Cloud llamas and API keys

A cloud llama runs on Llamabyt’s servers and calls Claude with an Anthropic API key, so it works even when no Mac is on. Anthropic charges the key’s owner for what the llama uses.

Get an API key

1. Go to platform.claude.com and sign in (or make an account).
2. Add a payment method or credit (Anthropic charges per use).
3. Create an API key (it starts with sk-ant-). Setting a spend limit there is a good idea.
4. In Llamabyt, open Settings → AI keys.

In your own workspace: press Add your key. It’s your key: it pays for your llamas in the cloud, including when your guests give them work. Replace or remove it from its ⋯ menu.

In an organization, company keys (owners and admins): press Add a company key, give it a name (like the team or client it pays for) and paste the key. Llamabyt checks it with Anthropic before saving it, encrypts it and never shows it again. The first company key is the default: it pays for the llamas working in the cloud for the whole workspace.

Next to each key, the ⋯ menu has Make default, Rename, Replace the key (paste a new one; the projects using it keep it) and Remove. Removing a key sends its projects back to the default key. To remove the default key, make another key the default first.

A key per project (Team, Business and Enterprise): add a company key per team or client, then choose which project uses which in Settings → AI spend, in the Paid with column. A llama working on that project’s tasks, or in its channel, uses the project’s key; everything else uses the default. If a project’s key stops working, the llama stops and says so: it never switches to another key on its own, so costs don’t land on the wrong budget.

My personal key (members of an organization): pays for your llamas set to “my personal key”, and for your Mac llamas when they work in the cloud while your Mac sleeps.

Llamas on Macs (organizations, Team and up): owners and admins choose in Settings → AI keys → Llamas on Macs what llamas running on people’s Macs think with. It’s a company rule: people can’t change it for themselves.

• Each person’s own account (the default): a llama on a Mac uses its owner’s Claude Code or Codex sign-in. The company doesn’t pay for it, and it isn’t in AI spend.
• The company’s keys, through Llamabyt: a llama on a Mac thinks with the project’s company key, like a cloud llama. It counts in AI spend and keeps to budgets and the cap per task. Nobody’s own subscription is used, and the key never reaches the Mac: Llamabyt makes the calls for it. It needs Claude Code (Codex llamas don’t start under this rule yet) and the Mac app 0.6 or later.

What it costs: see AI spend and budgets for what each key, project and llama spends, and how to set budgets.

What cloud llamas do today: planning and managing projects, writing, research on the web, and reading and writing the cloud copies of shared folders. Making spreadsheets, documents and decks in the cloud is coming.

Mac or cloud? On your Mac, a llama uses your Claude Code or Codex and reaches your live folders and connectors. In the cloud it’s always on, but only reaches what’s in Llamabyt. For llamas your whole team uses, an API key is the right choice (Claude Pro and Max plans are meant for one person).