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How to connect the AI engines (4.2, Piece 1)

This gets the five API keys that let BlueBoost ask ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews the buyer questions every week on its own. It takes about 30 minutes. The setup itself is free, but three of the accounts need a small prepaid balance to start: $15 in all, which covers about two months. The runs are expected to cost about $5.50 a month (the 4.2 plan, section 8).

You do every click yourself. That includes creating the accounts, accepting each company's terms, adding a card and buying credit. Claude must not do these for you. Never paste a key into chat. The npm run ai-keys step in Part 6 saves each key in .env, which never goes into git.

Screen labels below were checked in each provider's own documentation on 2026-10-23, except where a step says "(unverified)". If a screen looks different, pick the closest match and tell Claude what you saw.

Why three separate limits

Think of each account as a prepaid phone card:

1. The prepaid balance with auto-reload off. When it runs out, that provider stops answering. It can't charge more than you loaded. This is the hard stop.
2. A monthly spending limit in each provider's billing screen, where one exists. This is a second stop at $5 a month.
3. BlueBoost's own ceiling, $15 a month for all five engines together. A run that would go past it doesn't start (db/config/ai-engines.json).

If a balance runs out, that week's answers from that engine are stored as "failed" with the reason, and the digest lists failures first (7.2). Nothing breaks silently.

The app subscriptions (ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro and so on) don't include API use. The API accounts are separate and are billed separately.

Part 1: OpenAI, for ChatGPT (6 minutes)

1. Go to https://platform.openai.com and sign up or sign in. Use a work email you'll keep, such as the BlueBoost Google account from the Google guide.
2. Buy credit. Open Settings, then Billing, and add a payment method. Buy the smallest amount offered, $5 if it allows. $5 in total purchases is the threshold for OpenAI's first paid tier (rate limits). If you see an auto recharge option, leave it off (unverified screen name).
3. Set the hard limit. Go to https://platform.openai.com/settings/organization/limits. Under Spend, click Edit spend limit. Enter a Monthly spend limit of 5, turn on Enforce a hard limit, and click Save (spend limits).
4. Make the key. Open the API keys page (https://platform.openai.com/api-keys, unverified address; it's also in the left menu). Click Create new secret key (unverified label), name it BlueBoost, and copy it. It's shown only once. Keep the window open for Part 6.

Part 2: Claude Console, for Claude (8 minutes)

1. Go to https://platform.claude.com and sign up or sign in.
2. Buy credit. Open Billing (https://platform.claude.com/settings/billing), add a payment method, and buy the smallest amount offered, $5 if it allows (the minimum isn't stated in the docs checked). If there's an auto-reload option, leave it off.
3. Set the monthly limit. On the same Billing page, in Spend limits, click Set limit and enter 5 (spend limits). It resets on the 1st of each month.
4. Make a BlueBoost workspace. Open Workspaces (https://platform.claude.com/settings/workspaces) and create one named BlueBoost. This matters for two reasons:
5. The default workspace can't take its own spending limit; a named one can.
6. A key that isn't tied to a workspace needs an extra setting on every request, which BlueBoost doesn't send (Get your Claude API key).
7. Make the key. Open API keys (https://platform.claude.com/settings/keys) and click Create key:
8. Name: BlueBoost
9. Workspace: BlueBoost
10. Expiration: the longest choice, or none. A key that expires stops the weekly runs.
11. Linked account: a service account, if one is offered. A personal key stops working if that person leaves the organization. Otherwise, yourself.
12. Copy the key. It starts with sk-ant- and is shown only once.

Part 3: Perplexity, for Perplexity (5 minutes)

1. Go to https://console.perplexity.ai and sign up or sign in.
2. Buy credit. Open Billing (https://console.perplexity.ai/project/billing). Click Add payment method; adding it doesn't charge the card. Then click Buy more credits and buy the smallest amount offered, $5 if it allows (API groups and billing).
3. Leave Auto reload off. Perplexity's docs recommend turning it on. We don't, because with it off, the key simply stops when the credit runs out, which is our hard stop. Perplexity's docs mention no separate monthly spending limit.
4. Make the key. Open API Keys (https://console.perplexity.ai/project/keys), generate a new key and copy it (quickstart).

Part 4: Google AI Studio, for Gemini (3 minutes, free)

1. Go to https://aistudio.google.com/apikey, signed in as the BlueBoost Google account, and accept the terms. AI Studio creates a Google Cloud project for the key automatically (API keys).
2. Click Create API key and copy it.
3. Don't add billing. A project with no billing stays on the free tier, and "AI Studio usage remains free of charge unless users link a paid API key" (billing). If Google asks for a card, stop and tell Claude.

One trade-off you've already accepted: on the free tier, Google may use what we send to improve its products. We send only public buyer questions, nothing private.

Part 5: SerpApi, for AI Overviews (3 minutes, free)

1. Go to https://serpapi.com and sign up for the Free plan: 250 searches a month, at most 50 an hour (pricing). BlueBoost paces itself to stay under the hourly limit, so you don't need to do anything about it.
2. Don't upgrade and don't turn on automatic renewal. Whether the free plan asks for a card isn't stated; if it does, tell Claude before going on.
3. Copy your API key from your account dashboard (unverified location; look for Api Key in the account menu).

Part 6: Save the keys (2 minutes)

1. Open a Terminal and go to the project's db folder: ``bash cd "/Users/chris-blueforest/Claude Code Projects/BlueBoost/db" ``
2. Start the key saver: ``bash npm run ai-keys ``
3. It asks for each key in turn. Paste one and press Return. To skip one for now, press Return alone. A Claude key that doesn't start with sk-ant- is refused.
4. At the end it lists all five as set or missing. It never shows a key. You can run it again later; it asks only for the missing ones. To replace a key, run npm run ai-keys -- --replace; it asks for all five, and Return alone keeps the old one.

Part 7: Tell Claude

1. The set / missing list from Part 6.
2. How much you put on each account, and whether any screen differed from this guide.

Claude then runs Piece 1:

1. Checks that the two cheapest models, Claude Haiku 5.5 and ChatGPT's gpt-6-luna, can search the web. If Haiku can't, the fallback is Sonnet 5.5, about $2.50 a month more.
2. Sends one question to each engine, about $0.10 in all.
3. Compares each cost with the provider's usage screen.
4. Replaces the made-up sample replies in the tests with the real ones.

If something breaks