Signing in

Ptah has two layers of authentication:

1. An optional Ptah sign-in that connects you to a Ptah Builders membership.
2. Provider credentials (API keys or OAuth tokens) that let Ptah talk to the AI services you use.

This page covers both. Neither is required to start using Ptah — every local capability is free and open source, and works out of the box with any provider you configure. Signing in is only for Builders membership perks.

Tiers

Tier	Price	Who it’s for	What you get
Community	Free (open source)	Everyone	Every local capability — browser automation, code execution, MCP, CLI agent sync, the Setup Hub, all providers
Ptah Builders	$29/mo or $290/yr	Members who want the training	SaaS course (PRD to production), weekly live sessions, member skill packs, private community, priority support

Community is fully free and open source, with no gating on any local feature. Ptah Builders is a paid membership that adds training and community on top. It does not unlock anything local.

Approved early adopters get their first year free. The Early Adopter program is a grant, not a discount. There is no checkout step and no payment method to enter. See the pricing page to apply, or read the full tier comparison.

Entering a license key

There is no license prompt anywhere in the first-run flow. If you’re a Ptah Builders member (or hold a legacy key), attach it from Settings whenever you like:

1. Open Settings. The Membership card sits at the top of the page — it reads Community until a key or sign-in is attached.
2. Click Enter Membership Key.
3. Paste the key you received by email, then click Activate.

Ptah validates the key against the license server, then stores it in your operating system’s secure credential store using Electron’s safeStorage API. The key is never written to a plain-text settings file.

The window reloads

Activating or clearing a key reloads the Ptah window a moment later, so the whole app picks up the new membership state. Any unsent chat input is lost, so finish your turn first.

Configuring providers

Ptah ships with first-class support for several AI providers. You only need to configure the ones you plan to use.

Provider	Auth method	Where to get credentials
Claude	API key	Your Anthropic Console
Copilot	OAuth (device flow) or CLI login	Your GitHub account
Codex	API key or CLI login	Your OpenAI dashboard
Ollama	Local endpoint (no key)	http://localhost:11434 by default
OpenRouter	API key	Your OpenRouter dashboard
Moonshot (Kimi)	API key	Your Moonshot console
Z.AI (GLM)	API key	Your Z.AI console

Ptah also detects LM Studio and Ollama Cloud, and it accepts a custom Anthropic-compatible endpoint you define yourself. See Providers for the full list and per-provider setup.

Add a provider

1. Open Settings → Providers.
2. Click the provider you want to configure.
3. Paste your API key, or click Sign in to start an OAuth device flow.
4. Click Test connection to verify the credential works.

Where credentials are stored

Provider settings live in ~/.ptah/settings.json — a user-scoped config file outside your project folders. Secrets (API keys, OAuth tokens) are stored via the OS secure credential store, not in plain text in the settings file.

Don’t commit secrets

~/.ptah/settings.json is a user-level file and is never part of your project’s source tree. If you ever copy configuration into a workspace, strip secrets before committing.

Local models with Ollama

If you run models locally with Ollama, Ptah auto-detects a running Ollama daemon on http://localhost:11434. No API key is needed. To point Ptah at a remote or non-default Ollama endpoint, edit the Ollama provider settings and update the base URL.

Next step

You’re ready to start using Ptah. Head over to the Chat guide to send your first message, or jump to Agents to customize the agents created by the setup wizard.