Set up Hive in 5 minutes

Three steps: make an account, add free keys, point your tools at Hive.

1. Make an account

Sign up with an email and password. No card. You can chat right away on a small set of shared starter models, but they're slow, so do step 2.

2. Add free keys

Each of these gives a free API key in a minute or two. Two or three are plenty to start; more keys mean more models and more backups when one hits its limit. Paste them all into Keys in the app, in any format. Hive works out which is which.

Your keys are encrypted before they're stored. Free tiers have their own limits and terms, set by each provider.

3. Use Hive in your tools

In the app, open API and press Make an API key. It starts with hive_ and is shown once. The free plan includes 100 API requests a day so you can try this; Pro raises it to 20,000.

Claude Code

ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://your-hive \
ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN=hive_your_key \
ANTHROPIC_MODEL=hive claude

Cursor

Settings → Models → turn on Override OpenAI Base URL, then:

Base URL   https://your-hive/v1
API key    hive_your_key
Model      hive   (add it as a custom model)

Continue, Cline and other OpenAI-compatible tools

Choose the "OpenAI compatible" provider and use the same three values as Cursor.

Python

from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(base_url="https://your-hive/v1", api_key="hive_your_key")
r = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="hive",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Write a function that merges overlapping intervals."}],
)
print(r.choices[0].message.content)

Good to know

• Hard requests take longer. For real coding work, several models draft and the drafts are tested, which can take a minute or two. Set your tool's timeout to 5 minutes.
• Model names. hive is the normal choice. hive-free never uses Claude. hive-pro lets Claude judge the hardest steps if you've added your own Anthropic key.
• Limits. If a model runs out of free quota or stalls, Hive moves the job to the next best one on its own.
• Your files. In desktop Chrome or Edge, the chat can read and edit one folder you pick, and asks before every change.

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