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

llama.cpp

The C/C++ inference engine underneath most local-LLM apps — run GGUF models on your own hardware, no key required.

Website Source code

Category:
Local AI Tools
Pricing:
Open Source
Open source:
Yes (MIT)
Self-hostable:
Yes
Local-first:
Yes
Platforms:
CLI, Self-hosted, Library/SDK, Docker
AI providers (bring your own key):
Ollama, Custom / OpenAI-compatible
API key storage:
No cloud key required for local model
Key risk level:
LOW
Trust score:
87/100

llama.cpp is a dependency-light C/C++ inference engine that runs GGUF-quantised text and vision models on CPUs, Apple Silicon and NVIDIA or AMD GPUs, either as a one-shot CLI binary or a long-running server exposing an OpenAI-compatible API. There is no account, subscription or key: you build or download the binary and point it at a model file on disk. It underpins most of the other local tools listed here, including Ollama and KoboldCpp. MIT licensed, 124,009 stars, pushed the day of review with near-daily commits.

Why this trust score (87/100)

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

  • Key Safety 25/25 — No cloud key is needed at all — the model runs locally.
  • 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 2026-08-15 — about 0 month(s) ago. source

How your API key is handled

Key handling varies. 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

Add your provider API key in settings and choose a model.