Anthropic (Claude): Bring Your Own Key (BYOK)

Some Velaro AI helpers call Anthropic's Claude models directly. If you'd rather have those calls bill your own Anthropic account instead of using Velaro's shared infrastructure, add your Anthropic API key in Settings → API Keys → Anthropic (Claude).

What this currently covers, and what it doesn't

Today the Anthropic BYOK key applies to admin-UI Claude helpers — specifically the AI suggestions on the bot Unanswered Questions tab and the AI-drafted KB articles that come from the Continuous Improvement Loop. These are short, cheap calls (a few hundred tokens each).

It does NOT yet cover the main chatbot, the Velaro Copilot, or workflow AI nodes. Those run through Velaro's shared Azure OpenAI account today. We're expanding Anthropic BYOK to those flows next; once that ships, the same key you save here will apply automatically.

If you need wider Anthropic BYOK coverage right now, email support@velaro.com and we'll prioritise.

When you should add an Anthropic BYOK key

You should add your own key if any of the following are true:

• You already have an Anthropic Console account with prepaid credits or a billing relationship.
• Your security team requires that LLM calls about your data go through your account, not a vendor's.
• You want a single Anthropic invoice that includes the Velaro admin-UI helper traffic.
• You're an enterprise customer and want full control of which Anthropic project pays for the API quota.

If none of those apply, leave it on the Velaro shared key — it's included in your plan.

Setup (under 2 minutes)

Step 1 — Generate an Anthropic API key

Sign in at console.anthropic.com. In the sidebar go to Settings → API Keys and click Create Key. Give it a name like velaro-admin and copy the value (it starts with sk-ant-api03-). You only see it once — paste it somewhere temporarily if you need to.

Step 2 — Paste it into Velaro

In Velaro go to Settings → API Keys → Anthropic (Claude). Click Add your own Anthropic key, paste the value, and click Save Anthropic Key. The status banner switches from "Using Velaro's shared Anthropic infrastructure" to "Using your own Anthropic key."

That's it. Admin-UI Claude calls for your site now hit api.anthropic.com with your key.

Verifying the key is actually being used

Every BYOK provider on Velaro has a CI-enforced architecture test that fails the build if the per-site key isn't being injected into the outgoing HTTP request. For Anthropic specifically, this is AnthropicTextServiceBYOKTests in the messaging test project — it asserts that when a site has a configured key, the x-api-key header on the outgoing POST to api.anthropic.com equals the configured site key (not the platform fallback). If a regression rewires the service to use the platform key while a site key is set, that test fails and the deploy is blocked.

You can also verify on your end by looking at your Anthropic Console usage page — within a few minutes of an admin-UI helper firing, you should see traffic attributed to the API key you saved.

Removing your Anthropic key

Today, removal requires support. Email support@velaro.com and we'll clear the key for your site — admin-UI Claude calls revert to Velaro's shared infrastructure immediately. (Self-serve removal is on the roadmap.)

Troubleshooting

"Failed to save Anthropic key." The key isn't in the expected format. Anthropic keys start with sk-ant-api03-. Regenerate the key in the Anthropic Console and try again.

Helper returns no suggestion despite a configured key. Either the key was revoked in the Anthropic Console or your account is out of credits. Check console.anthropic.com → Settings → Billing.

Helper still seems to use Velaro's account after I added the key. The helper services cache per-site state for up to a minute. Wait ~60 seconds and trigger the helper again. If it still misbehaves, contact support.