Claude lets you control who can open an artifact through its sharing permissions, which vary by artifact type and plan, but its documented controls do not let you set a shared password on an artifact. If visitors must enter a password, publish a standalone version through Sentway and set the site's gate to password. That protects the new Sentway URL, not the original claude.ai link, which stays governed by Claude's own settings and should be unshared or unpublished separately if it is sensitive.
What Claude's own sharing controls do
Claude's Share dialog offers access choices such as 'Only you', 'Anyone with the link' and email invitations on Pro and Max, and organisation-level options on Team and Enterprise, where owners can restrict external sharing. Legacy chat artifacts use 'Publish' or 'Share & copy link' instead. These controls decide who may open the artifact; none of them is a password you hand to a visitor.
If your recipients have Claude accounts, an email invitation or organisation-only sharing may already be the tighter and simpler choice. Check the current options for your artifact in Anthropic's help: https://support.claude.com/en/articles/9547008-share-artifacts
Your options, from least work to most
Native Claude sharing: least work. Use it when Claude's own permissions fit your audience, especially colleagues on the same Team or Enterprise organisation.
A simple protected hosting tool: if you only need a password in front of a static HTML preview, a lightweight host that offers password protection may be enough. Check that tool's own documentation for what it actually supports.
Sentway: use it when you want a server-side access gate plus extras on the same page, such as response forms, analytics and asking Claude what visitors did. For a static prototype seen by two people, it may be more than you need.
How Sentway's password gate works
Each Sentway site has one primary gate, chosen from public, email capture, password, allowlist and paid access. These are alternatives, not layers: you cannot require a password and an allowlist at the same time. The password gate covers the whole site, so every page of a multi-page site sits behind the same password. It is separate from Paid Access, where buyers pay for access rather than enter a shared password.
The gate is checked on the server before the page content is sent, so a visitor without the password does not receive the protected markup. That is real access control, but it cannot stop someone who gets in from taking screenshots, copying text or forwarding the password.
Configuring the gate records what the next publish will use. Visitors keep seeing the last published version until you publish again. You can optionally set an expiry date; at that moment the site closes for everyone, so it is a closing date for the whole gate, not a per-visitor timeout.
3. In the conversation with your artifact, ask Claude to adapt it into a standalone HTML or JSX page. Claude-native features such as built-in AI, connected apps and artifact storage do not migrate automatically and may need replacing or removing.
4. Ask Claude to create the site, save the page and set the site's gate to password. Give it a strong, unique password in your private conversation, never inside the page itself.
5. Ask Claude to publish the site. The password gate only goes live with this publish.
6. Open the Sentway URL in a private or incognito window. Try a wrong password and confirm nothing of the page is shown, then the right one and confirm the page loads.
7. Send the URL and the password through separate trusted channels, for example the link by email and the password by text message.
Password, verified email or allowlist?
A password is a shared secret. Anyone who has it can enter, and Sentway cannot tell which named person typed it or whether it was forwarded. Use it when convenience matters more than knowing exactly who came in.
Email capture with verification ties each visit to an inbox the visitor proved they control. An allowlist goes further: only the addresses or domains you list can verify and enter. For named recipients, an allowlist is the tighter choice. Detailed per-visitor activity is a paid feature, and anonymous password visitors are never identified by name.
You built a proposal or product demo in Claude and the client does not use Claude. Publish a standalone version on Sentway behind a password, send the link in your email and the password by phone, and change the password or set an expiry once the review window ends. Remember to also unshare the original Claude version if it was shared.
Example: a private calculator, assessment or playbook
You want a small group to use a pricing calculator, self-assessment or internal playbook without making it public. Logic that runs in the page ports well. Anything that asked Claude to answer questions live must be replaced with fixed rules first. If you later need to know which member of the group used it, switch the gate to an allowlist and publish again.
When Sentway is not the right answer
Stay with Claude when its sharing permissions already restrict access the way you need, or when the artifact depends on Claude-native features that will not run on their own. Treat a single shared password as insufficient for highly confidential documents: for those, use named access with verification, or a dedicated document security tool, and follow your organisation's policy.
A prompt you can paste
Free plan
Turn this [client proposal/calculator/demo] into a standalone Sentway-hosted page. Explain any Claude-specific functionality that will not work unchanged. Configure a site-wide password gate using a strong password I will provide privately; publish the site after saving the access rule, then give me the new URL and a test checklist. Do not put the password in the page source or share it in the public page.
Produces: A standalone page at a new Sentway URL behind a live site-wide password gate, a list of what changed from the original, and a checklist for you to test.
Use a unique password you generate yourself and share it separately from the link. Run the incognito test yourself; Claude does not click through the live page for you.
Not according to Claude's documented sharing controls, which use account-based permissions rather than passwords. Sentway protects a new Sentway URL only. Manage the original link in Claude, and unshare or unpublish it if it is sensitive.
Do visitors need a Claude account?
No. Visitors open the Sentway URL in any browser and enter the password. They do not need a Claude or Sentway account.
Does a password reveal who opened it?
No. Everyone shares the same password, so a visit is not linked to a named person. If you need to know who entered, use verified email or an allowlist instead.
How do I restrict access to named recipients?
Switch the site's gate to an allowlist of their email addresses. Allowlist visitors always verify their email. This replaces the password gate rather than adding to it.
If I change the gate, do I need to republish?
Yes. Changing the gate records the setting for the next publish. Visitors keep meeting the last published gate until you publish the site again.