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Claude Code (using non-Anthropic Models)

You can follow these instructions to use your VERDE API Key after installing Claude Code. More information on using Claude Code can be found here, https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/intro.

Note

These instructions assume you are using a space that is connected to non-Anthropic models. Even though Claude Code is using non-Anthropic models, the API it uses is still Anthropic-style, instead the API is translated by Verde's LiteLLM into OpenAI-compatible or other supported formats.

Prerequisites

  1. Your VERDE course or team must be configured to use Anthropic models (see instructor or team lead)
  2. Obtain your VERDE API Key. Instructions can be found here
  3. Install Claude Code. Instructions can be found here, https://www.anthropic.com/claude-code/
  4. The remaining instructions assume you have an open terminal on system with Claude Code and bash installed.

1. Set the Environment Variables

Export the following environment variables before launching claude code. Note that you can use the same model for all tiers (Opus/Sonnet/Haiku) or you can use different models for each tier. The model names must match the exact model name in LiteLLM.

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="<your-ai-verde-api-key>"
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="https://llm-api.cyverse.ai"
export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL="<model name for opus-tier model>"
export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL="<model name for sonnet-tier model>"
export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL="<model name for haiku-tier model>"
export ANTHROPIC_MODEL="<model name for primary model>"

For example:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="https://llm-api.cyverse.ai"
export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL="gpt-oss-120b"
export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL="gemma-4-26b-a4b"
export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL="gemma-4-26b-a4b"
export ANTHROPIC_MODEL="gpt-oss-120b"

Note

To obtain the AI-VERDE Anthropic Base URL, simply remove /v1 (e.g. https://llm-api.cyverse.ai/v1 => https://llm-api.cyverse.ai).

To avoid re-entering this each session, add the line to your shell profile (e.g. ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc). Then, you can source your shell profile.

2. Start Claude Code

You can then run Claude Code. 

claude
After initially launching Claude Code, claude will write the variables into a ~/.claude/settings.json file. You do not need to repeat step #1 again for future sessions.

If you need to change your ANTHROPIC_API_KEY

If for some reason you need to change your VERDE API Key, you can use the slash command /logout in claude or delete your ~/.claude/settings.json; then, repeat steps 1-2.