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Validation Model Configuration

TDD Guard validates changes using AI. Configure both the validation client (SDK or API) and the Claude model version.

Claude Code SDK (Default)

The recommended approach. Uses the Claude Code SDK to communicate with Claude directly.

VALIDATION_CLIENT=sdk  # Default, can be omitted

Features:

  • Works automatically with your Claude Code installation
  • Uses your Claude Code subscription (no extra charges)
  • Requires Claude Code to be installed and authenticated

Important: If you have ANTHROPIC_API_KEY set in your environment, Claude Code may use it for billing instead of your subscription. To avoid unexpected charges:

# Check if API key is set
echo $ANTHROPIC_API_KEY

# Unset it if present
unset ANTHROPIC_API_KEY

If you've never created an API key, you can ignore this warning.

Anthropic API

For CI/CD environments or when you need faster validation. Requires separate billing from Claude Code.

VALIDATION_CLIENT=api
TDD_GUARD_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

Get your API key from console.anthropic.com

Notes:

  • Charges separately from your Claude Code subscription (pricing)
  • We use TDD_GUARD_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY (not ANTHROPIC_API_KEY) to prevent accidental charges. If you used the regular ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, Claude Code might use it for all your normal coding tasks, charging your API account instead of using your subscription.

Model Selection

Configure which Claude model to use for validation (default: claude-sonnet-4-0):

# Fastest but unreliable results
TDD_GUARD_MODEL_VERSION=claude-3-5-haiku-20241022

# Best results but slowest
TDD_GUARD_MODEL_VERSION=claude-opus-4-1

See Claude model overview for available models and pricing. Note: pricing only applies to API users - SDK uses your Claude Code subscription by default. Balance model capability with custom instructions to optimize for your needs.

Migration from Legacy Configuration

If you're using the old MODEL_TYPE configuration, see the Configuration Migration Guide for detailed instructions.