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

Witsy

BYOK desktop AI assistant and universal MCP client spanning chat, image, video, voice, and search

Category:: Desktop AI Assistants
Maintenance:: Slowing down (last commit about 5 months ago)
Pricing:: Open Source
Open source:: Yes (AGPL-3.0)
Self-hostable:: No
Local-first:: Yes
Platforms:: Desktop
AI providers (bring your own key):: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Azure OpenAI, OpenRouter, Groq, Mistral, Perplexity, DeepSeek, xAI Grok, Ollama, Hugging Face, Fireworks, Custom / OpenAI-compatible
API key storage:: Stored locally on device
Key risk level:: LOW
Trust score:: 80/100

Witsy is an open-source (AGPL-3.0) Electron/Vue desktop AI assistant and universal Model Context Protocol (MCP) client for macOS, Windows, and Linux. It is explicitly a BYOK app: the README states "Witsy is a BYOK (Bring Your Own Keys) AI application: it means you need to have API keys for the LLM providers you want to use" (or run free local models via Ollama/LM Studio). It offers an unusually wide capability surface, all keyed by the user: chat with vision across OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, xAI Grok, Meta Llama, Mistral, DeepSeek, OpenRouter, Groq, Cerebras, Azure OpenAI, Ollama, LM Studio, and OpenAI-compatible endpoints; text-to-image and text-to-video (OpenAI, Google, xAI, Replicate, fal.ai, HuggingFace, Stable Diffusion WebUI); text-to-speech (OpenAI, ElevenLabs, Groq, fal.ai); speech-to-text/dictation (OpenAI Whisper, local Whisper, Groq, Fireworks, Gladia, nVidia, Speechmatics, Soniox, fal.ai); and internet search (Perplexity, Tavily, Brave, Exa, local Google). Additional features include RAG over local documents, MCP server integration, voice/realtime mode, Anthropic Computer Use, AI Commands, Prompt Anywhere, Experts, an HTTP API, a CLI, and agent webhooks. The project originated as nbonamy/witsy and has since moved to the Kochava-Studios organization (the old repo's README now reads "Witsy has a new home"); the canonical repo carries ~1,986 stars and 173 releases (latest v3.5.2). The witsyai.com domain currently 301-redirects to the GitHub repo rather than a standalone marketing site. Free and open source; users only pay their chosen providers.

Why this trust score (80/100)

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

Key Safety 23/25: The key is held on your own device.
Request Routing 17/20: Requests go straight from you to the AI provider.
Transparency 20/20: Source is public under AGPL-3.0, so anyone can check how the key is handled.
Privacy 11/15: Local-first: it works without sending your data anywhere.
Maintenance 8/10: Commits within the last six 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 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] Supports a local model backend, so it can run with no cloud provider key at all. source
[CONFIRMED · SOURCE_SCAN] Most recent commit 2026-04-09, about 4 month(s) ago. source

How your API key is handled

Your API key is stored locally on your device. Requests are sent directly to the AI provider.

Setup

Open settings, paste your provider API key, choose a model, and start. The key stays on your device.