API Key
An API key is a unique string of characters that authenticates your identity when making requests to a web API. It acts as a password for programmatic access, allowing the service to identify who is making the request and bill accordingly.
How It Works
API keys are typically generated in the provider's dashboard. They should be treated like passwords: never share them publicly, never commit them to version control, and revoke them if compromised. Most AI providers rate-limit and bill based on the API key, so each key represents a billing identity. Some providers offer multiple key types with different permission levels.
API Key in Chapeta
Chapeta requires an OpenRouter API key to function. You generate this key at openrouter.ai, paste it into Chapeta's settings, and it is stored locally in your macOS Keychain (not in a config file). When you send a request, the key is transmitted through Chapeta's API proxy to OpenRouter for authentication and routing.
Related
More Terms
OpenRouter
OpenRouter is a unified API gateway that provides access to hundreds of AI models from different providers through a single API endpoint.
BYOK (Bring Your Own Key)
BYOK stands for Bring Your Own Key.
LLM (Large Language Model)
A Large Language Model (LLM) is an AI system trained on massive text datasets that can understand and generate human language.
AI Agent
An AI agent is an AI system that can take actions in the real world, not just generate text.
Context Window
A context window is the maximum amount of text (measured in tokens) that an AI model can process in a single request.
Prompt Engineering
Prompt engineering is the practice of crafting input text (prompts) to get the best possible output from AI models.
Token
A token is the basic unit of text that AI models process.
Fine-Tuning
Fine-tuning is the process of further training a pre-trained AI model on a specific dataset to specialize it for a particular task or domain.