AI Setup
Jotaid's AI features run on your own API key (BYOK — Bring Your Own Key). Nothing is routed through Jotaid's servers; your notes go directly to the provider you choose. This section walks you through configuration end to end.
Pro required
AI features are part of Jotaid Pro. Unlock Pro with either a yearly subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase — both unlock the same features — then use your own API key to run them. See Free vs Pro.
Why Bring Your Own Key
Jotaid does not embed an AI service. It does not call a Jotaid-hosted model on your behalf; you supply your own key and requests go straight from your device to the provider you chose.
Three concrete consequences:
| Bringing your own key means | |
|---|---|
| Data path | Your notes travel between two parties: your device → your provider. There is no Jotaid server in between, and therefore no "we promise not to look" for you to take on trust |
| Cost | You pay your provider for your own usage, metered by them. Jotaid takes no margin and imposes no quota |
| Choice | Switch models, switch providers, or run Ollama locally — none of it waits on a Jotaid update |
The cost is real too: you have to go and obtain a key, which is genuinely more work than flipping a switch.
An embedded option is deferred, not declined
For Jotaid to host the inference, we would take on responsibility for processing your note content and a compliance review of an AI runtime — neither of which is a matter of adding a backend. Until those conditions are met, we would rather you could use this today and know exactly where your data goes than be handed a vague hosted arrangement. An embedded option will come when the timing is right, and bring-your-own-key will remain alongside it.
Supported Providers
Jotaid works with four providers natively, plus any OpenAI-compatible service.
Native providers
| Provider | Default model |
|---|---|
| OpenAI | gpt-4o-mini |
| Anthropic Claude | claude-3-5-sonnet |
| Google Gemini | gemini-2.5-flash |
| DeepSeek | deepseek-v4-flash |
OpenAI-compatible services
Any provider that speaks the OpenAI API format works too. Jotaid includes presets for Groq, OpenRouter, Together AI, Mistral, xAI (Grok), Moonshot (Kimi), Zhipu (GLM), Qwen, SiliconFlow, Fireworks, Perplexity, and Ollama (local). You can also add a Custom endpoint by pasting any base URL.
No key yet?
Where to obtain one from each provider, what keys look like and how to cap costs: Getting an API Key.
Configure in Four Steps
- Open Settings → AI
- Choose a provider from the list
- Paste your API key into the key field
- Pick a model — for most providers a curated list is offered; Gemini fetches its model list live
That's it. Once a valid key is saved, every AI feature becomes available.
Feature Toggles
After setup, control which AI helpers are active in Settings → AI:
- Auto Title & Tags — automatically name new notes and suggest tags (on by default)
- Theme Summaries — synthesize all notes in a theme into key insights
- Node Enrichment — expand a concept node with AI-generated content
- Smart Format — clean up Markdown formatting in the current note (⇧⌘F)
- Semantic Suggestions — surface links between notes you might have missed
See AI Features for where each one is triggered and what it does.
Privacy
- Your API key is stored locally in the system Keychain — never synced, never sent to Jotaid
- Note content is sent only to the provider you configured, and only when you trigger a feature
- No data is collected or used for training
Troubleshooting
- "Invalid API key" — double-check you copied the full key with no trailing spaces, and that the key has credit/quota on the provider side.
- Empty or cut-off results — try a larger model, or a provider with a higher output limit. Very small models can truncate structured output.
- Model not listed — pick Custom or an OpenAI-compatible preset and enter the model name manually.
Next Steps
- AI Features — Where each feature lives and what it returns
- Semantic Relations — Where semantic suggestions appear