Connect a provider

Codai supports hosted APIs and local model servers. You can also connect an eligible ChatGPT account; account-plan access and API credentials are separate connection types.

Guided setup

Run codai for first-run onboarding, or reopen connection setup explicitly:


codai auth

codai auth saves a connection and exits. First-run codai saves the connection and starts chat immediately.

Choose the connection

Select Use your own provider, then Hosted provider or Local server. Choose a supported provider; its server address remains editable.

Enter the endpoint and credential

Hosted APIs normally require a credential. Local Ollama can run without one. Credentials are masked while typing. Remote credentials require HTTPS; loopback servers may use HTTP.

Select a model

Choose a discovered model or enter a custom ID. Azure OpenAI requires your deployment identifier. See Choose a model for fallback behavior and transport compatibility.

Save the connection

Save writes provider, endpoint, credential, and model together, preserving unrelated settings. Cancel leaves the existing connection unchanged. Change model returns to model selection; Escape generally returns one step.

Own-provider credentials are stored as plaintext in the selected configuration file. Keep that file private and out of version control. Prefer environment-based credentials when storing a secret in project configuration is inappropriate.

Supported providers

Provider	Identifier	Connection	Default
OpenAI	`openai`	Hosted API	`gpt-5.4-mini`
Azure OpenAI	`azure-openai`	Hosted deployment	Your deployment ID
Anthropic	`anthropic`	Hosted API	`claude-sonnet-4-6`
Google Gemini	`gemini`	Hosted API	`gemini-3.8-flash`
Ollama	`ollama`	Local server	`qwen3-coder`
DeepSeek	`deepseek`	Hosted API	`deepseek-flash`
OpenRouter	`openrouter`	Hosted router	`openai/gpt-5.4-mini`
Qwen / DashScope	`qwen`	Hosted API	`qwen3.7-plus`
Mistral	`mistral`	Hosted API	`mistral-medium-3-5`
Grok / xAI	`grok`	Hosted API	`grok-4.7`

Defaults favor Codai’s existing transports. A newer or discovered model is not necessarily compatible with multi-turn coding tools.

Local models

Install and start a model on your Ollama server before selecting it. Discovery uses installed models from /api/tags, not a list of models you could download.


codai --provider ollama --model qwen3-coder

For another compatible server, select the appropriate provider transport and an editable base URL. Compatibility depends on the endpoint’s API, not its branding.

ChatGPT account connection

Choose Continue with ChatGPT in codai auth. Codai opens the system browser for public-client authorization and lists models available to the authorized account. Access depends on account eligibility and granted permissions.

Save stores an opaque account reference and selected model in configuration.
Tokens are stored separately in Codai/accounts under the user’s local app data.
Windows encrypts tokens for the current user; Unix token files are owner-only.
Refreshes are serialized across processes and rotating tokens are replaced atomically.
Reauthorize or sign out a saved registration through codai auth.

Sign-out clears local tokens and attempts remote revocation, with a warning if revocation cannot be confirmed. Cancelling authorization or setup does not replace the current connection.

Account requests use streaming inference with server-side response storage disabled. Interrupted or incomplete streams are not accepted as successful responses. The terminal shows a plan indicator and usage-settings link instead of API dollar estimates.

Where settings are saved

First-run onboarding updates an existing project configuration; otherwise it creates ~/.codai/codai-config.json for user-wide defaults. Other unconfigured projects reuse that file. A project configuration takes precedence rather than merging with it.

Explicit --config, --config-dir, or CODAI_CONFIG_DIR keeps a separate scope. Without an existing file or explicit scope, codai auth creates configuration in the current configuration directory, not necessarily the first-run global location.

Later codai runs reuse a valid saved connection. With no saved configuration, onboarding still runs even if environment variables provide credentials. An existing effective connection opens setup only when it needs credentials and has neither an API key nor an account reference.

Live discovery, saved defaults, and session-only switching.

Choose the right model

File discovery, overrides, and Save / Cancel behavior.

Understand configuration