Bring Your Own Key

Most AI agent platforms charge you a per-token markup on top of what the model provider charges. You pay OpenAI or Anthropic’s rate, then the platform adds its own cut (sometimes 2x or more) and you have no visibility into the split. ClawStaff does not work this way. You bring your own API keys, you pay the model provider directly, and ClawStaff charges a flat per-Claw fee for the infrastructure. Your AI costs are between you and your model provider.

How It Works

1. Add your API keys. From the ClawStaff dashboard, navigate to your organization’s settings and add your API keys for OpenAI, Anthropic, or any other supported model provider. You can add multiple keys for different providers.

2. Keys are encrypted immediately. The moment you submit a key, it is encrypted using AES-256 before being stored. The plaintext key is never written to a database, never logged, and never visible in the dashboard after initial entry. Not even ClawStaff engineers can see your keys.

3. Assign models per Claw. When configuring a Claw, you choose which model provider and specific model to use. One Claw can run on Claude Sonnet for fast, cost-effective responses. Another can run on GPT-4 for tasks that benefit from a different model’s strengths. You can change the model assignment at any time without redeploying.

4. Runtime key injection. When a ClawCage starts, the encrypted key is decrypted and injected into the container as an environment variable. The key exists in memory only for the duration of the Claw’s runtime. It is never written to the container’s filesystem and is not accessible from outside the ClawCage.

5. Direct provider billing. Every API call your Claw makes goes directly to the model provider’s endpoint using your key. The charges appear on your OpenAI or Anthropic invoice, not on your ClawStaff bill. You see exactly what you are spending because you are spending it directly.

Why It Matters

Per-token markups create a misaligned incentive. The platform makes more money when your agents are chatty, verbose, or running unnecessary completions. There is no reason for the platform to help you optimize token usage. In fact, it is actively incentivized not to.

BYOK flips this dynamic. ClawStaff’s revenue comes from the per-Claw infrastructure fee, not from how many tokens your agents consume. That means ClawStaff is incentivized to help you run agents efficiently, because efficient agents mean happy customers who deploy more Claws, not customers who churn because their AI bill is unpredictable.

There is also the matter of control. With a per-token markup model, you are locked into whatever models the platform supports and whatever pricing they set. With BYOK, you can switch from GPT-4 to Claude the moment a better model launches. You can take advantage of bulk pricing tiers with your model provider. You can set your own rate limits and usage caps directly through the provider’s dashboard.

For organizations with existing enterprise agreements with OpenAI or Anthropic (negotiated rates, committed spend, dedicated capacity) BYOK means those agreements apply to your ClawStaff agents automatically. There is nothing to renegotiate and no discount to lose.

Key Benefits

• Zero markup on AI costs. You pay OpenAI, Anthropic, or your model provider directly at their published rates, or at whatever enterprise rate you have negotiated. ClawStaff adds nothing to the per-token cost.

• Full model flexibility. Choose different models for different Claws based on the task. Use a smaller, faster model for simple routing tasks and a larger, more capable model for complex reasoning. Switch models without redeploying.

• Cost transparency. Your token usage and costs appear directly on your model provider’s dashboard and invoice. No mystery charges, no combined line items, no wondering what percentage was markup.

• Token usage tracking. The ClawStaff dashboard tracks token usage per Claw, per conversation, and per tool invocation. You can see exactly which agents are consuming the most tokens and optimize accordingly, even though ClawStaff does not charge for those tokens.

• Enterprise agreement compatibility. If your organization has a negotiated rate or committed spend agreement with a model provider, BYOK ensures your ClawStaff agents benefit from those terms automatically.

• Key rotation and revocation. Rotate your API keys at any time from the dashboard. The new key is encrypted and injected into your ClawCages on the next restart. Revoke a key and the associated Claws stop making API calls immediately. No delay, no cached credentials.