Claimable Cloud: get Cloudinary credentials without signup

A Claimable Cloud is a working Cloudinary cloud provisioned with a single command, no account and no authentication required. The user can later claim it with their email to keep it as a permanent free account. If unclaimed, it expires automatically after 24 hours.

When to use

• The user asks for Cloudinary functionality (upload, transformation URLs, or SDK integration) and no credentials are available.
• The user explicitly asks to try Cloudinary, set up a Cloudinary environment, or get credentials without creating an account.

When NOT to use

• Credentials already exist: a CLOUDINARY_URL or CLOUDINARY_API_KEY/CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET in the environment, in .env, or in MCP server configuration. Use those instead, and never replace them.
• The user says they have a Cloudinary account. Ask them for their CLOUDINARY_URL from the API Keys page of the Cloudinary Console instead.

Flow

1. Check for existing credentials first. Look for CLOUDINARY_URL or CLOUDINARY_* keys in the environment and .env (check existence, don't print values). If found, stop: use them.

2. Ask consent before provisioning. One line, for example: "You don't have Cloudinary credentials set up. I can provision a free Claimable Cloud for you now, no signup needed; you'd claim it by email within 24 hours to keep it. Go ahead?" Never provision without a yes: Claimable Clouds are rate limited and expire if unclaimed.