create Key

  3. Give it a descriptive name, e.g. phonox-local or phonox-production

  4. Click Create

The key is shown exactly once. Copy it immediately — it looks like:

sk-ant-api03-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Store it somewhere safe (a password manager works well). You cannot retrieve it again from the console — only create a new one.

4. Give the key to Phonox

Option A — Interactive (recommended)

Run the Phonox CLI and choose option 3 — Configure API keys:

./start-cli.sh
# Select: 3) Configure API keys
# Paste your key at the ANTHROPIC_API_KEY prompt

Option B — Direct command

./start-cli.sh configure --anthropic "sk-ant-api03-XXXX..."

Option C — Edit .env manually

Open (or create) the .env file in the Phonox root and add:

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-api03-XXXX...

After setting the key, restart the containers:

./start-cli.sh restart

5. (Optional) Get a Tavily API key

Phonox uses Tavily as a web-search fallback when Discogs and MusicBrainz don’t have a match. It’s optional but improves identification of obscure pressings.

  1. Go to app.tavily.com and sign up (free tier available)
  2. Copy your key from the dashboard — it looks like tvly-XXXXXXXX
  3. Add it alongside your Anthropic key:
./start-cli.sh configure \
  --anthropic "sk-ant-api03-XXXX..." \
  --tavily    "tvly-XXXX..."

Choosing models (advanced)

Phonox ships with sensible defaults, but you can override the models via configure:

./start-cli.sh configure \
  --vision-model "claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929" \
  --chat-model   "claude-haiku-4-5-20251001"
VariableRoleDefaultNotes
ANTHROPIC_VISION_MODELReads record label photosclaude-sonnet-4-5-20250929Higher accuracy, slightly higher cost
ANTHROPIC_CHAT_MODELAnalysis, collection statsclaude-haiku-4-5-20251001Fast and very cheap

For most collectors the defaults are the right choice.

Troubleshooting

“Authentication error” in the backend logs Your key may have been entered with extra whitespace. Re-run ./start-cli.sh configure --anthropic "sk-ant-..." with the key in quotes.

“Your account does not have access to this model” Some models require a minimum spend history on the account. Switch to the defaults shown above, which are available from day one.

“Insufficient credits” Add a payment method or top up your balance in the Billing panel at platform.claude.com/settings/billing.

Want to rotate the key? Go to API Keys in the Console, delete the old key, create a new one, and run ./start-cli.sh configure --anthropic "new-key" followed by ./start-cli.sh restart.

That’s all there is to it — one key, one command, and Phonox is ready to start identifying your vinyl collection.

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