BYOAIK — Bring Your Own AI Key: a directory of AI tools that run on your own API key.

Continue

Open-source VS Code and JetBrains AI coding assistant where every model call uses your own provider API key.

Website Source code

Category:
Coding Assistants
Pricing:
Open Source
Open source:
Yes (Apache-2.0)
Self-hostable:
No
Local-first:
No
Platforms:
VS Code Extension, JetBrains Plugin, CLI
AI providers (bring your own key):
OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, OpenRouter, Ollama, Custom / OpenAI-compatible, Azure OpenAI, Mistral, Groq, DeepSeek, AWS Bedrock
API key storage:
Configured by environment variable
Key risk level:
LOW
Trust score:
77/100

Continue adds chat, autocomplete, inline edit, and codebase-aware agent mode to VS Code and JetBrains IDEs, with a fully model-agnostic backend. Users add their key in config.yaml (for example 'provider: anthropic' with 'apiKey: <YOUR_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY>') for Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini and dozens of other providers, or point at a local Ollama or LM Studio endpoint with no key at all. Apache-2.0 licensed with 35,000+ stars and same-day commit activity. No account or subscription is required to use your own key.

Why this trust score (77/100)

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 7/15 — Nothing specific is known about its data handling beyond the key itself.
  • 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, 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.
  • [CONFIRMED · SOURCE_SCAN] Most recent commit 2026-07-21 — about 1 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.

Setup

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