BYOAIK (Bring Your Own AI Key) is a directory of AI tools that run on your own API key.

ShellGPT (sgpt)

Natural-language CLI that turns prompts into shell commands, code, and answers via your own LLM key.

Category:: Developer Infrastructure
Maintenance:: Maintained (last commit about 2 months ago)
Pricing:: Open Source
Open source:: Yes (MIT)
Self-hostable:: Yes
Local-first:: Yes
Platforms:: CLI, Self-hosted, Docker
AI providers (bring your own key):: OpenAI, Ollama, Custom / OpenAI-compatible, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Azure OpenAI, Groq, Mistral, Cohere
API key storage:: Configured by environment variable
Key risk level:: LOW
Trust score:: 93/100

ShellGPT (sgpt) is an open-source command-line productivity tool that uses large language models to generate shell commands, code snippets, and answers directly in the terminal, with shell integration for Bash, Zsh, and PowerShell on Linux, macOS, and Windows. It is bring-your-own-key by design: on first run it prompts for your own API key and stores it in ~/.config/shell_gpt/.sgptrc, and also reads the OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable. Beyond OpenAI, it supports a configurable API_BASE_URL for any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, and installing the litellm extra (pip install "shell-gpt[litellm]") with USE_LITELLM=true routes requests through LiteLLM to many providers and to local models via Ollama (e.g. DEFAULT_MODEL=ollama/..., API_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434). No hosted backend or vendor account is required.

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 22/25: The key is supplied by an environment variable or local config file you control.
Request Routing 20/20: Requests go straight from you to the AI provider. The provider endpoint is configurable, so you can point it at the provider or your own gateway.
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 and 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.
[STRONG · SOURCE_SCAN] The user supplies their own OpenAI key: the project references its API key variable. source
[STRONG · SOURCE_SCAN] Supports a local model backend, so it can run with no cloud provider key at all. source
[STRONG · SOURCE_SCAN] The provider endpoint is configurable, so requests can be pointed straight at the provider or at your own gateway. source
[CONFIRMED · SOURCE_SCAN] Ships a container definition, so it can be self-hosted on your own infrastructure. source
[CONFIRMED · SOURCE_SCAN] Most recent commit 2026-07-02, 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. 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.