Interact with Claude AI models via the Anthropic API

Usage

claude_chat(
  .llm,
  .model = "claude-sonnet-5",
  .max_tokens = 2048,
  .temperature = NULL,
  .top_k = NULL,
  .top_p = NULL,
  .metadata = NULL,
  .stop_sequences = NULL,
  .tools = NULL,
  .json_schema = NULL,
  .file_ids = NULL,
  .api_url = "https://api.anthropic.com/",
  .verbose = FALSE,
  .max_tries = 3,
  .timeout = 60,
  .stream = FALSE,
  .dry_run = FALSE,
  .thinking = FALSE,
  .thinking_budget = 1024,
  .effort = NULL,
  .cache = FALSE,
  .max_tool_rounds = 10
)

Arguments

.llm

An LLMMessage object containing the conversation history and system prompt.

.model

Character string specifying the Claude model version (default: "claude-sonnet-5").

.max_tokens

Integer specifying the maximum number of tokens in the response (default: 1024).

.temperature

Numeric between 0 and 1 controlling response randomness. Only supported on older models; Claude Sonnet 5 and Opus 4.7 or newer reject sampling parameters.

.top_k

Integer controlling diversity by limiting the top K tokens. Only supported on older models.

.top_p

Numeric between 0 and 1 for nucleus sampling. Only supported on older models.

.metadata

List of additional metadata to include with the request.

.stop_sequences

Character vector of sequences that will halt response generation.

.tools

List of additional tools or functions the model can use.

.json_schema

A schema to enforce an output structure

.file_ids

Character; A vector of file IDs for files that were uploaded to Anthropics Servers

.api_url

Base URL for the Anthropic API (default: "https://api.anthropic.com/").

.verbose

Logical; if TRUE, displays additional information about the API call (default: FALSE).

.max_tries

Maximum retries to peform request

.timeout

Integer specifying the request timeout in seconds (default: 60).

.stream

Logical; if TRUE, streams the response piece by piece (default: FALSE).

.dry_run

Logical; if TRUE, returns the prepared request object without executing it (default: FALSE).

.thinking

Logical; if TRUE, enables Claude's thinking mode. On Claude Sonnet 4.6, Opus 4.6 or newer this maps to adaptive thinking; on older models it uses a fixed thinking budget (default: FALSE).

.thinking_budget

Integer specifying the maximum tokens Claude can spend on thinking (default: 1024). Must be at least 1024. Only used on older models; ignored when the model supports adaptive thinking, where .effort controls thinking depth instead.

.effort

Character; one of "low", "medium", "high", "xhigh", or "max". Controls thinking depth and overall token spend on models that support the effort parameter (Claude Opus 4.5 or newer, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or newer). Default NULL uses the API default ("high").

.cache

Logical or character; enables Anthropic prompt caching for the request. TRUE caches with the default 5-minute time to live; "1h" requests a one-hour time to live. Cache reads cost roughly a tenth of the base input price. Cache token counts are reported in get_metadata() in the cached_tokens and cache_creation_tokens columns, and in raw form in api_specific under cache_creation_input_tokens and cache_read_input_tokens (default: FALSE).

Anthropic only caches prompts above a per-model minimum, and that minimum is higher on the cheaper models: 4096 tokens on Haiku 4.5, 1024 on Sonnet 5 and Sonnet 4.6, 512 on Opus 5. Shorter prompts are not an error; they simply report zero cache tokens.

.max_tool_rounds

Integer specifying the maximum number of tool use iterations (default: 10). Set to 1 for single-round tool use, or higher for multi-turn agentic loops.

Value

A new LLMMessage object containing the original messages plus Claude's response.

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
# Basic usage
msg <- llm_message("What is R programming?")
result <- claude_chat(msg)

# With adaptive thinking and effort control
result2 <- claude_chat(msg,
                 .thinking = TRUE,
                 .effort = "low")
} # }