Docs / Using AI

Bring your own key

About 3 minutes

LocalBrain has no accounts and no server. The AI features run on your own API key, so your model choice and your costs stay yours.

Add a key

Open Settings and paste an Anthropic API key. It is stored locally in your browser and used to call the model directly from your machine. There is no LocalBrain backend in the middle.

Choose a model

Pick from the available Claude models in Settings, trading speed against depth as you like. The choice is yours, and so is the bill, billed by the provider against your key.

It degrades gracefully

Everything that does not need a model keeps working with no key at all: editing, search, links, the graph, install, and full offline use. The AI features simply stay dormant until you add a key, and light back up the moment you do.

Where the key lives. Only in your browser's local storage. It is never sent anywhere except directly to the model provider you chose.
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