Your API Keys, Your Chat App: Oriveo Community Edition
You're already paying OpenAI or Anthropic directly for API access. So why are you also paying a subscription to a chat interface that sits in front of those same models? Oriveo Community Edition is an open-source, bring-your-own-key chat client that cuts out the middleman—no account, no subscription, and no service of theirs in the request path between you and the model provider.
What It Does
Oriveo Community Edition is a multi-model AI chat client for iOS, Android, and the web, with a native macOS client in development. It's local-first and built around a simple premise: you supply API keys you already own, the client talks directly to the provider with them, and nothing reports back to Oriveo. The web client is yours to self-host if you want.
The project speaks natively to 15 model providers, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, OpenRouter, DeepSeek, Grok, Mistral, Groq, and Together AI—covering 700+ models according to the project's own description. The iOS client requires iOS 18 or later, the Android client runs on Android 8 and up, and the web client is built with Next.js. The whole thing is licensed under AGPL-3.0-or-later.
There's an important distinction to understand up front: the App Store and Google Play builds are a separate commercial edition called Oriveo. This repository is Community Edition, which you build from source.
Why It's Cool
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No account, no middleman. This is the part that matters. The chat request path goes from your device to the model provider—Oriveo isn't in it. You don't create an account with them, and nothing phones home. For anyone who's uncomfortable routing every conversation through a third party's servers, that architecture is the whole point.
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BYOK done honestly. Bring-your-own-key apps sometimes still proxy your requests through their infrastructure. Oriveo's README is explicit that it doesn't. You're paying the model provider directly at their rates, not a subscription markup on top.
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Genuine cross-platform reach. iOS, Android, and web from one project, with macOS in development. That's a meaningful amount of surface area for an open-source chat client, and it means you're not locked into one ecosystem's app.
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Provider breadth without lock-in. Fifteen providers and 700+ models is a lot of flexibility. If a new model drops on OpenRouter or DeepSeek, you're not waiting for a single vendor to add support—you're using the provider's own API through a client that already speaks it.
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Self-hostable web client. If you want to run the web version yourself rather than use their hosted one, you can. That's the kind of option that matters when you're already thinking carefully about where your data goes.
The honest tradeoff: building from source is more work than tapping "Install" in an app store. But that's also why the Community Edition exists separately from the commercial one—you get the code, the license, and the freedom that comes with it.
How to Try It
The fastest path is to grab a build or use the hosted web app:
- Visit oriveoai.com for the project overview.
- Download from the App Store or Google Play.
- Or use the web app directly.
If you want Community Edition specifically—the version built from source in this repo—start with the repository:
https://github.com/oriveo/oriveo
The README links to platform-specific build instructions under ios/README.md, android/README.md, and web/README.md, plus a macos/README.md for the client still in development. There's also a CONTRIBUTING.md if you want to get involved.
Once you're running, you'll supply your own API keys for whichever providers you use, and the client handles the rest.
Final Thoughts
Oriveo Community Edition is best suited to developers and privacy-conscious users who already have API keys and don't want another subscription or another company in their chat pipeline. If you're happy with a hosted plan and don't care where the requests route, this probably isn't aimed at you. But if the idea of a local-first, self-hostable, BYOK client across three platforms appeals—and you're willing to build from source—this is a well-scoped project worth a look. The macOS client being in development suggests the team is still expanding, so it's a reasonable time to follow along.
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