How-to guide

Set up Claude

Connect Bristlenose to Claude for the analysis pass.

Claude (Anthropic) runs the analysis pass — speaker identification, quote extraction, and thematic grouping. Transcription always happens locally and does not use the provider.

Before you start

  • A Claude (Anthropic) account.
  • Billing enabled. Anthropic requires a minimum US$5 of credit.
  • An API account is separate from a Claude Pro subscription, and is billed separately.

Get an API key

  1. Sign in at console.anthropic.com.
  2. Open Settings → API keys and create a key.
  3. Copy it. Anthropic shows the key only once.

Add the key to Bristlenose

macOS app
  1. Open Settings (⌘,) and go to the LLM tab.
  2. Select Claude and paste your key into the API Key field.
  3. The key is validated in the background and stored in your macOS Keychain.
Command line
  1. Run bristlenose configure claude.
  2. Paste the key when prompted.
  3. The key is validated with a single-token test call and stored in your system credential store — Keychain on macOS, Secret Service on Linux.

Bristlenose looks for the key in three places, in order: the system credential store, the BRISTLENOSE_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY environment variable, then a .env file.

Run an analysis with Claude

Select Claude with the --llm flag:

bristlenose run interviews --llm claude

The default model is claude-sonnet-4-6. To confirm the key works before a run:

bristlenose doctor

Troubleshooting

Symptom Cause and fix
Invalid API key Re-copy the key from console.anthropic.com/settings/keys. Keys cannot be viewed again after creation.
A run fails with a billing or credit error Add credit in the console. Anthropic requires a US$5 minimum balance.

For how Bristlenose uses the provider and what data is sent, see Cloud or local AI and Privacy and data.

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