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Provider Credentials and Privacy

Understand where your API keys live, what Provider Defaults and profiles do, and what information Studio sends to AI providers.

How Credentials Work

Studio uses your own provider accounts for AI generation. It does not include built-in access to any provider — you bring your own keys. This is sometimes called BYOK (bring your own keys).

Adding a Provider Key

  1. Open Studio Settings (from the left sidebar or the Studio menu).
  2. Find the credentials section.
  3. Add your API key for the provider you want to use.

Studio stores provider keys in your Mac's Keychain — the same secure storage that macOS uses for passwords, certificates, and other sensitive information. Keys are never written into .studio project packages.

Which Providers Does Studio Support?

Studio supports OpenRouter, ElevenLabs, Runway, and MiniMax. Add a key only for the providers you plan to use. Saving a key does not send project content; Studio contacts a provider only when you start a provider feature or explicitly refresh provider availability.

Commonly supported capabilities include:

  • Image generation through compatible provider models.
  • Video generation through compatible provider models, with optional synchronized audio.
  • Audio generation for voiceover, dialogue, sound effects, and ambience.
  • Transcription for converting spoken audio in clips to caption text.

Managing Credentials

  • Add or remove keys at any time from Settings.
  • Studio stores the current key for each provider you configure.
  • Studio checks that a credential exists before starting a generation job. If a key is missing, the Generate button shows a clear reason.
  • Credential checks happen when you start a job or refresh model availability — not in the background.

Provider Defaults

Provider Defaults are saved preferences for which provider and model to use for each generation mode. Studio remembers separate defaults for Image, Video, and Audio.

Why Defaults Are Useful

Without defaults, switching between modes would reset the provider and model selection each time. With defaults:

  • Switch to Image mode → your preferred image provider and model are selected.
  • Switch to Video mode → your preferred video provider and model are selected.
  • Switch to Audio mode → your preferred audio provider and model are selected.

Setting Defaults

  1. In the Generate rail, choose the mode, provider, and model you want as the default.
  2. Open Defaults from the left sidebar.
  3. Save the current selection as the default for that mode.

Studio reapplies your saved defaults whenever you switch modes.

Provider Profiles

A Provider Profile is a named set of routing preferences — which provider and model to use for different types of work. Profiles live inside the project package (not in Keychain — they do not contain secrets).

What Profiles Cover

A profile can include preferred providers and models for:

  • Image generation
  • Video generation
  • Audio generation
  • Transcription
  • Analysis

When to Use Profiles

  • One profile per project type. A "Social Media" profile might prefer fast, short-form models. A "Cinematic" profile might prefer higher-quality models.
  • Inherit or override. The Generate rail can use the project's default profile, or you can override it for a single job.

Profiles are project-specific. Each .studio package can have its own set of profiles.

What Gets Sent to Providers

This is the most common question about privacy. Here is exactly what happens when you generate.

When You Start a Provider Feature, Studio Sends

  • Your prompt — the instructions entered for the operation.
  • Selected reference media and context — only the images, video, audio, and Elements context included in that request.
  • Generation settings — duration, aspect ratio, resolution, motion, and other controls needed for the selected model.
  • Your API key — sent to its matching provider as an authentication header. The key is read from Keychain at request time.

Runway and MiniMax Video Inputs

  • Runway source editing can receive the edit prompt, a source-video URI, optional timed guidance keyframes, and the requested output aspect ratio. Studio prepares the source picture without the timeline's existing audio; that audio stays local and unchanged. If Runway needs a reachable source URL, Studio may use its temporary media relay first, but this is conditional rather than universal.
  • MiniMax video generation can receive the video prompt and settings plus selected reference images, source or reference video, and reference audio. Studio uploads selected reference media directly to MiniMax as video-generation input.

What Studio Does Not Send

  • Other assets in your project — files in the asset shelf that you did not attach as references are never sent.
  • Other projects — each .studio package is separate. Opening Project A does not expose Project B's content to a provider.
  • Your Mac's files — Studio can only send assets you explicitly imported into the project and attached to the generation request.
  • Your provider keys to other providers — each key is used only with the provider it belongs to.

Where the Results Go

Providers generate or temporarily host output before Studio downloads it into your .studio project package. The downloaded take is a local file on your Mac. Provider-hosted copies and job records remain subject to that provider's policy, API behavior, account agreement, and legal obligations.

Provider Job Records

Studio keeps a record of each generation job inside the project package: the prompt, model, settings, status, and result. Credentials and provider output URLs are redacted from stored job snapshots. These local records help you retrace what worked and what did not, but deleting them does not delete provider-held records.

Privacy-Friendly Summary

Here is the short version you can rely on:

  • Your API keys live in Keychain, not in project files.
  • Your project package stays local; Studio does not upload the entire package.
  • Prompts, settings, and selected media or context are sent only when you invoke a provider feature.
  • Provider output is downloaded locally, but the provider may generate or temporarily host it first.
  • Removing a local key or project does not erase data already handled by a provider.

If you share a .studio package with someone else, they get the project data (assets, prompts, job records, timeline) but not your API keys. They would need to add their own keys to generate.

Provider Policies and Retention

Runway says API customer data is not used for model training, but this is not a promise that Runway stores nothing or that every account has Zero Data Retention. Runway ephemeral uploads are usable for approximately 24 hours, and output URLs ordinarily expire approximately 24–48 hours after API access. Review Runway's Privacy Policy, Data Security, input documentation, and output documentation.

MiniMax does not publish blanket no-training or Zero Data Retention protection for these requests. Its API privacy policy permits aggregated, anonymized, or deidentified analysis and service improvement. Video-generation inputs can remain valid for up to seven days, and Studio does not currently delete every MiniMax input automatically after success. Review MiniMax's API Privacy Policy, file retention documentation, file-deletion documentation, and task-deletion documentation.

Tips

  • Set defaults for every mode you use. It saves the friction of re-selecting providers and models every time you switch.
  • Create a profile for recurring project types. If you regularly make short social videos and longer cinematic pieces, give each type its own profile.
  • Check credentials before a long generation session. Open Settings once, confirm your keys are present, then work without interruption.
  • The inline ? buttons explain what each field does. If you are unsure what a setting changes, click the ? next to it.

Watch Out For

  • Keys are per-provider, not per-project. Adding a key in Settings makes it available to all projects. You do not need to re-enter keys for each project.
  • Deleting a key from Settings removes it from Keychain. The next generation job that needs that provider will fail with a missing-credential message.
  • Sharing a .studio package shares project content but not keys. The recipient can open the project, see assets and job records, and edit the timeline. They cannot generate with your credentials.
  • Provider Defaults and Provider Profiles are different. Defaults are the quick per-mode routing you set from the Generate rail. Profiles are named sets of routing preferences saved in the project.