Quickstart: your first optimized request

This walks the API path from a fresh account to your first optimized request. (On a Claude subscription with the desktop app or Claude Code? Skip the keys entirely: the installer connects the plan you already have. Pick your path under Get set up in the console.) You will need your Tidbit API key and a provider API key.

Steps#

1. In the console, open API Keys (or the Get set up chooser) and create a Tidbit API key. Copy the secret. It is shown only once.
2. Point your client at the gateway base URL, https://api.usetidbit.ai, instead of the provider’s. Your console shows the exact base URL for your account.
3. Send your Tidbit API key as x-api-key, and your provider key as x-tidbit-upstream-key, on each request.

Example request#

curl https://api.usetidbit.ai/v1/messages \
  -H "x-api-key: <your-tidbit-api-key>" \
  -H "x-tidbit-upstream-key: <your-provider-api-key>" \
  -H "anthropic-version: 2023-06-01" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"claude-sonnet-5","max_tokens":256,"messages":[{"role":"user","content":"hi"}]}'