claudeR: R Interface to Anthropic's Claude API

This package provides a comprehensive R interface to Anthropic's Claude AI models, including Claude 2 and the Claude 3 family. The latest version adds support for Claude 3.7's extended thinking capabilities, allowing for more thorough reasoning and complex problem-solving.

Installation

You can install this package from GitHub using the devtools package:

# Install devtools if you haven't already
install.packages("devtools")

# Install claudeR
devtools::install_github("yrvelez/claudeR")

Basic Usage

Load the package and set your API key:

library(claudeR)

# Set your API key as an environment variable (recommended)
Sys.setenv(ANTHROPIC_API_KEY = "your_api_key_here")

# Or pass it directly in function calls
# api_key = "your_api_key_here"

Claude 2 Example

response <- claudeR(
  prompt = "What is the capital of France?",
  model = "claude-2",
  max_tokens = 50
)

cat(response)

Claude 3 Example

response <- claudeR(
  prompt = list(list(role = "user", content = "What is the capital of France?")),
  model = "claude-3-opus-20240229",
  max_tokens = 50
)

cat(response)

Claude 3.7 with Extended Thinking

Claude 3.7 introduces an extended thinking capability that improves reasoning for complex problems:

result <- claudeR(
  prompt = list(list(role = "user", content = "Solve this math problem: If f(x) = 2x² + 3x - 5, find all values of x where f(x) = 20")),
  model = "claude-3-7-sonnet-20250219",
  thinking = list(type = "enabled", budget_tokens = 2000),
  return_thinking = TRUE
)

# Access thinking and response separately
cat("Thinking process:\n", result$thinking, "\n\n")
cat("Final answer:\n", result$response)

Function Parameters

Parameter	Description
prompt	For Claude 2: A string with the prompt text. For Claude 3: A list of message objects with role and content fields.
model	The model to use. Default: "claude-3-7-sonnet-20250219".
max_tokens	Maximum number of tokens to generate. Default: 100.
stop_sequences	A list of strings upon which to stop generating.
temperature	Controls randomness (0-1). Default: 0.7. Must be exactly 1 when using extended thinking.
top_k	Only sample from top K options for each token. Default: -1. Automatically disabled with extended thinking.
top_p	Controls diversity via nucleus sampling. Default: -1. Automatically disabled with extended thinking.
api_key	Your API key. If NULL, reads from ANTHROPIC_API_KEY environment variable.
system_prompt	Optional system instructions for Claude 3 models.
thinking	For Claude 3.7: A list with type="enabled" and budget_tokens to activate extended thinking.
stream_thinking	Whether to stream the response in real-time. Default: TRUE.
return_thinking	Whether to return thinking output. Default: FALSE.

Extended Thinking Mode

Claude 3.7 features an advanced extended thinking mode that helps the model solve complex reasoning problems more effectively. To use this feature:

1. Set thinking = list(type = "enabled", budget_tokens = N) where N is the token budget for thinking
2. Set return_thinking = TRUE to see the thinking process
3. When using extended thinking, the following constraints apply:
   • temperature must be set to exactly 1 (handled automatically)
   • top_p and top_k parameters are disabled (handled automatically)
   • max_tokens must be greater than budget_tokens (auto-adjusted if needed)

Example with formatted output:

result <- claudeR(
  prompt = list(list(role = "user", content = "Solve this combinatorial problem: In how many ways can 8 people be seated at a round table, considering that rotations of the same arrangement are considered the same?")),
  model = "claude-3-7-sonnet-20250219",
  thinking = list(type = "enabled", budget_tokens = 3000),
  max_tokens = 4000,
  return_thinking = TRUE
)

This will display:

• Thinking process with a clear header
• Final response with its own header
• Return a list with both components accessible as result$thinking and result$response

License

This package is released under the MIT License.