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

RamaLama

Runs local models inside rootless containers with no network access by default — auto-detects your GPU, needs no key.

Website Source code

Category:
Local AI Tools
Pricing:
Open Source
Open source:
Yes (MIT)
Self-hostable:
Yes
Local-first:
Yes
Platforms:
CLI, Self-hosted, Docker
AI providers (bring your own key):
Ollama, Hugging Face
API key storage:
No cloud key required for local model
Key risk level:
LOW
Trust score:
93/100

RamaLama, from the Containers organisation, is a CLI that runs models locally by wrapping inference engines such as llama.cpp inside rootless OCI containers with no network access by default, detecting your GPU and pulling the matching containerised runtime. You run a single command and everything executes locally in an isolated container, so there is no key because inference never leaves the host. Installs through Fedora packages, PyPI or macOS installers, with Windows support through Podman or Docker with WSL2. MIT licensed, about 3,000 stars, pushed the day of review.

Why this trust score (93/100)

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. 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, not set by hand.

  • [STRONG · SOURCE_SCAN] Supports a local model backend, so it can run with no cloud provider key at all. source
  • [STRONG · SOURCE_SCAN] The user supplies their own Hugging Face key: the project references its API key variable. source
  • [CONFIRMED · SOURCE_SCAN] Most recent commit 2026-08-10 — 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.