Starting a run

The Start panel sits at the bottom of the plan page. It asks for what a run needs, shows what it is likely to cost, and checks the key before it lets anything run.

What the panel asks for

1. The key. If the workspace already has one, the panel says Pays with your OpenRouter key …wxyz (or whichever provider it is from), with Replace for owners and admins. Otherwise it asks for one — see Your model key. A member who is neither sees Ask an owner of this workspace to add a model key. and cannot start until someone adds it.
2. Model. A free-text field with the models your key can use as suggestions; one is filled in for you. You can also type the exact name of any model the key can use. Below it, the model’s price per million tokens, or Price unknown for this model.
3. Estimated run. A range in dollars for the people on the plan, plus about how much each defect’s replay adds. See the estimate.
4. Hard cap (USD). $2 unless you change it, from $0.10 to $50 in steps of $0.10. If it is below the top of the estimate, the panel warns The cap is below the estimate, so the run may stop before everyone finishes.
5. The checkbox — I am authorised to test this product. It is not a production system with real people’s data. It is required every time.

Then Start run.

Note

If the panel cannot show a price for the model — none is known, the models could not be listed, or you typed a name that is not in the list — the estimate reads Unknown and the cap field disappears, leaving the default $2. If Trawler still has no price when the run starts, the run stops after 3 million tokens instead; only through OpenRouter, which reports each call’s cost, is it also held to the $2. Watch your provider’s billing. See When the price is unknown.

What Start checks

The form itself stops an unticked box, an empty model or key field, and a cap outside $0.10–$50, with the browser’s own prompt. Trawler then checks again, in this order, while the button reads Checking the key…:

Check	Message when it fails
The checkbox is ticked	Confirm that you may test this product.
A model is named	Choose a model or type its exact name.
The cap is in range	Set a cap between $0.10 and $50.
Your email is in the private beta	Hosted runs are in private beta. Write to contact@usetrawler.com to get access.
There is a key, typed or saved	Paste an API key from your model provider to start. — and, for a key that does not look like one or a bad base URL, the messages in Your model key
A new key comes from an owner or admin	Only an owner of this workspace can change its model key.
The key works with that model	See below

The last check is a real call: Trawler asks the chosen model to Reply with OK., in at most five tokens. That call is billed to your key like any other, and is not counted in the run’s cost.

Message	What it means
OpenAI did not accept this key (…).	The provider refused the key. Its own explanation is in the brackets.
This key cannot use gpt-5 (…). Pick another model.	The key is fine, but not for that model — a typo, or a model the account has no access to.
OpenAI could not be reached to check the key. Try again in a moment.	The provider did not answer within 30 seconds, or answered with something else.

A key you typed is saved for the workspace only once this call succeeds, so a key that does not work is never stored. If the run then cannot be created, the panel says The run could not start. Try again.

What a run is fixed with

Start opens the run page. From that moment the run keeps what it started with:

• A copy of the plan — its people, goals and which account each person signs in with. The one exception is a test account removed in the meantime: it is gone for the sessions and replays that have not begun yet.
• The model. The same model plays every person, carries out the replays and acts as the judge.
• The provider and its price. A key replaced with another from the same provider is used from the run’s next call. A key from a different provider — or, for an OpenAI-compatible service, a different base URL — is refused for that run rather than switched to.
• The cap, and the step limits: 60 steps for each person’s session and 30 for each replay. A step is one turn of the model.