BYOK provider config

Plug your own Claude, OpenAI, MiniMax or OpenRouter key into CodeOtter. The four BYOK providers plus an OpenAI-compatible endpoint cover every model your team needs, without sending code through a third-party SaaS account.

Why bring your own keyCopy Anchor Link

CodeOtter is self-hosted, so every provider it talks to is a connection your team controls. The model vendor bills your organization directly, usage appears on your own dashboard, and your code never routes through a shared third-party account.

CodeOtter runs a dual engine: a language model (System 2) that writes the review, and a deterministic rubric engine (System 1, POST /v1/systemone) that returns the six 0–100 gauges and the nine merge gates. Either can be hosted or local, per repository.

The four providersCopy Anchor Link

Settings → System → Model provider has one row per provider. Pick the row, paste the key, save:

• Claude: Claude Opus or Sonnet via ANTHROPIC_API_KEY. The strongest prose for System 2 walkthroughs.
• OpenAI: GPT-class models via OPENAI_API_KEY. Any OpenAI model id is passed through unchanged.
• MiniMax: MiniMax-M3 through the MiniMax API, with a key issued by MiniMax.
• OpenRouter: one OPENROUTER_API_KEY for every model OpenRouter routes to, including Claude, OpenAI and MiniMax, on one bill. Use it to switch System 2 providers without re-entering credentials.

A green dot appears once a one-token reply comes back to your installation.

OpenAI-compatible endpointCopy Anchor Link

Providers with an OpenAI-shaped /chat/completions endpoint work without a CodeOtter release. Pick OpenAI-compatible and fill in the base URL, model id and key:

Base URL:  https://your.provider.example.com/v1
Model id:  your-model-name
API key:   sk-...

Use this for self-hosted Ollama, vLLM, LiteLLM proxies, internal AI gateways, or any service that returns OpenAI-shaped JSON. Microsoft CodeReviewer is also reachable this way when you want diff-hunk comments alongside your System 1 model.

Pairing System 1 and System 2Copy Anchor Link

Each repository picks its two engines independently:

• System 2 is the BYOK provider above. It writes the review, walkthrough, findings and inline committable suggestion blocks.
• System 1 is the rubric engine. By default CodeOtter uses a local Laya Typed-Decisions model; you can also point it at any OpenAI-compatible endpoint (for example Kev 4B for high-confidence calibration).

A common setup is Claude for System 2 with a local Laya sidecar for System 1. A pure-hosted setup pairs OpenAI for both, with no local dependencies.

Where keys liveCopy Anchor Link

Keys are stored in the pb_data volume next to PocketBase auth. Keys set in .env at install time are used first; later edits in the UI override them per row. To rotate, paste a new key into the same row: the old key is replaced.

Verifying it worksCopy Anchor Link

Open any onboarded repository and click Run review. The status panel shows System 1 → provider/model and System 2 → provider/model, with gauges and gates once the review completes. If System 2 returns a 401 or 429, the provider error is shown verbatim and the System 1 output still scores the merge gates.