Smarter & Claude is Jean-Claude Van Damme - Getting Started Guide

Goal 

Use the Smarter CLI to register Anthropic as an LLM provider, apply a provider manifest, verify connectivity, and send your first prompt to a Claude-backed llm_client — all in under fifteen minutes.

Prerequisites 

An active Smarter account.
Smarter v0.11.0 or later, running and accessible.
Comfort working in a terminal (Bash, Zsh, or PowerShell).
Basic understanding of YAML syntax and REST APIs.

Note

This tutorial assumes you can already log in to the Smarter web console. If you cannot, contact your organization’s Smarter administrator.

An active Anthropic account with API access and a valid API key.

Setup 

Step 1: Install the Smarter CLI 

Follow the installation instructions in Smarter CLI to download the binary for your operating system and add it to your PATH.

Confirm the installation:

smarter version

You should see output similar to smarter v0.11.x (build ...).

Step 2: Create and Set a Smarter API Key 

Log in to the Smarter web console.
Click your profile icon (top-right) and select API Keys.
Click Create API Key, give it a descriptive name (e.g. my-admin-key), and copy the value immediately — it will not be shown again.

Export the key so subsequent commands pick it up automatically:

export SMARTER_API_KEY=your-api-key-here

Step 3: Configure the CLI 

smarter configure

When prompted, provide the target environment (e.g. prod, alpha) and the API key from Step 2. Run a quick health check to make sure everything is connected:

smarter status

A successful response confirms the platform is reachable and your credentials are valid.

Step 4: Obtain an Anthropic API Key 

Sign in at https://console.anthropic.com/.
Navigate to Settings → API Keys → Create Key.
Give the key a descriptive name (e.g. smarter-prod) and copy it immediately — Anthropic will not display it again.

For full details on API key management, authentication, and rate limits, see the Claude API documentation.

Danger

Never commit API keys to version control. Store them only in environment variables or a secrets manager.

Step 5: Add the Anthropic Key to Smarter’s Environment 

Open the .env file at the root of your Smarter deployment and add:

SMARTER_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Restart the application so the new credential is loaded:

make restart

Smarter manages every resource — providers, llm_clients, plugins — through declarative YAML manifests applied via the CLI. This pattern is deliberately modeled on Kubernetes. These files are called SAM (Smarter API Manifests).

Provider 

A Provider represents an external LLM backend (e.g. Anthropic, OpenAI, GoogleAI). Smarter uses the provider definition to know which API to call, which credentials to use, and which model to target.

Provider Manifest 

A Provider manifest has four top-level sections:

apiVersion: Always smarter.sh/v1.
kind: Set to Provider.
metadata: Name, description, and version of this resource.
spec: The provider configuration — which backend and which model.

When you apply a manifest, Smarter registers the provider and immediately runs verification: it calls the provider’s API, confirms the model is reachable, and marks the provider active.

Note

Built-in providers (OpenAI, GoogleAI, MetaAI) are registered automatically during deployment and only require their SMARTER_* environment variable. Anthropic is an additional provider and requires both the environment variable and a manifest.

LLMClient 

A LLMClient is a named resource that bundles a provider, a model, a system prompt, and optional data plugins. End users interact with llm_clients, not providers directly.

Provider vs. Model Identifiers 

Each manifest registers one model under a provider backend. To offer multiple Claude models (e.g. Opus and Sonnet), create one manifest per model. Model identifiers are case-sensitive and must match the strings published by Anthropic exactly.

Manifest Name	Model Identifier	Best For
`anthropic-opus`	`claude-opus-4-5`	Complex reasoning, code generation
`anthropic-sonnet`	`claude-sonnet-4-6`	Balanced speed and quality

For the full list of available Claude models and their capabilities, see the Claude API documentation.

Step-by-Step: Create and Apply Provider Manifests 

Step 6: Generate a Starting Template 

smarter manifest provider

This prints a valid example manifest to stdout. Use it as a reference while authoring your own files.

Step 7: Write the Provider Manifests 

Create one manifest per model. The example below registers both Claude Opus and Claude Sonnet so you can compare their responses side-by-side in the Workbench.

anthropic-opus.yaml — higher capability, best for complex reasoning:

apiVersion: smarter.sh/v1
kind: Provider
metadata:
  name: anthropic-opus
  description: Anthropic Claude Opus 4 — high-capability model
  version: 1.0.0
spec:
  provider:
    name: anthropic
    model: claude-opus-4-5

anthropic-sonnet.yaml — faster and more cost-efficient:

apiVersion: smarter.sh/v1
kind: Provider
metadata:
  name: anthropic-sonnet
  description: Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4 — balanced speed and quality
  version: 1.0.0
spec:
  provider:
    name: anthropic
    model: claude-sonnet-4-6

Note

Model identifiers are case-sensitive and must match the provider’s published names exactly. For the full spec field reference, see Smarter API Manifests (SAM).

