Pearl Scout (native) is great when you want one bill and one sign-in. But if you're already paying Anthropic directly, routing Pearl through your own key has three benefits: your Anthropic billing is the source of truth, your Anthropic rate-limit tier applies, and you don't double-pay for the same provider through Pearl's gateway.
This tutorial wires Claude Code (the Anthropic provider) up to your Anthropic key in six minutes.
Time required: 6 minutes. You need an Anthropic API key — get one at console.anthropic.com.
Step 1 — Sign in to Pearl Scout first
The Anthropic key won't work without a Pearl session. Sign in via the chat panel if you haven't already — every provider, including Claude Code, requires a Pearl account.
Step 2 — Open the provider picker
In the chat input, click the model name. The picker shows providers grouped by source: Pearl Scout (native), Codex, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot.
Hover over Claude Code. If you haven't configured it before, you'll see Add Anthropic key. Click that.
Step 3 — Paste the key
A dialog asks for your Anthropic API key. It starts with sk-ant-. Paste it,
click Save.
Pearl stores the key in the OS keychain — Windows Credential Manager on Windows, Keychain on macOS, libsecret on Linux. Pearl never sees the key in plaintext beyond the keychain handoff. (If the keychain write fails, Pearl falls back to user preferences with a warning. You can see the result in the dialog.)
Step 4 — Pick a Claude model
Open the picker again. Claude Code now has the full Claude 4 lineup — Opus, Sonnet, Haiku, including extended-reasoning variants. Pick one. The model name in the chat input updates.
Send a test message:
Explain what `array_filter` does in PHP.You'll get a Claude response — running through your Anthropic key, not Pearl's gateway. The context-usage ring updates to Claude's context window. If the model supports thinking blocks, you'll see them collapse above the response.
Step 5 — Switch back and forth
Mid-session, open the picker again and switch to Pearl Scout → Claude 4 Sonnet. Send another message. Notice the conversation thread stays — you can compare answers from the same model class served by different paths.
Or switch to Codex (OpenAI) for the same question, or Copilot. Same chat input. Same modes. The provider is swappable per turn.
What you just got
- Your own Anthropic billing. Pearl Scout's quota doesn't apply to Claude Code requests — they're billed by Anthropic directly.
- Your Anthropic rate tier. If you have a higher TPM than Pearl's default, Claude Code uses yours.
- Prompt caching pricing. Anthropic's prompt-caching tier applies to your key, which can cut cost on repeated context.
- Direct relationship. You're billed by, and have a direct support relationship with, the model provider.
Where to switch back
Pearl Scout (native) is still the right choice when:
- You want one bill across all providers (Pearl Scout includes Anthropic models in the plan)
- Your Pearl plan's quota is generous enough that the per-call savings of using your own key are negligible
- You're using sub-agent delegation heavily — Pearl Scout's gateway has tighter integration with the agent loop
For most other cases, BYO keys are the right call. The provider picker lets you flip between them per turn — you don't have to commit.
Next
Read /integrations for the full per-provider breakdown — Codex, Copilot, and the cross-cutting capabilities that work the same across all four.