Migrate from Direct SDK Usage

If you’re calling OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or another provider directly — no proxy in the middle — this is the fastest migration path. You change one environment variable. Everything else stays the same.

Migration time: 5–10 minutes. This is the quickest migration path.

What you gain immediately

Once the base URL points at the Curate-Me gateway:

Cost tracking — every request is logged with token counts and USD cost
Daily budget cap — set a hard limit to prevent bill surprises
PII scanning — 33 regex patterns scan every prompt for secrets and PII before they leave your app
Rate limiting — configurable per-key RPM with standard RateLimit-* response headers
HITL gate — flag high-cost requests for human approval before they execute
Model allowlist — restrict which models an API key can call
Full audit trail — every request, every response, tamper-proof

Environment variable mapping

Direct SDK env var	Curate-Me equivalent	Notes
`OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...`	`OPENAI_API_KEY=cm_sk_...`	Your CM key replaces the OpenAI key
`OPENAI_BASE_URL` (not set)	`OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/openai`	Must be set
`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...`	`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=cm_sk_...`	Same pattern
`ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL` (not set)	`ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/anthropic`	Must be set
Provider key (OpenAI/Anthropic)	Stored in CM Secrets	Gateway injects it automatically

After migration your upstream provider keys (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.) are stored in Curate-Me — they’re encrypted at rest and injected per request. You should remove them from your app’s environment once stored.

Before / after code diff

Python (OpenAI)


-import os
 from openai import OpenAI
 
-client = OpenAI(api_key=os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"])  # sk-...
+client = OpenAI(
+    base_url="https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/openai",
+    api_key="cm_sk_your_gateway_key",
+)
 response = client.chat.completions.create(
     model="gpt-4o",
     messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}],
 )
 print(response.choices[0].message.content)

If you use environment variables (recommended):


# .env file
-OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-real-openai-key
+OPENAI_API_KEY=cm_sk_your_gateway_key
+OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/openai

Then your Python code needs zero changes:


from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI()  # picks up OPENAI_API_KEY + OPENAI_BASE_URL from env

Python (Anthropic)


 import anthropic
 
-client = anthropic.Anthropic(api_key="sk-ant-your-key")
+client = anthropic.Anthropic(
+    base_url="https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/anthropic",
+    api_key="cm_sk_your_gateway_key",
+)
 message = client.messages.create(
     model="claude-opus-4-5",
     max_tokens=1024,
     messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}],
 )
 print(message.content[0].text)

TypeScript


 import OpenAI from 'openai';
 
-const client = new OpenAI({ apiKey: process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY }); // sk-...
+const client = new OpenAI({
+  apiKey: process.env.CM_API_KEY,       // cm_sk_...
+  baseURL: 'https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/openai',
+});
 const response = await client.chat.completions.create({
   model: 'gpt-4o',
   messages: [{ role: 'user', content: 'Hello' }],
 });
 console.log(response.choices[0].message.content);

Using environment variable (no code change at all):


# .env
-OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-real-key
+OPENAI_API_KEY=cm_sk_your_gateway_key
+OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/openai

curl


-curl https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions \
-  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY" \
-  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-  -d '{"model":"gpt-4o","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Hello"}]}'
+curl https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/openai/chat/completions \
+  -H "X-CM-API-Key: $CM_API_KEY" \
+  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
+  -d '{"model":"gpt-4o","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Hello"}]}'

Step-by-step migration

Create a Curate-Me account and get your gateway key

Store your provider secrets

Your upstream API keys (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.) must be stored in Curate-Me so the gateway can inject them:


# OpenAI
curl -X POST https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/admin/secrets \
  -H "X-CM-API-Key: cm_sk_your_gateway_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"provider": "openai", "secret": "sk-your-openai-key", "label": "production"}'
 
# Anthropic
curl -X POST https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/admin/secrets \
  -H "X-CM-API-Key: cm_sk_your_gateway_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"provider": "anthropic", "secret": "sk-ant-your-key", "label": "production"}'

Or use the dashboard: Settings → Provider Secrets → Add Secret.

Set a daily budget (strongly recommended)


curl -X POST https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/admin/budgets \
  -H "X-CM-API-Key: cm_sk_your_gateway_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"daily_limit_usd": 20.0, "scope": "org"}'

If the daily budget is hit, the gateway returns 402 Payment Required with a clear error message. Your app stops spending — not silently fails.

Update your environment variables


# Before
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-real-openai-key
 
# After
CM_API_KEY=cm_sk_your_gateway_key
OPENAI_API_KEY=cm_sk_your_gateway_key    # SDK reads this for the "api_key" param
OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/openai
 
# For Anthropic
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=cm_sk_your_gateway_key
ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/anthropic

Remove direct provider keys from your app environment

Once secrets are stored in Curate-Me, remove sk-... and sk-ant-... from your .env files, CI secrets, and Kubernetes secrets. The gateway injects them — there’s no reason for your app to hold them.

Verify your first governed request


curl https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/openai/chat/completions \
  -H "X-CM-API-Key: $CM_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"gpt-4o","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Hello from Curate-Me!"}]}'

Check the response for:

X-CM-Request-Id header — confirms CM processed it
X-CM-Governance-Time-Ms header — time spent in the governance chain (typically 2–8ms)
Dashboard → Traces — new trace with cost, token counts, and PII scan result

Provider URL reference

Provider	Base URL via Curate-Me
OpenAI	`https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/openai`
Anthropic	`https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/anthropic`
Google Gemini	`https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/google`
DeepSeek	`https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/deepseek`
Mistral	`https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/mistral`
Groq	`https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/groq`
Cohere	`https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/cohere`
OpenRouter	`https://api.curate-me.ai/v1/openrouter`

See the full provider list for all 50 supported providers.

Rollback

If you need to revert:


# Restore direct provider keys
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-real-openai-key
unset OPENAI_BASE_URL
unset CM_API_KEY

Your code never changed — the revert is purely environment variable.