Your own AI research assistant, running on your computer, powered by your API keys.
K-Dense BYOK (Bring Your Own Keys) is a free, open-source app that gives you Kady — an AI research assistant for scientists in any field. Describe a task in plain language — analyze a dataset, review a manuscript, search the literature, build a figure — and Kady does the work: it reads and writes files, runs real code, searches the web, and hands you the results.
No coding experience is required. The app runs locally on your machine, your data stays with you, and you pay only for the AI model usage on your own account.
Beta: K-Dense BYOK is currently in beta. Many features and improvements are on the way. Star us on GitHub to stay in the loop, and follow K-Dense on X, LinkedIn, and YouTube for release notes and tutorials.
- Take on real research tasks — data analysis, literature review, manuscript checking, figure generation — in a full working environment, with progress shown live in the chat.
- Delegate to a built-in team of 21 scientific specialists, like a
citation-checker, astatistical-reviewer, and apeer-reviewer— running one at a time, in parallel, or chained. Learn more. - Search the web and read sources natively — pages, PDFs, GitHub repositories, even YouTube videos — with no extra API key required.
- Ask before it assumes. When a task is ambiguous, Kady shows a quick question form in the chat instead of guessing.
- Use 140+ pre-installed scientific skills covering genomics, proteomics, drug discovery, materials science, and more — activated automatically per task.
- Launch 326 ready-made workflow templates across 22 disciplines: pick one, fill in the blanks, go.
- Query 229 scientific and financial databases in 18 categories, from PubMed-scale biomedical resources to market and climate data.
- Use any tool-capable AI model — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, Qwen, and more via one OpenRouter account, or free local models via Ollama. Switch per chat.
- Stay organized with projects — each with its own files, chat history, up to 10 parallel chat tabs, rich file previews (including bioinformatics formats), a LaTeX editor, and cost tracking with optional spend caps.
- Extend it with MCP servers — connect GitHub, reference managers, databases, and hundreds of other external tools.
You need a computer running macOS or Linux (Windows works via WSL) and an OpenRouter API key (one account, all major AI models — or use free local models instead).
Open a terminal and run:
git clone https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/k-dense-byok.git
cd k-dense-byok
cp .env.example .env # then paste your OpenRouter key into .env
./start.shThe first start installs everything automatically (it takes a few minutes); then your browser opens to http://localhost:3000. Press Ctrl+C in the terminal to stop.
That's it. Create a project, drop in your data, and ask Kady for what you want — for example: "Run a differential expression analysis on counts.csv comparing treated vs control, and plot a volcano plot."
➡️ Step-by-step details, optional API keys, and troubleshooting: Installation guide ➡️ Your first session and everyday features: Basic usage
All guides live in the docs/ folder:
| Guide | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Installation | Full setup walkthrough, optional API keys, updating, troubleshooting |
| Basic usage | First session, chat tabs, files, workflows, databases, costs, tips |
| Sub-agents | Kady's team of 21 scientific specialists and how to customize them |
| Connecting external tools (MCP) | Give Kady extra abilities like GitHub, reference managers, and databases |
| Local models with Ollama | Run everything on free local models, no API keys required |
| Model selection | How Kady builds the OpenRouter model list |
| Architecture | How the two local services fit together |
| Contributing workflows | Add new workflow templates to the library |
| Known limitations | Rough edges to be aware of in the current beta |
Literature search (Paperclip), document conversion, remote compute (Modal), browser automation, and the provenance/"Copy as Methods" export are being re-added in upcoming releases, along with MCP tools for sub-agents and a UI experience further tailored to scientific workflows. In the meantime, many of these are available today by connecting an MCP server.
K-Dense BYOK is great for getting started, but if you want end-to-end research workflows with managed infrastructure, team collaboration, and no setup required, check out K-Dense Web — our full platform built for professional and academic research teams.
If you run into a problem or have an idea for something new, please open a GitHub issue. We read every one.
K-Dense BYOK is open source because K-Dense believes in giving back to the community that makes this kind of work possible.