Step 8: Apply the Manifests 

smarter apply -f anthropic-opus.yaml
smarter apply -f anthropic-sonnet.yaml

Smarter registers each provider and begins verification checks automatically.

Step 9: Confirm Both Providers are Active 

smarter describe provider anthropic-opus
smarter describe provider anthropic-sonnet

Look for a status section in each output showing that verification has passed. If it shows pending, wait 30 seconds and run the command again — verification is asynchronous.

You can also confirm in the web console: Providers in the left sidebar should list both anthropic-opus and anthropic-sonnet with active status.

Step 10: Send Your First Prompt 

List available llm_clients to find one configured with an Anthropic provider:

smarter get llm_clients

Start an interactive session:

smarter chat <llm_client-name>

Type a prompt and press Enter. For example:

Write a Python function that validates an email address using a regex pattern.
Include a Sphinx-compatible docstring.

Expected response (approximate):

import re


def validate_email(address: str) -> bool:
    """Validate an email address against a standard pattern.

    :param address: The email address string to validate.
    :type address: str
    :returns: ``True`` if the address matches the pattern, ``False`` otherwise.
    :rtype: bool

    :Example:

    >>> validate_email("user@example.com")
    True
    >>> validate_email("not-an-email")
    False
    """
    pattern = r"^[a-zA-Z0-9_.+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9-]+\.[a-zA-Z0-9-.]+$"
    return bool(re.match(pattern, address))

Proof of Concept 

Run the following sequence end to end to verify your setup is complete:

smarter status                              # platform is reachable
smarter get providers                       # anthropic-opus and anthropic-sonnet listed
smarter describe provider anthropic-opus    # verified: true, active: true
smarter describe provider anthropic-sonnet  # verified: true, active: true
smarter chat <llm_client-name>

Expected describe output for each provider:

apiVersion: smarter.sh/v1
kind: Provider
metadata:
  name: anthropic-opus
  description: Anthropic Claude Opus 4 — high-capability model
  version: 1.0.0
spec:
  provider:
    name: anthropic
    model: claude-opus-4-5
status:
  verified: true
  active: true
  last_verified: "2026-04-06T00:00:00Z"

Both providers showing verified: true and active: true confirms that Smarter has a live connection to the Anthropic API and both models are ready for use in llm_clients and the Workbench.

Tip

With both providers registered, create two llm_clients — one backed by Opus, one by Sonnet — and compare their responses to the same prompt in the Workbench. This is a practical way to evaluate cost vs. quality trade-offs before committing to a model for production.

Troubleshooting 

Startup error: “API key not found”

The SMARTER_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY variable is missing from .env or the application has not been restarted. Double-check the variable name (it is case-sensitive) and run make restart.

Provider status: “verification failed”

The API key is invalid, expired, or has been revoked. Generate a new key at console.anthropic.com and update .env. See the Claude API documentation for guidance on key rotation.

Apply error: “Model not found”

The model value in your manifest does not match the provider’s published identifier. Model identifiers are case-sensitive. Run smarter manifest provider to compare your file against a known-good template, and consult the Claude API documentation for current model names.

Smarter & Claude is Jean-Claude Van Damme - Getting Started Guide

Goal 

Prerequisites 

Setup 

Step 1: Install the Smarter CLI 

Step 2: Create and Set a Smarter API Key 

Step 3: Configure the CLI 

Step 4: Obtain an Anthropic API Key 

Step 5: Add the Anthropic Key to Smarter’s Environment 

Concept Overview 

Provider 

Provider Manifest 

LLMClient 

Provider vs. Model Identifiers 

Step-by-Step: Create and Apply Provider Manifests 

Step 6: Generate a Starting Template 

Step 7: Write the Provider Manifests 

Step 8: Apply the Manifests 

Step 9: Confirm Both Providers are Active 

Step 10: Send Your First Prompt 

Proof of Concept 

Troubleshooting 

Startup error: “API key not found”

Provider status: “verification failed”

Apply error: “Model not found”

Manifest validation errors 

“Not authenticated” when using the CLI 

Slow or timed-out responses 