Bring Your Own Key
On paid tiers, the Sigilix CLI and Deep-Research Chat are not locked to Sigilix’s own models. Connect your own model-provider key — Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI (GPT), or another provider you already have a contract with — and the CLI runs on that model, billed directly to your provider account. Whatever model you bring is still handed Sigilix’s earned-context layer: the injected codebase context and learned memory that make a Sigilix review grounded rather than generic.
This is the bet behind bring-your-own-key: the value isn’t the model itself. The value is the verified context the model is given. A frontier model with a generic prompt re-discovers your codebase every session and guesses at the edges. The same model handed Sigilix’s earned context starts from a repo that has already been indexed, graphed, reviewed, and remembered.
BYOK trades the strongest grounding guarantee for model choice and your own billing — read this first.
Sigilix’s accuracy comes from grounding: the codebase context Sigilix injects into a review and the org/seat memory it has learned about your repo. Sigilix’s own hosted models (Boreas, Pyroeis, Astraeus) are tuned to prioritize that injected context — to defer to your repository’s facts and your team’s learned rules over their own general knowledge.
Frontier models accessed through BYOK carry strong internal priors. In observed behavior, a general-purpose frontier model can deprioritize, argue with, or override injected context and memory in favor of what it already “believes” — a tendency sometimes described as prior-knowledge dominance or an alignment conflict between the model’s own training and the context it’s handed. This is a known behavior of large models given authoritative external context, not a defect specific to any one provider.
Because of that, Sigilix cannot guarantee a BYOK model will fully honor your organization’s memory and codebase context the way its hosted models do. For the strongest grounding, use Sigilix’s hosted models. BYOK is the right choice when model choice or your own billing matters more to you than the grounding guarantee.
BYOK applies to the CLI and chat surfaces. The hosted PR ensemble runs per-role tuned models with cross-provider fallback so one provider’s outage cannot silence a specialist — see The Ensemble. BYOK is a paid-tier feature — start a 14-day Pro trial or contact support@sigilix.ai.
What you can bring
BYOK connects a model-provider key, not an external agent. Sigilix’s own CLI does the work; the key just selects the model behind it.
Anthropic (Claude)
Connect your Anthropic API key and run the CLI on a Claude model. You authenticate to Anthropic and Anthropic bills you directly.
OpenAI (GPT)
Connect your OpenAI API key and run the CLI on a GPT model. Usage lands on your OpenAI account.
Another provider you use
Bring a key for another supported provider — useful when you have an existing provider contract or a self-hosted / gateway endpoint. Run sigilix providers list to see what your account supports.
Why bring your own key
Pay the provider directly
Usage runs on your account with the provider you choose. No model markup from Sigilix on the CLI and chat surfaces — you control the spend.
Use the model you trust
If your team has standardized on a specific frontier model, run the CLI on it. Sigilix supplies the context and the gates; the model you bring does the reasoning.
Still handed the context
Whatever model you bring is handed the index, code graph, trust ledger, review memory, and evidence manifests — so it reasons about the whole repo, not a window. (How fully it uses that context depends on the model — see the grounding trade-off above.)
Stay within your boundary
Routing through your own key means your code goes to the provider you’ve already vetted and contracted with, under their data-use terms.
How it fits together
The model is the engine; the earned-context layer is the fuel. BYOK swaps the engine without touching the fuel — though a swapped-in engine may not burn the fuel as completely (see the grounding trade-off above).
Hosted reviews build the context
Every PR review deposits a verified layer — index, code graph, trust ledger, review memory, evidence manifests. This is the substrate your model is handed.
You connect your key
Connect your provider key with sigilix providers login and select the model. Sigilix records which model to run for your CLI and chat sessions.
Sigilix hands your model the context
When you run a CLI review or a chat query, Sigilix expands the request with the earned-context layer before handing it to your model — so it can judge and answer against the whole repo.
You pay the provider, Sigilix supplies the rigor
Inference billing lands on your provider account. The believability gates, context expansion, and proof-tier receipts come from Sigilix.
Connecting a key
The CLI manages providers through sigilix providers (alias: sigilix auth). You connect a provider once with your own key, then pick its models per run or in the interactive UI.
# See what's configured and what's available
sigilix providers list
sigilix models
# Connect a provider with your own key (paid tiers)
sigilix providers login
# Use a connected provider's model for a run
sigilix run --model <provider/model> "…"
# Disconnect a provider
sigilix providers logoutConnecting any non-Sigilix provider key is checked against your plan’s entitlements before the key is accepted — sigilix whoami shows whether BYOK is enabled for your account. Authentication follows each provider’s own flow; you supply the provider credentials.
Frequently asked
Does BYOK change the hosted PR review?
No. The hosted PR ensemble runs per-role tuned models — a reasoning-heavy model for logic, a faster high-volume model for security, and so on — behind cross-provider fallback so one outage can’t silence a specialist. BYOK applies only to the CLI and Deep-Research Chat surfaces. See The Ensemble.
Who pays for inference?
You do — directly to the provider whose key you connect. That’s the point of BYOK: usage runs on your own account with the provider you’ve chosen, with no model markup from Sigilix on these surfaces.
Will a BYOK model use my org memory and codebase context as fully as a hosted model?
Not guaranteed. Sigilix hands every model the same earned context, but its own hosted models are tuned to prioritize that injected context and learned memory. A general-purpose frontier model brought via BYOK carries strong internal priors and may, in observed behavior, deprioritize or override the context in favor of its own general knowledge. If maximal grounding matters more than model choice, use Sigilix’s hosted models. See the grounding trade-off at the top of this page.
What if I don’t connect a key?
On the CLI and chat, Sigilix’s own hosted lineup is the default — see The Sigilix Models — so you can get going without connecting a provider. BYOK is for teams that want to run on their own provider account or standardize on a specific frontier model.
What plan do I need for BYOK?
BYOK is a paid-tier feature — start a 14-day Pro trial or pick a paid plan on the pricing page. Email support@sigilix.ai with any questions.