Building a No-Code AI-Powered Thinking App with Claude 3.7 and Bubble.io
Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the no-code space, and Bubble.io is at the forefront of this transformation. Today, we're exploring how you can harness the power of Anthropic's Claude 3.7 model to create sophisticated AI applications—without writing a single line of code.
Understanding the Claude 3.7 Integration with Bubble
Claude 3.7 represents a significant advancement in AI capabilities, especially with its enhanced "thinking" feature that allows for more nuanced reasoning. Integrating this powerful model into your Bubble application opens up incredible possibilities for creating intelligent, responsive user experiences.
In this comprehensive guide, our Bubble expert Matt (who's been building Bubble apps since 2017) walks through the entire process of connecting to Anthropic's API and implementing Claude's reasoning powers in your applications.
Setting Up Your Bubble Interface
While this tutorial focuses on functionality rather than design, the basic structure includes a multi-line input for user messages, a button to send those messages to Claude, and text elements to display the AI's response.
The interface leverages Bubble's custom states—essentially on-page variables that store data temporarily. This approach is perfect for applications where you don't need to persist conversation history beyond the current session.
Connecting to Anthropic's API Using Bubble's API Connector
The heart of this integration lies in Bubble's API Connector plugin. This powerful tool allows you to connect to virtually any external service, including AI platforms like Anthropic's Claude.
Setting up the connection requires a few key steps:
First, you'll need to configure authentication with your API key from Anthropic, which functions like a password to ensure only your account is billed for usage. The API key is added to the header along with the Anthropic version identifier.
Next, you'll create an API call named "sendMessage" configured as an action (for use in workflows when a user triggers an event). The endpoint configuration uses a POST request type, which is typical when sending substantial data to an external service.
Implementing Claude's Thinking Capability
What makes this integration particularly powerful is the implementation of Claude's "thinking" feature. By adding the thinking parameter to your API call, you can access not just Claude's final response but also its reasoning process.
The thinking budget parameter defines how much computational effort Claude puts into reasoning through complex problems. This creates two distinct parts in the response: the thinking process and the final output text.
When initializing the API call in Bubble, the system learns the structure of Claude's response, allowing you to access both elements separately in your workflows.
Creating Dynamic User Interactions
To make the integration truly interactive, you'll need to make parts of your API call dynamic. The user's message needs to be JSON-safe (properly escaped) to prevent syntax errors, especially when users include quotation marks or special characters in their inputs.
The workflow connects your interface elements to the API call, sending the user's input to Claude and then displaying both the thinking process and final response in separate text elements using custom states.
Enhancing User Experience
While the tutorial demonstrates a minimal implementation, there are several ways to enhance the user experience:
Consider adding loading animations during API processing to provide visual feedback. The Bubble loading bar doesn't know exactly how long Claude will take to respond, so custom loaders or Lottie animations can improve the experience.
For more complex applications, you might want to save conversations to the database or implement better responsive layouts using Bubble's rows and columns system.
For richer text formatting, you can ask Claude to respond in BB code, which Bubble can render as styled text, including bold, italic, colored text, and lists.
Unleashing the Power of AI in Your Bubble Applications
This integration opens up countless possibilities for no-code builders. From customer support chatbots to content generation tools, decision-making assistants to educational applications—Claude's reasoning capabilities can dramatically enhance your Bubble projects.
The ability to access both the thinking process and final output gives you unprecedented flexibility in how you implement AI in your applications. You might show users the reasoning behind recommendations, use the thinking process for debugging, or simply leverage the more thoughtful responses that this approach enables.
By following this guide, you'll be well on your way to creating sophisticated AI applications that leverage the latest advances in large language models—all without writing a single line of traditional code.