External accounts and costs
The core needs zero external accounts. Packs add optional services, most of them free.
Tasks, compile, the dashboard, session capture, and the browser tools run entirely on your machine on your host's plan. External accounts enter only when you activate the SEO, Browser, or GitHub pack.
| Account | Unlocks | Pack | Credential | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perplexity | web_search with citations | Browser | PERPLEXITY_API_KEY | Pay-as-you-go, $5 per 1,000 requests. A $5 credit lasts days to weeks |
| GitHub | PR, issue, and CI review; github_fast_forward | GitHub | GITHUB_TOKEN, fine-grained read-only | Free |
| Google Cloud | gsc_* and page_speed_* | SEO | OAuth client JSON in .kevin/secrets/google/ | Free. PSI quota 25k requests a day |
| Google Search Console | The site data behind the audit | SEO | Your site verified under the same account | Free |
| SerpAPI | serpapi_search for rank tracking | SEO | SERPAPI_KEY | Free tier 250 searches a month; paid from $25 a month |
| OpenPageRank | open_page_rank domain authority | SEO | OPENPAGERANK_API_KEY | Free, 1,000 requests a day |
wordpress-rest reads the public REST API of the site at GSC_SITE_URL and needs no account. The knowledge pipeline never bills an API key.
Bottom line: a typical personal setup runs at $0 a month. Heavy Perplexity use or serious rank tracking adds roughly $5 to $30 a month.
Setting each one up
The flow is the same for every keyed service: configure-skills activates the pack and creates the placeholder; you paste the value in your editor.
Perplexity. Settings → API, load a small credit block, generate a key. The API bills separately from a Pro chat subscription.
Google Search Console and PageSpeed (one free Cloud project covers both):
<HOME>/.kevin/secrets/google/google-oauth-client.json.GSC_SITE_URL in settings.local.json (https://example.com/ or sc-domain:example.com).google_auth tool once. A browser consent flow mints tokens that are cached and shared across the Google tools.SerpAPI. Sign up, copy the key from the dashboard. The free tier covers a weekly audit of a small site.
OpenPageRank. Sign up at domcop.com/openpagerank, generate the free key.