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AI Trial Key

The AI trial key is a shared Anthropic API key that allows users without their own Anthropic account to use the AI Express Creation feature.

Setup

Set two environment variables:

AI_TRIAL_API_KEY=sk-ant-...your-key...
AI_TRIAL_USAGE_LIMIT=10

AI_TRIAL_USAGE_LIMIT is in US cents. Setting it to 10 gives each user a $0.10/month allowance. Set to 0 for no per-user limit (only your Anthropic account's overall budget applies). Please note that the enforced limit is an approximation and no exact limit.

How it works

  • Each user has a ai_trial_budget_spent counter on their account (reset to zero monthly by the reset_trial_budgets cron job).
  • Every Express Creation request records the API cost (in cents) against the user's counter.
  • When a user's counter reaches AI_TRIAL_USAGE_LIMIT, the Express Creation feature is disabled for that user until the next reset.
  • If the Anthropic API returns a billing error (account out of credit) or an authentication error (invalid key), the trial feature is globally disabled and a flag file is created. The feature stays disabled until an admin re-enables it.

The trial flag file

When the trial feature is globally disabled, Comaney creates a flag file at the path specified by AI_TRIAL_DISABLED_FLAG (default: {app_root}/ai_trial_disabled.flag). The file contains a human-readable reason string.

While this file exists, no user can use the trial key (even if their personal budget is not exhausted). Users with their own Anthropic key are unaffected.

Admin management page

A superuser can manage the trial key state at /admin/ai-trial/ (accessible from the Django admin).

The page shows:

  • Whether the trial is currently enabled or disabled.
  • The reason for disabling (if applicable).
  • A button to re-enable the trial (deletes the flag file).

Re-enabling after exhaustion

  1. Top up your Anthropic account at console.anthropic.com.
  2. Log into Comaneys Django backend with a superuser account at /admin.
  3. Go to /admin/ai-trial/ and click Re-enable.

Single-user and private instances

For a single-user instance or a private instance where all users have their own Anthropic key, you do not need to configure the trial key at all. Each user provides their own key in Account → Settings → Anthropic API key, and it is used only for their own requests.

Security note

The trial API key is stored in the environment and used server-side. It is never exposed to the browser. Users cannot retrieve the trial key, only use it indirectly through the Express Creation endpoint.