PROVIDERS & KEYS
// your models, your keys, your costs — nothing resold behind your back
Bring your own key (BYOK)
StarNet talks to models through your credentials. The simplest path is an OpenRouter API key: one key, hundreds of models, transparent per-token pricing. Paste it once in Settings and every agent can use any model you allow.
Supported provider families
- OpenRouter — the recommended default; widest model selection.
- Anthropic — direct API key for Claude models.
- OpenAI-compatible endpoints — point StarNet at any API that speaks the OpenAI wire format, including local servers.
- Gemini — direct Google API key.
- OAuth sign-ins — supported providers let you sign in with an account instead of pasting a key (including Grok and Kimi sign-in flows).
Where keys live
Keys are stored locally in your OS keychain via the desktop shell — never in plain project files, never sent anywhere except the provider they belong to. Provider requests leave your machine only when an agent actually runs.
Service keys (the KEYS tab)
Beyond model providers, agents sometimes need platform keys to do real work — a Stripe test key, a GitHub token, a search API key. The KEYS tab lets you paste any service key; StarNet exposes it to agent runs as an environment variable and tells the agent only the name of what's available, never the value. The key itself never enters the model prompt.
Cost honesty
Every run records what it actually cost, from the provider's own usage numbers. The ledger shows real spend per agent and per task — there is no abstraction layer marking up your tokens, and no meter that guesses.