Claude Code

Claude Code is Anthropic’s CLI for AI-assisted coding. Use varlock to inject ANTHROPIC_API_KEY at runtime so the key never sits in a plain text .env or shell history.

For install, schema setup, and shared patterns, see the AI Tools overview.

Environment variable: ANTHROPIC_API_KEY (see supported env variables). Use the API key, not CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN: that (from claude setup-token) only works for headless claude -p requests, not the interactive TUI.

In a project

Add to .env.schema:

# @sensitive @required
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=op(op://api-local/anthropic/api-key)

Tip

You can use any secrets provider you want, but we like 1Password since it uses biometric authentication for local access. All the examples in this guide use the 1Password plugin (op()) to show more real world examples. See that page for plugin setup and auth options.

varlock run -- claude

From any directory

Personal schema at ~/.env.claude:

~/.env.claude

# @sensitive @required
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=op(op://api-local/anthropic/api-key)

varlock run -p ~/.env.claude -- claude

Shell alias (optional)

alias vclaude='varlock run -p ~/.env.claude --no-redact-stdout -- claude'

--no-redact-stdout keeps Claude’s own terminal output unredacted while secrets stay out of your shell history.