Data: Streaming reference — Python

Streaming — Python

Quick Start

with client.messages.stream(
    model="{{OPUS_ID}}",
    max_tokens=64000,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Write a story"}]
) as stream:
    for text in stream.text_stream:
        print(text, end="", flush=True)

Async

async with async_client.messages.stream(
    model="{{OPUS_ID}}",
    max_tokens=64000,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Write a story"}]
) as stream:
    async for text in stream.text_stream:
        print(text, end="", flush=True)

Low-level: stream=True

messages.stream() (above) is the recommended helper — it accumulates state and exposes text_stream / get_final_message(). If you only need the raw event iterator and want lower memory use, pass stream=True to messages.create() instead:

for event in client.messages.create(
    model="{{OPUS_ID}}",
    max_tokens=64000,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Write a story"}],
    stream=True,
):
    print(event.type)

No final-message accumulation is done for you in this form.

Handling Different Content Types

Claude may return text, thinking blocks, or tool use. Handle each appropriately:

Opus 4.8 / Opus 4.7 / Opus 4.6: Use thinking: {type: "adaptive"}. On older models, use thinking: {type: "enabled", budget_tokens: N} instead.

with client.messages.stream(
    model="{{OPUS_ID}}",
    max_tokens=64000,
    thinking={"type": "adaptive"},
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Analyze this problem"}]
) as stream:
    for event in stream:
        if event.type == "content_block_start":
            if event.content_block.type == "thinking":
                print("\n[Thinking...]")
            elif event.content_block.type == "text":
                print("\n[Response:]")

        elif event.type == "content_block_delta":
            if event.delta.type == "thinking_delta":
                print(event.delta.thinking, end="", flush=True)
            elif event.delta.type == "text_delta":
                print(event.delta.text, end="", flush=True)

Streaming with Tool Use

The Python tool runner currently returns complete messages. Use streaming for individual API calls within a manual loop if you need per-token streaming with tools:

with client.messages.stream(
    model="{{OPUS_ID}}",
    max_tokens=64000,
    tools=tools,
    messages=messages
) as stream:
    for text in stream.text_stream:
        print(text, end="", flush=True)

    response = stream.get_final_message()
    # Continue with tool execution if response.stop_reason == "tool_use"

Getting the Final Message

with client.messages.stream(
    model="{{OPUS_ID}}",
    max_tokens=64000,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
) as stream:
    for text in stream.text_stream:
        print(text, end="", flush=True)

    # Get full message after streaming
    final_message = stream.get_final_message()
    print(f"\n\nTokens used: {final_message.usage.output_tokens}")

Streaming with Progress Updates

def stream_with_progress(client, **kwargs):
    """Stream a response with progress updates."""
    total_tokens = 0
    content_parts = []

    with client.messages.stream(**kwargs) as stream:
        for event in stream:
            if event.type == "content_block_delta":
                if event.delta.type == "text_delta":
                    text = event.delta.text
                    content_parts.append(text)
                    print(text, end="", flush=True)

            elif event.type == "message_delta":
                if event.usage and event.usage.output_tokens is not None:
                    total_tokens = event.usage.output_tokens

        final_message = stream.get_final_message()

    print(f"\n\n[Tokens used: {total_tokens}]")
    return "".join(content_parts)

Error Handling in Streams

try:
    with client.messages.stream(
        model="{{OPUS_ID}}",
        max_tokens=64000,
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Write a story"}]
    ) as stream:
        for text in stream.text_stream:
            print(text, end="", flush=True)
except anthropic.APIConnectionError:
    print("\nConnection lost. Please retry.")
except anthropic.RateLimitError:
    print("\nRate limited. Please wait and retry.")
except anthropic.APIStatusError as e:
    print(f"\nAPI error: {e.status_code}")

Stream Event Types

Best Practices

1. Always flush output — Use flush=True to show tokens immediately
2. Handle partial responses — If the stream is interrupted, you may have incomplete content
3. Track token usage — The message_delta event contains usage information
4. Use timeouts — Set appropriate timeouts for your application
5. Default to streaming — Use .get_final_message() to get the complete response even when streaming, giving you timeout protection without needing to handle individual events
6. Large max_tokens without streaming raises ValueError — The SDK refuses non-streaming requests it estimates will exceed ~10 minutes (idle connections drop). Pass stream=True / use messages.stream(), or explicitly override timeout, to suppress the guard.