Appendix: Troubleshooting
Work through the checks that match your symptom. If you're still stuck, email
itrequests@business.cornell.edu with the error message you see.
Quick health check (Claude Code)
Run this in your Terminal / PowerShell:
claude doctor
It reports configuration problems and where your settings are being read from.
Test the gateway connection directly
This confirms your key and the gateway address work, separately from the app.
Replace YOUR-KEY with your sk-… key:
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR-KEY" https://api.ai.it.cornell.edu/v1/models
- You see a list of models → your key and gateway are good. Any remaining problem is
in the app's settings.
- You see
401 / "unauthorized" → your key is wrong, missing, or mistyped.
- You see a connection/timeout error → network, VPN, or proxy issue (see below).
Common problems
| Symptom |
Likely cause |
Fix |
401 unauthorized |
Key wrong or not pasted |
Re-paste your key exactly. In settings.json it goes in ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN. No extra spaces or quotes inside the value. |
| "model not found" |
Model name typo |
Use exactly claude-sonnet-4-6, claude-opus-4-8, or claude-haiku-4-5. |
| App asks you to log in to a personal account |
Settings not loaded |
Confirm settings.json is in your home folder and valid; restart the app/terminal. For VSCode, fully quit and reopen. |
| Connection times out |
VPN / proxy / firewall |
Connect to the Cornell VPN if you're off-campus, and confirm api.ai.it.cornell.edu is reachable. |
| Errors mentioning "beta" headers or "thinking" |
Gateway rejecting experimental fields |
Make sure CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_EXPERIMENTAL_BETAS is "1". If errors mention thinking, add "CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_THINKING": "1" to the env block. |
claude command not found (just installed) |
Window not refreshed |
Close and reopen Terminal / PowerShell, then try again. |
Where the settings file lives
- Mac:
~/.claude/settings.json
- PC:
%USERPROFILE%\.claude\settings.json
A valid file is wrapped in { } with no trailing commas. If you suspect a typo, re-copy
the block from Claude Code (CLI) on Cornell's AI Gateway, Step 2, and re-paste only your key.