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What Information Is Required to Send a Request to Claude’s API?
Learn the essential parameters needed to send a request to Claude’s API — including API key, model name, messages, and max tokens — to ensure your integration runs smoothly and securely.
Question
You want to send a request to Claude’s API. What’s the minimum information you must include?
A. Only the API key and your question
B. Just your message text
C. API key, model name, messages, and max tokens
D. Your name, email, and message
Answer
C. API key, model name, messages, and max tokens
Explanation
To send a valid request to Claude’s API, the minimum required parameters are the API key (for authentication), the model name (e.g., claude-3-opus or other available model identifiers), the messages array (containing user input and roles), and max tokens (to define response length). Without these, the request cannot be properly processed. The API key validates your access credentials, the model name instructs which AI version to use, messages provides the conversational context, and max_tokens controls output limits to prevent truncation or overly large responses.