Set up Claude

4 min read

Kujira supports two ways to use Claude: a Claude Pro or Max subscription, or an Anthropic API key. Each one is a connection type, and you can have as many as you need: the team subscription, a key billed separately, a customer's account.

Recommended: connect a subscription

For agents that work regularly, a Claude Pro or Max subscription generally provides much more predictable cost. The API is billed per token and spend can grow quickly, especially with capable models such as Opus or Fable.

Before you start

Open Settings > Models > Claude. You need permission to edit organization models. You will see Claude's list of connections: each row is one account, with its name, its type, and whether it is turned on.

Open Claude settings in Kujira

Connection type	Recommendation	Billing
Subscription	Preferred for continuous agent work	Included within your Claude Pro or Max plan limits
API key	Use for a specific API account or usage billing	Per token; review usage and limits carefully

The name is what tells them apart

The type is chosen when the connection is created and cannot be changed afterwards. Give each one a name that says which account it is—“Team subscription”, “Billing key”—because that is what you will see when assigning it to an agent.

Connect a Claude subscription

Under Settings > Models > Claude, select Add connection, name it, choose the Subscription type and select Connect from the browser. Complete the authorization with the account holding the Pro or Max plan, then paste back into Kujira the code Claude shows you.

Alternatively, authorize from a terminal with a Claude Code token:

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
claude
claude setup-token

Sign in with the account holding the subscription, copy the token generated by claude setup-token, and paste it into the Session token field of a Subscription connection. Treat it like a password; do not share it in chat, tickets, or documents.

If Claude later rejects that token, there is no need to rebuild the connection: its row has Reconnect, which repeats the authorization on that specific connection and leaves the others untouched.

The connection expires after a year

The authorization lasts one year from the day you connect it, and does not renew itself. The connection's row shows when it expires: amber once fewer than 30 days are left, red once it has expired.

You get a heads-up before that date — 30 days out and again 7 days out — so you can reconnect without a rush. Reconnecting gives it another year and changes nothing else: the agents using it carry on. If the date passes, they stop answering and Kujira reports the credential as expired.

Removing or reconnecting cancels the old access

When you delete a connection, clear its token, or replace it by reconnecting, Kujira also cancels that authorization at Anthropic. The previous value stops working even if someone kept a copy of it.

Kujira uses Claude Code exclusively as its internal harness for executions using a Claude subscription.

Add an Anthropic API key

1. Open Anthropic Console API keys with the account paying for the API.
2. In Settings > API keys, select Create key.
3. Copy it immediately; Anthropic does not show the complete value again.
4. In Kujira, select Add connection, name it, choose the API key type, paste the key, and save.

Store the key only once

An API key gives access to your Anthropic organization billing. Store it in Kujira and do not copy it to chats, tickets, or documentation.

Several Claude connections

Nothing stops you from having several at once, and it is common as soon as there is more than one team or customer: the subscription for day-to-day work and an API key for whatever must be billed separately.

• One of them is the default: the one used by agents that do not pick a specific connection. The first one you add is marked; to change it, use Make default on the row you want. It must be turned on and hold a credential.
• The rest stay available: any agent can pin one by name from its own configuration.
• To remove a connection agents already use, Kujira first asks which one they move to. See Models.

Activate an agent

In the agent's Configuration > Model, first choose under Connection which one it boots with: Inherit from the organization to use Claude's default, a specific connection by name, or one of the agent's own. Then select a Claude model. If the agent is running, changing the connection restarts it on its own; changing the model requires restarting it.

See Models to understand model and connection inheritance.