---
title: "We Need OKAP: OAuth for API Keys"
description: "Every AI app wants my API keys. Copy. Paste. Repeat. What if we had a standard for this? Practical notes and code examples."
url: "https://h3manth.com/scribe/okap/"
canonical_url: "https://h3manth.com/scribe/okap/"
markdown_url: "https://h3manth.com/scribe/blog/okap.md"
publishDate: "2025-12-21T06:00:00.000Z"
author: "Hemanth HM"
category: "ai"
tags: ["ai","api","security","protocol","keys"]
word_count: 804
reading_time_minutes: 5
x_markdown_tokens: 1515
content_signal: "ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes"
---

# We Need OKAP: OAuth for API Keys

> Every AI app wants my API keys. Copy. Paste. Repeat. What if we had a standard for this? Practical notes and code examples.

I have API keys for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Groq, Together AI, Replicate, and counting.

Every new AI tool I try wants me to paste them manually. Copy from one dashboard. Paste into a config. Repeat for every provider. Repeat for every app.

My keys are now scattered across dozens of apps. Some store them in localStorage. Some in plaintext config files. I have no visibility into who's using what, or how much they're spending.

We have OAuth for user authentication. Why don't we have the equivalent for API keys?

## The Current Landscape

Good news: people are already solving pieces of this problem.

### LiteLLM Proxy

[LiteLLM](https://litellm.ai/) runs a local proxy that unifies all your AI providers behind one OpenAI-compatible endpoint:

```yaml
# litellm-config.yaml
model_list:
  - model_name: gpt-4
    litellm_params:
      model: openai/gpt-4
      api_key: os.environ/OPENAI_API_KEY
  - model_name: claude-3
    litellm_params:
      model: anthropic/claude-3-opus
      api_key: os.environ/ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
```

One endpoint for all providers. Virtual keys for rate limiting and budgets. But you still manage the master keys yourself.

### Cloudflare AI Gateway

[Cloudflare's AI Gateway](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/) lets you store API keys in their dashboard:

- Secure storage with encryption
- Easy key rotation
- Usage analytics across providers
- Rate limiting and caching

They're adding features for dynamic routing and scoped access. Getting closer to what I want.

### Eden AI

[Eden AI](https://www.edenai.co/) goes further. Single API, multiple providers:

- One Eden AI key to access OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, etc.
- They handle the provider routing
- Unified dashboard for usage and costs
- Automatic failover between providers

Trade-off: you're trusting them with your traffic.

### llmux

I built [llmux](https://github.com/hemanth/llmux) to solve this for my own projects. It's a unified LLM inference proxy with multi-provider routing:

```yaml
routing:
  default_strategy: round-robin
  fallback_chain: [groq, cerebras, together, openrouter]

model_aliases:
  llama-70b:
    groq: llama-3.1-70b-versatile
    together: meta-llama/Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct-Turbo
```

One API key, round-robin across providers, automatic fallbacks, caching. Works with any OpenAI SDK. Deploy locally, Docker, or Cloudflare Workers.

Still requires managing provider keys yourself, but at least they're in one place.

### Other Players

- **[IBYOK](https://ibyok.com/)**: Encrypted vault specifically for LLM API keys
- **[Kilo Code](https://www.kilo.ai/)**: Organization-wide API credential management
- **[ngrok AI Gateway](https://ngrok.com/)**: Proxy with failover and load balancing across providers

## What's Still Missing

These tools help, but they're all different pieces. Here's what I actually want:

### 1. User-Controlled Authorization Flow

Like OAuth, but for API keys:

```
1. App requests: "I need OpenAI GPT-4 access, $10/month limit"
2. I get a prompt: "Example App wants GPT-4 access. Allow?"
3. I approve
4. App gets a scoped token, not my master key
```

No copy-paste. No trusting apps with my master key. I approve once, revoke anytime.

### 2. Scoped Tokens, Not Master Keys

Apps should never see my `sk-...` key. They get a proxy token that:
- Is rate limited
- Is model restricted
- Has a spending cap
- Can be revoked instantly

LiteLLM's virtual keys do this if you self-host. But it requires running your own infrastructure.

### 3. Universal Standard

Each solution above is siloed. What if there was a standard that:
- Apps request access using a common protocol
- Any vault/gateway can fulfill the request
- Users choose their preferred vault

Like how OAuth works across providers.

## OKAP: A Proposal

I've drafted a spec: **[OKAP - Open Key Access Protocol](https://github.com/hemanth/okap)**

Here's what an OKAP request could look like:

```json
{
  "okap": "1.0",
  "request": {
    "provider": "openai",
    "models": ["gpt-4", "gpt-4o-mini"],
    "capabilities": ["chat", "embeddings"],
    "limits": {
      "monthly_spend": 10.00,
      "requests_per_minute": 60
    },
    "expires": "2025-03-01"
  }
}
```

A browser extension or native app intercepts this, shows me the request, I approve or deny. The app gets a scoped OKAP token.

## What Would Make OKAP Work

For OKAP to become a real standard:

1. **Provider buy-in**: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google would need to support scoped tokens or recognize a standard proxy protocol
2. **User adoption**: A trusted vault app/extension that people actually install
3. **Developer adoption**: Apps willing to integrate the flow

The infrastructure exists. LiteLLM, Cloudflare, and others prove the proxy model works. OKAP would standardize the handshake between apps and user-controlled vaults.

## What I'm Doing Today

For now, I use:
- **Environment variables** for local development
- **[llmux](https://github.com/hemanth/llmux)** for multi-provider routing and fallbacks
- **Cloudflare AI Gateway** for production apps with caching

Not ideal. Keys are still in a config file. No universal authorization flow.

## What's Next?

The pieces exist. LiteLLM does virtual keys. Cloudflare does secure storage. llmux does routing.

What's missing: a standard way for apps to request access and users to grant it.

If you're:
- **Building an AI app**: Would you integrate a BYOK authorization flow?
- **Working on key management**: Want to collaborate on a spec?
- **Using multiple AI APIs**: What's your current workflow?

I'm thinking about writing a draft spec. Let me know if you'd use it.

[LinkedIn](https://linkedin.com/in/poshiya) | [GitHub](https://github.com/hemanth)