Bring Your Own Key (BYOK)

By default, Valiqor uses its own OpenAI API key for LLM-based evaluations, security audits, and failure analysis. With BYOK (Bring Your Own Key), you can provide your own OpenAI API key so that LLM judge calls are billed to your OpenAI account instead.

Why use BYOK?

Benefit	Description
No shared quota limits	Avoid hitting Valiqor’s per-org LLM token quotas
Faster processing	Your key won’t be rate-limited by other users’ traffic
Cost control	Pay OpenAI directly, track costs in your OpenAI dashboard
Data handling	LLM judge calls go through your own OpenAI account

Setting your OpenAI key

You can set your key at four levels, in priority order:

1. Per-method (highest priority)

result = client.failure_analysis.run(
    dataset=my_data,
    openai_api_key="sk-...",  # Used for this call only
)

result = client.eval.evaluate(
    dataset=my_data,
    metrics=["hallucination"],
    openai_api_key="sk-...",
)

result = client.security.audit(
    dataset=my_data,
    openai_api_key="sk-...",
)

2. Per-client (constructor)

from valiqor import ValiqorClient

client = ValiqorClient(
    api_key="vq_...",
    project_name="my-app",
    openai_api_key="sk-...",  # Used for all calls from this client
)

The key is passed to each sub-client (.eval, .security, .failure_analysis).

3. Environment variable

export VALIQOR_OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."

4. `.valiqorrc` file (lowest priority)

{
  "api_key": "vq_...",
  "project_name": "my-app",
  "openai_api_key": "sk-..."
}

Resolution order

method param → constructor param → VALIQOR_OPENAI_API_KEY env var → .valiqorrc → backend server key (fallback)

If you don’t provide a key at any level, Valiqor’s backend falls back to its own server-side OpenAI key.

How it works

When you provide an OpenAI key, the SDK includes it in the JSON request body:

Your code → SDK → POST /v2/failure-analysis/analyze
                   Body: { "dataset": [...], "openai_api_key": "sk-..." }
                        → Backend uses YOUR key for LLM judge calls

The key is:

Request-scoped — not persisted by the backend
Sent in the request body — not as a header
Used only for LLM judge calls — your Valiqor API key (vq_...) is still used for authentication

Supported methods

BYOK is supported in all LLM-based operations:

Module	Methods
Failure Analysis	`run()`, `run_async()`
Evaluation	`evaluate()`, `evaluate_trace()`, `evaluate_async()`
Security	`audit()`, `audit_trace()`, `red_team()`, `audit_async()`, `red_team_async()`

Heuristic metrics (contains, levenshtein, equals, regex_match) don’t use LLM judges and therefore don’t use your OpenAI key.

Example: CI/CD with BYOK

import os
from valiqor import ValiqorClient

client = ValiqorClient(
    api_key=os.environ["VALIQOR_API_KEY"],
    project_name="my-app",
    openai_api_key=os.environ.get("OPENAI_API_KEY"),  # Optional BYOK
)

result = client.failure_analysis.run(dataset=test_cases)

if result.summary.should_gate_ci:
    print("❌ Critical failures — blocking deployment")
    exit(1)

Verifying BYOK is active

When you provide an OpenAI key, the backend uses it for all LLM judge calls in that request. You can verify by checking your OpenAI usage dashboard for corresponding API calls. If your key is invalid or has insufficient credits, the backend will return an error. The SDK raises an APIError in that case.

Configuration →

Full config reference: env vars, .valiqorrc, and more.

Rate Limits →

Understand quotas and how BYOK affects them.

Start Here

Core Workflows

Concepts

Integrations

Resources

Bring Your Own Key (BYOK)

Why use BYOK?

Setting your OpenAI key

1. Per-method (highest priority)

2. Per-client (constructor)

3. Environment variable

4. `.valiqorrc` file (lowest priority)

Resolution order

How it works

Supported methods

Example: CI/CD with BYOK

Verifying BYOK is active

Configuration →

Rate Limits →

​Why use BYOK?

​Setting your OpenAI key

​1. Per-method (highest priority)

​2. Per-client (constructor)

​3. Environment variable

​4. .valiqorrc file (lowest priority)

​Resolution order

​How it works

​Supported methods

​Example: CI/CD with BYOK

​Verifying BYOK is active

Configuration →

Rate Limits →

Why use BYOK?

Setting your OpenAI key

1. Per-method (highest priority)

2. Per-client (constructor)

3. Environment variable

4. `.valiqorrc` file (lowest priority)

Resolution order

How it works

Supported methods

Example: CI/CD with BYOK

Verifying BYOK is active