API keys and the OAuth path

What you’ll learn

This is the lesson where the invisible plumbing under lesson 2 gets visible. Every message you sent in your first conversation went to an AI provider somewhere on the internet, came back, and the provider needed two things from you to make that happen: proof you were allowed to use it, and a way to bill you. Both answers live in one small piece of text called an API key. This lesson covers what an API key actually is, the BYOK (bring your own key) model that puts your billing relationship with the provider rather than with Clawless, where the key lives once Clawless has it, the Codex OAuth path that lets ChatGPT subscribers use OpenAI models through their subscription instead of paying per-token, and the three common reasons a working key suddenly turns red.

Before you start

Prerequisites: lesson 2, Your first conversation and picking a model, where you opened Clawless and sent your first message. You need Clawless installed with the four-step onboarding finished and at least one provider connected (an API key or a ChatGPT OAuth session). The practice is a 15-minute key check that confirms what onboarding set up and optionally adds a second provider.

By the end, you’ll be able to

• Explain what an API key is and how the BYOK model puts your billing relationship with the provider rather than with Clawless
• Locate the Settings, API Keys page in Clawless and identify whether a provider’s row is green, red, or empty
• Distinguish the OAuth path (Codex) from the standard API key path, and predict when each is the right choice
• Diagnose a red row in API Keys by mapping the symptom to one of three common causes (typo, revoked or rotated, out of credits)
• Add a second provider to Clawless via the 5-step path in Settings, API Keys

Time and difficulty

• Read time: about 10 minutes
• Practice time: about 15 minutes (confirm your existing provider is green; optionally add a second using the 5-step path; send one message on the new provider to verify it shows up in the model picker and the Usage dashboard)
• Difficulty: intro