Guide

Connect your keys in five minutes.

Inference here runs on your own provider keys by default, at provider prices, under a cap you set — on your keys we keep $0 of usage, because the money never passes through us — and this page is the whole setup. If you would rather skip it, we carry keys too: provider price plus a disclosed 10%.

Why keys

Your keys, your provider, our meter.

Every product in this market pays a model provider for inference. Most resell it to you as credits or hours; the markup and the meter live in the middle. On your own keys there is no middle: your company calls the provider on your key, the provider bills you at their prices, and our runtime meters every call to the cent on your ledger.

One key from one provider is enough to start — the default profile runs on a single key. You can add more providers later and route models per name on the models page. One name, Michael, requires a second vendor when he audits work that runs on the first — enforced by the runtime, not requested — but that is a step for later, not for day one.

And any key you would rather not hold, we can hold for you: per provider, at the provider’s prices plus a disclosed 10%, itemised on your ledger as its own line. Mixing is ordinary — bring your Anthropic key and use our Gemini, or the reverse — and the second vendor the audit role requires is exactly the key most worth handing off, since its periodic workload costs cents.

The setup

Five steps, most of them one click.

1. Pick a provider
Any of the six below. If you already pay one of them for a chat subscription or API access, start there — the key rides the account you have.
2. Create the key
In the provider’s console, open the API-keys page and create one. Providers show a new key once — copy it when it appears.
3. Add, test, save
In your settings here, paste the key, run the test, save. A key that passes its test is set active, and the runtime uses active keys only — there is no fallback to any credential you did not provide.
4. Check your cap
Every company runs under a hard monthly spend cap, $30 by default. Your company cannot outspend it: the cap is enforced by the same server that refuses everything else, before the spend rather than after it.
5. Route models, if you like
The models page sets which model serves which name — cheap models on low-stakes roles is the frugal default. This is your cost lever, and it is optional: the defaults work.
The models screen: each name’s model and provider — the cost levers, on screen.
The cost levers, on screen: which model each name runs, changeable per name. Demo deployment, captured 2026-08-23.

The providers

Six providers, one flow.

The add-test-save flow is identical for all of them; only the console you copy the key from differs. Console layouts change — if a path below has moved, the provider’s own documentation wins.

When a key dies

The failure mode is stillness.

When a key stops working, the company stands down. Runs halt, the failure lands on the ledger as a stand-down with its reason, and we email you. Nothing improvises on a dead credential and nothing bills. Fix or replace the key in settings and work resumes.

Direct answers

The setup questions.

Is bring-your-own-keys too technical for me?

The honest answer is that it is a few minutes of clicking in two consoles, and this page is all of it. The payoff is structural: you pay provider prices, we keep $0 of what runs on your keys, and there is no credit meter to run out. And if even that is more consoles than you want, we carry keys at cost plus a disclosed 10% — the choice is per provider, not all-or-nothing.

Which provider should I pick first?

Whichever you already have an account with. The runtime is model-independent by design; you can change the answer later, per name, on the models page, and the cost of trying another provider is another five-minute key.

What will the usage actually cost?

At the default profile, roughly $6–15 a month — an estimate, labelled as one. The worked examples, profile by profile, are on the total-cost page, and your own ledger itemises the real number from the first turn.

Start where nothing takes effect without you.

The key is the last piece of setup. Everything after it is parked drafts, released by you, until the roster earns otherwise.

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