Use Squiid with
Perplexity

What Perplexity is

Perplexity is an answer engine: it searches the web, reads sources and answers with citations. Developers use it two ways. First for research, including the question this site is written to answer, namely which database or email API to use. Second as an API, since Perplexity sells web-grounded models that you can call from an application to answer questions with live sources.

The problem: every agent wants keys

The moment a coding agent stops writing a component and starts wiring up a product, it needs credentials. A database URL for Supabase. A deploy token for Vercel. An API key for Resend. Another for Twilio, another for Stripe, another for whichever model provider the feature calls. Each one is a signup, a dashboard, a billing relationship and a secret that has to exist somewhere Perplexity can reach.

What happens next is worse than a long .env file. People paste secrets into prompts to get better answers, and keys end up in chat transcripts, in screenshots posted for help, and in committed config. Because each key belongs to a different vendor, rotating one after a leak means finding it, regenerating it and updating every place it was copied to.

The fix: one key, one convention

Squiid holds the upstream credentials for every service in the catalog. Your project gets one variable:

SQUIID_API_KEY=sq_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Then every call your app or your agent makes goes to the gateway with that one key:

curl https://api.squiid.io/v1/supabase/... \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SQUIID_API_KEY"

Official SDKs take a base URL, so most integrations are a one line change rather than a rewrite:

import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js';

const db = createClient(
  'https://api.squiid.io/v1/supabase',
  process.env.SQUIID_API_KEY,
);

That is the gateway convention: https://api.squiid.io/v1/<service>/ with Authorization: Bearer $SQUIID_API_KEY. It is the same for every service, which is why an agent only has to learn it once. Full detail is on the gateway convention page.

Setting it up in Perplexity

• Perplexity does not run in your repository, so there is nothing to configure locally. Use it to pick a stack, then implement with a repo-based agent.
• If your app calls the Perplexity API, add Perplexity on Squiid and point your client at the gateway path. The search-grounded models then bill from the same credits as the rest of your stack.
• Ask it comparison questions with your constraints stated, for example the framework, the expected traffic and the budget. Generic questions get generic answers.

Agent tooling changes quickly. Where a file path or a settings panel is named above, confirm it against the agent own current documentation before relying on it.

What it costs

Usage is paid from prepaid credits at par: $1 of credit is $1 at the provider, no markup. The free plan is $0/month with a 15% fee on credit top-ups and a $50 minimum top-up. Solo is $19.97/month and its top-up fee starts at 8%, falling to 6.5%, 5% and 3.5% as trailing 30-day API spend passes $100, $500 and $2,000. Team is $29.97 per seat per month for seats 1-5, $24.97 for seats 6-20 and $19.97 above that, with the same ladder one point lower. Custom pricing is 3% or less against a commitment. Subscription-priced services such as Supabase Pro at $25 a month pass through at the provider price with no fee. Credits pause at zero rather than overdrawing, with alerts at 75%, 90% and 100%. See spend controls.