For security reasons, default installation docs should not instruct users to divulge their API keys at the command line

[codekiln]

Issue

The current installation guide proposes usage as follows:

python -m pip install aider-install
aider-install

# Change directory into your code base
cd /to/your/project

# Work with DeepSeek via DeepSeek's API
aider --model deepseek --api-key deepseek=your-key-goes-here

# Work with Claude 3.7 Sonnet via Anthropic's API
aider --model sonnet --api-key anthropic=your-key-goes-here

# Work with GPT-4o via OpenAI's API
aider --model gpt-4o --api-key openai=your-key-goes-here

# Work with Sonnet via OpenRouter's API
aider --model openrouter/anthropic/claude-3.7-sonnet --api-key openrouter=your-key-goes-here

# Work with DeepSeek via OpenRouter's API
aider --model openrouter/deepseek/deepseek-chat --api-key openrouter=your-key-goes-here

It is not secure to enter secrets into the command line history this way. See How to Handle Secrets on the Command Line for more info.

Please update this page to propose a default method that does not expose users' API keys.

Version and model info

No response