Your model key

Runs are paid for with your workspace’s own API key from a model provider. Every model call a run makes is billed to that key by the provider; Trawler adds nothing on top. The key is entered in the Start panel — there is no separate settings page.

Adding the key

When the workspace has no key yet, the Start panel asks for An API key from your model provider. Paste it, and Trawler recognises the provider from how it starts:

The key starts with	Recognised as	Calls go to
sk-or-	OpenRouter	https://openrouter.ai/api/v1
sk-ant-	Anthropic	https://api.anthropic.com/v1
AIza	Google	https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai
any other sk-	OpenAI	https://api.openai.com/v1
anything else	OpenAI-compatible	the base URL you enter

The panel says which it recognised — Recognised as an Anthropic key. Not right? Pick the provider below. — and, once the key is 20 characters or longer, offers a list of providers to correct it. For OpenAI-compatible, enter the service’s base URL, such as https://api.example.com/v1, in the field that appears with it.

The key is saved when you choose Start run and the check call to the model succeeds; a key that fails the check is never stored. From then on the panel says Pays with your Anthropic key …wxyz.

Replacing it

Replace swaps the key for a new one, again saved only once Start’s check succeeds; Keep …wxyz abandons the change. A workspace has exactly one key, so the new one — from any provider — takes the old one’s place. There is no way to delete the key without replacing it.

A run keeps the provider it started with. A new key from the same provider is used by live runs from their next call; a key from a different provider — or, for an OpenAI-compatible service, a different base URL — is refused for runs that started with the old one, rather than switched to.

Who can change it

Owners and admins of the workspace. Everyone else in the workspace can start runs with the saved key; if there is none, their Start panel says Ask an owner of this workspace to add a model key.

Where it is kept

• The key is encrypted before it is stored, bound to your workspace. Only its last four characters are shown afterwards.
• It is never sent back to your browser.
• The runners that carry out a run never hold it. They call models through Trawler, which adds the key to each call and counts what it costs.

Your data and the provider

Everything a person reads on your product’s pages goes to the model as part of the conversation. Through OpenRouter, every call asks the providers behind it not to keep or train on that data. With a key from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or an OpenAI-compatible service, calls go straight to that provider under its own data policy — the Start panel says so while you enter the key.

Messages

Message	Why
That does not look like an API key. Copy it again from your provider.	A key is 20 to 400 characters of letters, digits, ., _ and -.
Enter the provider’s base URL, for example https://api.example.com/v1.	The base URL is not a web address.
The base URL must use https.	Plain http is refused.
Put the key in the key field, not in the URL.	The base URL contains a username or password.
Only an owner of this workspace can change its model key.	You are a member, not an owner or admin.
Too many model lookups. Wait a few minutes, or type a model name.	Listing models is limited to 30 times in 10 minutes per person.
OpenAI did not list models for this key. Check the key, or type a model name.	The provider refused to list models or did not answer within 10 seconds — or, for an OpenAI-compatible service, its base URL is a private address or redirects.

An OpenAI-compatible base URL must be a public address: Trawler refuses private and loopback addresses there, as it does for setup, and does not follow redirects from it.