Windows cmd can use custom api keys, but the Claude plugin launched in idea cannot
Status Fixed / completed
Maintainer reply ✓ Yes — ant-kurt
Activity 6 comments · opened Jul 16, 2025 · closed Jul 17, 2025
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (ant-kurt, collaborator)
responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.
When cmd opens Claude, it prompts that environment variables have been detected and asks me to choose whether to use my own key, but the idea plugin does not prompt this
6 Comments
Probably due to environment variable difference - can you check your
cmdforANTHROPIC_API_KEYand then check your IDEA terminal for the same?<img width="505" height="617" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c135aa71-b2e7-4ab1-b947-0558c7f2bf9e" />
<img width="775" height="227" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b045fb6a-db7a-4438-a2e6-3e2b4d5fc1fe" />
I checked the environment variables read at the idea end point and my environment variables configuration. The screenshot clearly shows that my system environment variables have been configured with relevant content, but cannot be read.
Did you launch the second screenshot via the "Claude" button, or is that just from opening a terminal in IDEA? If the latter, then this is likely an issue with your IDEA configuration and not the Claude extension.
<img width="1894" height="404" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/fc80bd87-e150-42d9-8eea-d18596d217dd" /> Now you can use your own api. I'm sorry for wasting your time. It was caused by my own failure to restart the idea.
No worries, glad you got it addressed!
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