Agentic Data Plane

Agentic Data Plane Quickstart for Administrators

This quickstart sets up Redpanda Agentic Data Plane for your organization. An administrator configures a large language model (LLM) provider. This is a one-time task. Until a provider exists, no one in your organization can build agents against the platform.

You get an Anthropic API key, create the provider with the key stored in the platform secret store, confirm the connection is active, and hand off to your builders. This quickstart configures an Anthropic provider, but Agentic Data Plane also supports OpenAI, Google AI, AWS Bedrock, and OpenAI-compatible endpoints.

If your organization already has an LLM provider configured and you want to build an agent, go to the agent builder quickstart instead.

After reading this page, you will be able to:

  • Configure your first LLM provider in Agentic Data Plane with an Anthropic API key

  • Verify the provider is enabled and its connection is active

  • Grant builders the Writer role and point them to the agent builder quickstart

Prerequisites

What you set up

  1. Anthropic API key. Created in the Anthropic console and stored in the Agentic Data Plane secret store, so the raw key never has to live on a builder’s machine.

  2. Anthropic LLM provider. An organization-level resource that routes Claude API calls through Agentic Data Plane so credentials, usage, and transcripts stay on the platform. Configure it once, and every builder can select it when they create agents.

When you sign in to Agentic Data Plane at ai.redpanda.com, you land on the Home page: a snapshot of items that need your attention, recent request and spend activity, budget status, and counts of your Agentic Data Plane resources. Start the tasks in this guide from the sidebar.

Get an Anthropic API key

Anthropic requires a payment method before it issues an API key. Add billing first, then create the key.

  1. Open platform.claude.com and sign in, or create a new account.

  2. Add a payment method to your account if you haven’t already. Anthropic requires a payment method before it issues API keys. (Optional: add a small amount of prepaid credit so the first calls don’t fail on a fresh account.)

  3. In the sidebar, select a workspace other than Claude Code. The Claude Code workspace uses a separate key-creation flow that doesn’t fit this quickstart.

  4. In the sidebar, click API keys.

  5. Click Create key. In the Create API key dialog, name the key adp-quickstart and click Add.

  6. Copy the key (it starts with sk-ant-).

    Anthropic shows the API key value once. If you close the dialog without copying, you can’t recover it. Paste the key into a secure note before continuing. The next section creates the secret in Agentic Data Plane’s secret store as part of the provider form, so you don’t have to keep the key on your local machine.

  7. (Optional) On the API keys page, confirm the new key appears in the list.

Configure your LLM provider

Now point Agentic Data Plane at Anthropic. Agentic Data Plane references provider credentials by secret name, not by raw value, and you create the secret inline as part of this form.

  1. Sign in to Agentic Data Plane at ai.redpanda.com.

  2. In the sidebar, open LLM Providers.

  3. Click Add provider.

  4. Display name: Enter anthropic-quickstart. This label appears in dashboards and model selectors.

  5. Leave the auto-derived Resource ID. Agentic Data Plane generates it from the display name, using lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens. The ID is used in API calls and CLI commands and can’t be changed after creation.

  6. Provider type: Select Anthropic.

  7. API key reference: Switch to the New tab and create the secret inline:

    • Name the secret ANTHROPIC_API_KEY. Use UPPER_SNAKE_CASE (uppercase letters, numbers, and underscores); a secret’s name can’t be changed after you create it.

    • After you enter the name, a Secret value field appears. Leave the Text tab selected and paste the sk-ant- key you copied from Anthropic.

    • Click Create secret.

      The secret value is write-only: Agentic Data Plane can’t show it again after creation, so if you mistype the key, create a new secret. New secrets get the AI Gateway scope automatically, which makes them usable across the platform: LLM providers, MCP servers, and agents. To create secrets ahead of time or manage them later, open Secrets Store in the sidebar.

  8. Leave Authorization passthrough off. This quickstart uses one shared key, not per-user OAuth.

  9. Leave the default Base URL in place. The form prefills the standard Anthropic endpoint.

  10. Models: Select claude-sonnet-4-6 from the catalog. It’s a good default for agents and handles multi-step tool use reliably.

    The catalog of available models is maintained by Redpanda. Models you select here become the catalog this provider exposes to agents and applications; you can change the list later from the provider detail page.

  11. For Transcripts, turn on Record inputs and Record outputs. Both are off by default, which limits transcripts to token counts, latency, and tool calls. Turning them on lets your builders replay full conversations, including prompts, responses, and tool arguments. This setting applies to every agent on the provider, so leave it off for providers that carry regulated or sensitive data. See Configure transcript logging.

  12. Click Create provider.

  13. On the provider detail page, select the Overview tab. Confirm the badge next to the provider name shows Enabled and the Status in the Connection card shows Active.

If the Status badge stays in a failure state, see the provider troubleshooting table. The most common cause is a typo in the secret reference or a key that wasn’t issued in the workspace Agentic Data Plane can read.

For the full provider field reference (transcript logging, Bedrock IAM, Anthropic authentication passthrough, OpenAI-compatible endpoints), see Configure an LLM provider.

Hand off to your builders

With the provider active, your organization is ready for agents. To get builders started:

  1. Give each builder the Writer role so they can create MCP servers and agents. The Reader role can only list resources.

  2. Send them the agent builder quickstart. It assumes exactly what you just set up: a signed-in user with the Writer role and an active LLM provider.

Builders select the provider by its display name (anthropic-quickstart) in the agent form’s Model section. They don’t see or handle the API key.

Clean up

If you set this provider up only as a test, delete it so it doesn’t continue to count against your account.

  1. Delete the LLM provider (anthropic-quickstart). Open the provider detail page, scroll to the delete section, and click Delete. Note that the underlying secret (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY) is not deleted automatically.

  2. (Optional) Delete the secret. Open Secrets Store, click ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, then Delete.

  3. (Optional, on the Anthropic side) Revoke the API key. Open platform.claude.com, navigate to Manage > API keys in the workspace where you created the key, find adp-quickstart in the list, and revoke it from the row’s action menu.

If you want to keep the provider but rotate the key, edit the provider and change the API key reference to a new secret.

Next steps