Claude Family Chat

A self-hosted chat app that lets your family share access to Claude — each person gets their own private conversation history. Your API key stays on the server.

Quick Start

1. Get an API key

Sign up at console.anthropic.com and create an API key.

2. Edit docker-compose.yml

Open docker-compose.yml and fill in:

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY: "sk-ant-your-actual-key"
USERS: '{"alice":"password1","bob":"password2"}'
SESSION_SECRET: "any-long-random-string"

3. Run it

docker compose up -d

The app is now running at http://localhost:3000

On your home network, other devices can reach it at http://YOUR-LOCAL-IP:3000 (Find your IP with ipconfig on Windows or ifconfig / ip addr on Mac/Linux)

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Managing Users

Users are defined in the USERS environment variable as a JSON object:

USERS: '{"mom":"secure-pass","dad":"another-pass","kid1":"their-pass"}'

After editing, restart the container:

docker compose restart

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Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	(required)	Your Anthropic API key
USERS	{}	JSON object of username→password pairs
SESSION_SECRET	change-me	Secret for signing session cookies — change this!
CLAUDE_MODEL	claude-sonnet-4-20250514	Which Claude model to use
MAX_HISTORY	40	Max messages kept per user (older ones trimmed)
SYSTEM_PROMPT	You are a helpful assistant.	System prompt sent to Claude
PORT	3000	Port the server listens on

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Data & Privacy

• Conversation histories are saved in a Docker volume (chat-data) — they persist across restarts
• Each user's history is completely isolated from other users
• Your API key is only on the server; it's never sent to the browser
• To wipe all history: docker compose down -v (deletes the volume)

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Monitoring Costs

Keep an eye on your API usage at console.anthropic.com/usage. Set a spending limit under Settings → Limits to avoid surprises.

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Updating

docker compose pull   # if using a registry image
docker compose up -d --build

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Running on a Raspberry Pi or Home Server

Works great on any always-on machine. Just open port 3000 in your firewall/router if you want access outside your home network (consider adding HTTPS via a reverse proxy like Caddy or nginx in that case).