BYOAIK (Bring Your Own AI Key) is a directory of AI tools that run on your own API key.

Aider

AI pair programming in your terminal, editing code in your local git repo.

Website Source code

Category:
Coding Assistants
Maintenance:
Slowing down (last commit about 4 months ago)
Pricing:
Open Source
Open source:
Yes (Apache-2.0)
Self-hostable:
Yes
Local-first:
Yes
Platforms:
CLI, Self-hosted, Docker
AI providers (bring your own key):
OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Azure OpenAI, OpenRouter, Groq, Cohere, DeepSeek, xAI Grok, Ollama, Custom / OpenAI-compatible
API key storage:
Configured by environment variable
Key risk level:
LOW
Trust score:
81/100

Aider is an open-source, terminal-based AI pair programmer that edits code directly in your local git repository and auto-commits each change with a descriptive message. It supports 100+ programming languages, repo-map context, voice-to-code, and automatic linting/testing. It is fully bring-your-own-key: users supply their own LLM credentials via command-line flags (e.g. `--api-key anthropic=<key>`, `--openai-api-key`), environment variables, a `.env` file, or a `.aider.conf.yml` config. It connects to almost any LLM including cloud providers and local models (Ollama, LM Studio) and custom OpenAI-compatible endpoints via configurable base URLs.

Why this trust score (81/100)

Trust measures how the tool treats your API key and how much of that has been verified. It contains no popularity signal.

  • Key Safety 22/25: The key is supplied by an environment variable or local config file you control.
  • Request Routing 17/20: Requests go straight from you to the AI provider.
  • Transparency 20/20: Source is public under Apache-2.0, so anyone can check how the key is handled.
  • Privacy 11/15: Local-first: it works without sending your data anywhere. Can be self-hosted, so the data path stays inside infrastructure you control. Analytics or error-reporting libraries are present; what they send was not established.
  • Maintenance 10/10: Actively developed: commits within the last three months.
  • Verification Confidence 1/10: Compiled from public documentation by an AI-assisted pass, not independently confirmed.

What was checked

Verification tier RESEARCH_ASSISTED, derived from the evidence below and not set by hand.

  • [REPORTED · RESEARCH] This listing was compiled by an AI-assisted research pass over the tool's public website, README and documentation. No person independently confirmed it.
  • [REPORTED · SOURCE_SCAN] References PostHog, so some analytics or error reporting is present. This scan cannot tell whether it is opt-in or what it sends. source
  • [REPORTED · SOURCE_SCAN] References Mixpanel, so some analytics or error reporting is present. This scan cannot tell whether it is opt-in or what it sends. source
  • [CONFIRMED · SOURCE_SCAN] Most recent commit 2026-05-22, about 3 month(s) ago. source

How your API key is handled

Your API key is supplied via an environment variable or local config file. Requests are sent directly to the AI provider. Because it can be self-hosted, your key never has to touch a third-party backend.

Setup

Install the tool, set your provider API key as an environment variable (or in its config file), and pick a model.