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

Guidance

Constrained prompt-programming library for steering model output structure, authenticated with your own key.

Website Source code

Category:
Prompt Engineering Tools
Pricing:
Open Source
Open source:
Yes (MIT)
Self-hostable:
Yes
Local-first:
Yes
Platforms:
Library/SDK, Self-hosted, Docker
AI providers (bring your own key):
OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Hugging Face, Ollama
API key storage:
Configured by environment variable
Key risk level:
LOW
Trust score:
84/100

Guidance is a library for constrained, structured prompt programming, interleaving generation, logic and control flow to steer output reliably. You authenticate by passing api_key to a model constructor, setting the OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable, or using a local key file; local backends through Transformers or llama.cpp need no key at all. Python library. MIT licensed, 21,714 stars, last commit about two months before review.

Why this trust score (84/100)

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 MIT, so anyone can check how the key is handled.
  • 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 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.

  • [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 2026-05-21 — 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.