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With your organisation’s own OpenRouter API key, Ankra serves the same default models and the same automatic failover chain through your OpenRouter account - including background and autonomous AI sessions. Usage on your own key never draws on the free monthly allowance, so AI features are never paused by AI_ALLOWANCE_EXHAUSTED.

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Prerequisites

  • You are an organisation admin with the ai.manage permission.
  • An OpenRouter account at openrouter.ai with credits available.

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Add the Key

1

Create an API key at OpenRouter

Sign in at openrouter.ai and create a new API key from the Keys page. Copy the key - it starts with sk-or-.
Set a credit limit on the key in OpenRouter. It caps what Ankra can spend through it, independently of Ankra’s own daily spend cap.
2

Save the key in Ankra

The command prompts for the key without echoing it; you can also pipe it on stdin or pass --api-key. Ankra validates the key live against OpenRouter before storing it. Two errors can come back:
  • Invalid key - the key was rejected by OpenRouter. Check you copied the full key and that it has not been revoked.
  • No remaining credits - the key is valid but its OpenRouter account has no credits left. Top up at OpenRouter, then save again.
3

Activate the provider

From this point AI usage - interactive and background - is billed to your OpenRouter account.
4

Verify

ankra ai status shows the active provider and a masked preview of the stored key (for example sk-or-...wxyz). Open the AI Assistant (⌘J / Ctrl+J) and send a message - the run appears in your OpenRouter activity.

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In the portal

Go to AI → Settings → Models, expand OpenRouter (your own key), paste the sk-or-... key and save. The same validation runs, and the row then shows the masked preview. If you also hold an Anthropic key, Prefer this credential decides which of the two runs the calls both could serve.

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Rotating the Key

Save a new key over the old one - ankra ai openrouter set again, or the same row in the portal. The new key goes through the same live validation, and the old one is replaced on save - no downtime and no provider switch needed.

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Removing the Key

Removing the key (ankra ai openrouter remove, or Remove in the portal) switches the organisation back to the Ankra-managed provider, and the free monthly allowance rules apply again. If the allowance is already exhausted for the month, AI features pause until it resets or you add a key again.

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Security

  • The key is stored only in Ankra’s secret store (HashiCorp Vault or OpenBao) - never in the database.
  • It is never shown again after saving; Ankra only ever displays a masked preview like sk-or-...wxyz.
  • Viewing the preview, saving, and removing the key all require the ai.manage permission.
  • The key is never included in exports.
  • Models and Cost - every provider mode, the default models, and what the free allowance covers