Also known as bring your own key
Bring Your Own Key — connect your AI provider API key so chat, ghost-text completion, and skill passes run on your account, with usage you can see in that provider’s dashboard.
BYOK means you connect your own AI provider API key so chat, ghost-text completion, and skill passes can run on your account with usage you can see in that provider's dashboard. It is not limited to skill launches -- those three surfaces are in scope when a key is connected and ready.
Keys are stored encrypted and used for the AI calls you initiate. Hosted skill passes still work if you never connect a key, which matters for writers who want craft tools without managing provider billing. Choose the path that matches how your room budgets model usage across a season.
Set expectations with collaborators: a connected key changes whose quota a pass consumes. Review Inkwell's security docs for what scoped context is sent -- typically the scenes or lines in scope for the pass, not your entire library as a silent bundle shipped without asking. Keep that standard visible when notes arrive so the next pass stays honest.
No. Every plan includes hosted skill passes. BYOK is optional when you want your own provider account, quotas, and dashboard-visible usage.
Chat, ghost-text completion, and skills -- not skills alone. If you connect a key, those AI surfaces can use your provider account.
No. Keys are stored encrypted and used for provider calls you initiate. See Security for the fuller data-handling story behind storage.
Yes. Hosted skills work without BYOK. Skip connecting a key if you prefer not to manage provider credentials or billing.
