BYOAIK — Bring Your Own AI Key: a directory of AI tools that run on your own API key.
llamafile
Packages a model and its runtime into one executable you just run — no install, no internet, no API key.
- Category:
- Local AI Tools
- Pricing:
- Open Source
- Open source:
- Yes (Mixed: Apache-2.0 with MIT-derived components, no single SPDX tag)
- Self-hostable:
- Yes
- Local-first:
- Yes
- Platforms:
- CLI, Self-hosted, Docker
- AI providers (bring your own key):
- Ollama
- API key storage:
- No cloud key required for local model
- Key risk level:
- LOW
- Trust score:
- 82/100
llamafile, a Mozilla.ai project, combines llama.cpp with Cosmopolitan Libc to turn a model into a single cross-platform executable: download the file, make it executable and run it, and it opens a local chat interface plus an OpenAI-compatible API with no installation, account or key. The same file runs on Windows, macOS, Linux and several CPU architectures, and a sibling tool covers local speech-to-text. 25,590 stars, pushed within a month of review. The repository reports no single SPDX licence: it is Apache-2.0 with MIT-derived llama.cpp and whisper.cpp portions.
Why this trust score (82/100)
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 15/20 — Source is public, though the licence is unclear or non-standard.
- 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 2026-07-31 — about 1 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.