Configure AI provider

Bring your own key#

SpineOS uses a BYOK model. You provide your own API key from your preferred provider, and it gets injected into your desktop's VM. SpineOS does not proxy, store, or log your API calls.

You pay your AI provider directly, use your own rate limits, and keep full control of your credentials.

Supported providers#

Anthropic#

Works well for coding agents. Claude models are strong at code generation, debugging, and technical reasoning.

1. Go to console.anthropic.com
2. Navigate to API Keys
3. Click Create Key and copy it (starts with sk-ant-)

OpenAI#

Solid general-purpose option. GPT-4o handles a wide range of tasks.

1. Go to platform.openai.com
2. Navigate to API Keys
3. Click Create new secret key and copy it (starts with sk-)

OpenRouter#

Gives you access to 200+ models from multiple providers through one API key. Useful if you want to try different models or need open-source options.

1. Go to openrouter.ai
2. Navigate to Keys
3. Click Create Key and copy it (starts with sk-or-)

Where to enter your key#

You set your AI provider when creating a desktop:

1. In the creation modal, pick your provider from the dropdown.
2. Paste your API key.
3. Use the model selector to find and pick the model your agent will use.

You can also update the provider on an existing desktop from its settings page.

Optional: embeddings for persistent memory#

Below the main provider config, there is an Embeddings section. Enabling it gives your agent persistent memory -- it can recall context across conversations by storing embeddings in a vector database.

To set it up:

1. Pick an embeddings provider (OpenAI or OpenRouter).
2. Enter the API key (can be the same key if you are using the same provider).
3. Choose an embedding model (e.g. text-embedding-3-small for OpenAI).

This is optional. Your desktop works fine without it, but persistent memory helps on long-running projects where context matters.

Security#

• Your API key is transmitted over TLS and injected into your VM during initialization.
• The key lives only inside your VM. It is not stored in SpineOS's database.
• Each desktop has its own isolated environment. Keys are not shared between desktops.