Make yourself
at home.

Three steps to working.

1. Get a key. Pick a plan or a pay-as-you-go balance on pricing and pay with USDT. Your key opens the moment the payment confirms.
2. Start working. Open the chat and paste your key, or connect your own tool with the settings below.
3. Watch your room. Your panel shows how much of your allowance is left and when it resets.

Your key is your access.

When you buy, you receive a random key beginning with rb_. It connects your tools and opens your usage panel. There’s no email, password, or profile.

Save the key in a password manager. It is shown once, and we don’t keep a copy that can be recovered.

Chat in your browser.

The chat needs nothing installed. Paste your key once; it stays on your device, and your conversations are saved only in your own browser. Sherlock searches the web and reads pages when a question needs it, and shows you its sources.

Use the paperclip to attach documents or images. Preview shows the extracted document text or original image before you send. Documents are read as text; embedded pictures and page layout are not automatically included. Scanned pages can use the optional text reader.

Attach up to 5 files per message, up to 10 MiB each. A conversation request can contain up to 20 images, 16 MiB of image data in total, with each source image up to 12 megapixels. Large images are resized for the model. If a file exceeds the text limit, split it into smaller files.

Bring RedBeard into your tools.

Any tool that speaks the OpenAI format can use Sherlock. For opencode, add this provider to your project’s opencode.json, or your global configuration at ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json. Replace YOUR_KEY with your key.

{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "provider": {
    "redbeard": {
      "npm": "@ai-sdk/openai-compatible",
      "name": "RedBeard",
      "options": {
        "baseURL": "https://redbeard.live/v1",
        "apiKey": "YOUR_KEY"
      },
      "models": {
        "sherlock": {
          "name": "Sherlock"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Select the RedBeard provider and the sherlock model in your tool. Other tools need the same two things: the base URL https://redbeard.live/v1 and your key. Sherlock accepts text and PNG, JPEG or WebP images, including screenshots, when your tool supports image attachments.

A familiar API.

RedBeard is designed to work with OpenAI-compatible clients. Set a custom base URL, add your key, and request a streamed response.

curl https://redbeard.live/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "sherlock",
    "stream": true,
    "messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Hello" }]
  }'

The RedBeard harness.

Our own coding app, built on the open-source opencode and tuned for Sherlock. It runs in your terminal, inside your project: it reads the code, runs commands and tests, and makes the change. Web search goes through RedBeard, and your plan’s usage stays on screen as you work.

Install it on Windows

1. Download. RedBeard-Setup.exe, for Windows 10 or 11 (88 MB).
2. Open it and paste your key. Leave the desktop icon ticked if you want one, then click Install. It checks your key with RedBeard first, and installs for you alone, with no admin prompt.
3. Start. RedBeard opens when setup finishes. Any time after: use the desktop icon or the Start menu, or open Command Prompt or PowerShell, type redbeard and press Enter. Do that inside a project’s folder and RedBeard works on that project.

Install it on a Mac or on Linux

For Macs with an Apple chip or Intel, and 64-bit Intel or AMD Linux. Open Terminal and paste this:

curl -fsSL https://redbeard.live/install.sh | sh

It picks the right version for your computer and downloads it (about 98 to 109 MB), checks the download against its fingerprint, asks for your key (it stays hidden while you paste it) and whether to put an icon on the desktop, then offers to start. Any time after: open a terminal, type redbeard and press Enter. On a Mac it is also in Launchpad and your Applications folder; on Linux, in your apps menu.

Change your key, update, or remove it

Add or change your key: type /key inside RedBeard and paste it. It also works from outside the app: on Windows, open RedBeard key from the Start menu; on a Mac or Linux, run redbeard-key. Update: RedBeard updates itself. It checks redbeard.live when it starts and every 6 hours, installs a newer version quietly, and uses it the next time you start it; your key and sessions stay. To update by hand, run the newest installer or the same Terminal line again. Remove: on Windows, go to Settings, Apps, Installed apps, RedBeard; on a Mac or Linux, run the line below. Your key goes with it; your saved sessions stay in your user folder (.local/share/redbeard) until you delete them.

curl -fsSL https://redbeard.live/install.sh | sh -s -- --uninstall

What it sends, and where

RedBeard uses one model: Sherlock. Your work goes to RedBeard’s server (redbeard.live) and nowhere else: no update checks, model lists, or usage reports to other companies. Its update check asks redbeard.live only, carries no key, and can be turned off by setting OPENCODE_DISABLE_AUTOUPDATE=1. Web searches and the pages Sherlock reads go through redbeard.live too; only a page our server cannot read is tried once from your computer. Tools you add yourself, such as MCP servers, connect wherever you point them. Your key is kept in your user folder (.config/redbeard/key.txt, readable only by you on a Mac or Linux) and your sessions are saved on your computer.

SHA256 fingerprints of version 1.1.4. Windows installer: faff8712c9b9d04ce9f8c7ab5eb4869ea458f0ad3b2e0053d46293d7246d1e4d (check with Get-FileHash RedBeard-Setup.exe in PowerShell). Mac with an Apple chip: 96a810c1caae2ba40fcc75946104863981fccbe13261281a5ea6fe9204794e1e. Mac with Intel: a6ef10952cbf8f64ba7fac5cb67f127ca8b45aa0378899749b433be46ce3757d. Linux: c7506e5eb589aea4be363528cc91b526550031ed6c3e8aeda6d5d8f138bdde15. The Terminal line checks these for you.

RedBeard is built on opencode, which is open source under the MIT licence; its licence is installed with the app.

Know how much room is left.

Subscription plans have two allowances: one per 5-hour window and one per week. Reaching either limit pauses access until that window resets, unless the key holds prepaid credit: then that credit carries on as extra usage, at pay-as-you-go rates, and also after the plan ends. Your panel shows both.

We count tokens, the pieces of text a model reads and writes. Generated text counts fully; input counts for less. Your panel always shows how much room is left.

Prefer occasional use? A pay-as-you-go balance, from $5, counts down as you work. See the plans and rates.

Keep your work yours.

RedBeard runs Sherlock on rented GPU infrastructure. Our gateway and model service retain usage counters, not conversations. The hosting operator controls the underlying machine, and we do not claim cryptographically verified end-to-end zero retention. Your local tools may keep their own history, so check their settings too.

Never put your key in a public repository, share it in a screenshot, or paste it into an untrusted tool. Anyone with your key can use your allowance.

The full list of what we keep is in the privacy policy, and how to check it is on the no-logs proof.