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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 generation through OpenRouter and ElevenLabs. Add a key only for the providers you plan to use.

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 Click Generate, Studio Sends

  • Your prompt — the text you wrote in the Generate rail.
  • Reference media — any images you attached as edit sources or visual references.
  • Context from Elements — any character, location, prop, style, or scene card descriptions you chose to include.
  • Generation settings — duration, aspect ratio, motion preset, and other controls you set.
  • Your API key — sent as a standard authentication header so the provider knows who is making the request. The key is read from Keychain at the moment of the request.

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

Generated takes are saved inside your .studio project package. They are local files on your Mac. Studio does not upload generated outputs to any service unless you choose to share them.

Provider Job Records

Studio keeps a record of each generation job inside the project package: the prompt, the model, the settings, the status, and the result. These records help you retrace what worked and what did not. They stay local.

Privacy-Friendly Summary

Here is the short version you can rely on:

  • Your API keys live in Keychain. They are not in your project files.
  • Your projects live on your Mac as .studio packages. They are not uploaded anywhere.
  • Prompts and reference media are sent to the provider you choose only when you start a generation job.
  • Everything else stays local unless you take an explicit action to share it.

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.

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.