Forty students, zero API keys, one comment

The intro course wants every student to ship a small AI feature in week two. Provider accounts want a credit card, and half the class is seventeen.

Nobody gets a key. The starter handler is a hoody-exec script with // @ai true at the top. The runtime injects the Vercel AI SDK helpers and a model already wired to hoody-ai/hoody-free, the default relay: no import, no key, no environment variable to leak into a group chat. A student's first endpoint is return generateText({ model, prompt: req.body.q }), and it works from the container it runs in.

When a project outgrows the default, the instructor changes one line: // @ai-model to something from the Gateway's catalog, paid from the course's AI Balance at provider cost plus 5%, firewalled from the server money. Still no key in a student's hands.

The course's secrets management is a comment that says true.