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

avante.nvim

Use your Neovim like Cursor AI IDE, with diff-reviewed AI code edits.

Category:: Coding Assistants
Maintenance:: Actively developed (last commit 4 days ago)
Pricing:: Open Source
Open source:: Yes (Apache-2.0)
Self-hostable:: Yes
Local-first:: Yes
Platforms:: Library/SDK, Self-hosted, CLI, Docker
AI providers (bring your own key):: Anthropic, OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Google Gemini, Cohere, Ollama, OpenRouter, DeepSeek, Groq, Mistral, Perplexity, Custom / OpenAI-compatible
API key storage:: Configured by environment variable
Key risk level:: LOW
Trust score:: 90/100

avante.nvim is an open-source Neovim plugin that emulates the Cursor AI IDE inside the editor, providing agentic AI-assisted code suggestions that you can review as diffs and apply directly to your source files. It is fully bring-your-own-key: users supply their own provider API keys via scoped environment variables (e.g. AVANTE_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, AVANTE_OPENAI_API_KEY) or legacy global vars, or by pointing api_key_name at a shell secret-manager command (cmd: prefix). Each provider's endpoint/base URL is configurable, and the __inherited_from = 'openai' mechanism lets users wire up any OpenAI-compatible vendor. Supported providers include Anthropic, OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Google Gemini, Cohere, Amazon Bedrock, Ollama/local models, OpenRouter, DeepSeek, Groq, Mistral, Perplexity, and arbitrary custom OpenAI-compatible endpoints. The plugin is free and Apache-2.0 licensed; the user pays their chosen provider directly. Verified June 2026: ~17,981 GitHub stars, Apache-2.0, actively maintained (last push June 20 2026, recent release avante-libs v0.1.2 on June 3 2026).

Why this trust score (90/100)

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. Key handling was located in the published source.
Privacy 14/15: Local-first: it works without sending your data anywhere. Can be self-hosted, so the data path stays inside infrastructure you control.
Maintenance 10/10: Actively developed: commits within the last three months.
Verification Confidence 7/10: Key handling was found in the published source by BYOAIK's scanner.

What was checked

Verification tier SOURCE_VERIFIED, 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.
[STRONG · SOURCE_SCAN] The user supplies their own OpenAI key: the project references its API key variable. source
[STRONG · SOURCE_SCAN] The user supplies their own Anthropic key: the project references its API key variable. source
[STRONG · SOURCE_SCAN] The user supplies their own Google Gemini key: the project references its API key variable. source
[STRONG · SOURCE_SCAN] The user supplies their own Azure OpenAI key: the project references its API key variable. source
[STRONG · SOURCE_SCAN] Reads the API key from an environment variable at runtime. source
[STRONG · SOURCE_SCAN] Supports a local model backend, so it can run with no cloud provider key at all. source
[CONFIRMED · SOURCE_SCAN] Most recent commit 2026-08-14, about 0 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.