Bring your own Anthropic key.

Three steps.

You'll create a free Anthropic developer account at console.anthropic.com. That's a separate site from claude.ai (the chatbot) — different account, different billing. The API key comes from the developer console.

1. 1

   Sign up at console.anthropic.com

   Open console.anthropic.com and create an account. Then add a payment method, or pre-pay credit (often the safer choice — once your balance hits zero, the meter stops; no surprise bills). $5 of pre-paid credit covers most casual users for months.

   Already have a claude.ai login? You'll still need to sign up here separately — they're sister products under the same company but distinct accounts and billing.

   

2. 2

   Create an API key

   In the console, open Settings → API Keys and click Create Key. Give it a name like "Conductør" so you know what it's for. Anthropic will show the key value once — copy it now. If you lose it, no big deal: just create another and revoke the lost one.

   

3. 3

   Paste it into Conductør

   In Conductør, open Settings → Director (or the post-activation modal if you just activated). Paste your key into the input field — Conductør validates it in the background and saves it locally on your machine. The key never leaves your computer.

   

A few dollars goes a long way.

The AI Director runs on Claude Haiku 4.5, Anthropic's fastest, cheapest model. Conductør pre-caches the long director instructions so they don't get re-billed on every call. Here's real data from a week of typical use:

Translation: a $5 pre-paid balance covers a casual or weekend user for months. A working DJ doing several gigs a week might spend $5–$15/month. A permanent venue install running daily would be more — but you see every cent in the Anthropic console as it happens, and you can set spend caps to be safe (next section).

Three layers of cost safety.

BYOK means you control the meter — and that includes the off switch. You don't have to trust us to bound your spend; you have direct levers in both Anthropic's console and Conductør itself.

• $
  Pre-paid credit (Anthropic console) Add a fixed amount of credit instead of a recurring card charge. When the balance hits zero, calls stop. No surprise monthly bills.
• ⚑
  Spend caps (Anthropic console) Console.anthropic.com lets you set a hard monthly spend limit on your account. Cap it at $10/mo if you want a guarantee.
• ⏸
  Idle auto-pause (Conductør, on by default) If the dashboard sees no activity for 90 minutes (configurable), the AI Director auto-pauses so a forgotten laptop doesn't quietly rack up calls. Lights keep working — only AI calls pause. Click anything to resume.

Things people ask first.

• Does my claude.ai subscription work for this?
  No. claude.ai is the consumer chatbot (Free / Pro / Max plans); console.anthropic.com is the developer console where API keys live. They're sister products from Anthropic but distinct accounts with separate billing. You'll create a free developer account at console.anthropic.com — even if you already pay for claude.ai.
• What model does Conductør use?
  Claude Haiku 4.5 (the fastest, cheapest current Claude tier). The director sends a snapshot of audio energy and recent state every 15 seconds and gets back an updated lighting direction. We pre-cache the long director instructions so 90%+ of input tokens are billed at the cache-read rate (about a tenth the normal input price).
• What happens if my Anthropic credit runs out mid-show?
  The AI Director pauses gracefully and Conductør surfaces a notification. Your lights keep working — only the AI direction layer pauses. You can top up credit and resume, or finish the night with the audio-reactive engine alone.
• Can I use a different Anthropic model?
  Yes — the BYOK card on the Director tab has an "Advanced" override for the model ID. Sonnet 4.6 or Opus 4.7 will produce arguably better direction at substantially higher cost. Most users find Haiku 4.5 indistinguishable in practice.
• Where does my key get stored?
  On your machine only, in Conductør's local config directory. We never see it. Calls go directly from your computer to api.anthropic.com — Conductør Labs isn't in the loop on the AI calls themselves.
• What if I want Conductør to host the AI for me instead?
  We had a hosted relay; we turned it off because the math didn't work at our price points. We'd rather charge a fair license fee and let you control the meter than mark up someone else's API and risk getting upside-down. If demand grows enough that a hosted option makes economic sense, we'll bring it back.
• Will I have to pay Conductør again later?
  No. Pro and Venue are one-time purchases — no auto-renewal, no recurring charges. Your license includes every update within the version line you bought (a v1.0 Pro license includes every v1.x release). When we ship a future major version (v2.0 someday), it may be offered as a paid upgrade with a discount for current owners; that's a separate purchase, not a forced renewal. Your existing license keeps working regardless. The only recurring spend in the picture is your own Anthropic API credit, which goes to Anthropic, not us.