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AI Providers

Complete setup guide for all supported AI providers.

Overview

The AI service supports multiple providers through PydanticAI, giving you flexibility to choose based on your needs: cost, speed, features, or specific model capabilities.

Quick comparison:

Provider API Key Required Speed Best For
PUBLIC ❌ No Basic Instant testing, no setup
Google Gemini ✅ Yes (free tier) Good Development, prototyping
Groq ✅ Yes (free tier) Very fast Production, low cost
OpenAI ✅ Yes Good Production, familiar API
Anthropic ✅ Yes Good Claude models
Mistral ✅ Yes Good Open models
Cohere ✅ Yes (free tier) Good Command models

Recommendation

Start: PUBLIC (no API key, instant) → Develop: Google Gemini (free tier) → Production: Groq (very fast, low cost)

Configuration

All providers are configured through environment variables in your .env file:

# Core AI Service Settings
AI_ENABLED=true                    # Enable/disable service
AI_PROVIDER=public                 # Provider: openai, anthropic, google, groq, mistral, cohere, public
AI_MODEL=auto                      # Model name (varies by provider, "auto" for PUBLIC)
AI_TEMPERATURE=0.7                 # Response creativity (0.0-2.0)
AI_MAX_TOKENS=1000                 # Maximum response length
AI_TIMEOUT_SECONDS=30.0            # Request timeout

# Provider API Keys (only needed for non-PUBLIC providers)
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...              # OpenAI API key
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...       # Anthropic API key
GOOGLE_API_KEY=...                 # Google API key
GROQ_API_KEY=gsk_...               # Groq API key
MISTRAL_API_KEY=...                # Mistral API key
COHERE_API_KEY=...                 # Cohere API key

Provider Setup Guides

No setup required! Works out of the box with zero configuration.

Setup:

# Already configured by default - just start chatting
my-app ai chat send "Hello! Can you help me?"

Best for: Instant testing, demos, getting started without any setup

Blazing fast inference with very generous free tier.

Setup:

  1. Sign up at console.groq.com
  2. Create an API key (free tier available)
  3. Configure your environment:
export AI_PROVIDER=groq
export GROQ_API_KEY=gsk_your_key_here
export AI_MODEL=llama-3.1-8b-instant  # Fastest model

Available Models: See Groq's model documentation for the latest available models.

Best for: Production use (very fast, extremely low cost)

Generous free tier with daily rate limits. Great for development.

Setup:

  1. Get free API key from aistudio.google.com
  2. Configure your environment:
export AI_PROVIDER=google
export GOOGLE_API_KEY=your_key_here
export AI_MODEL=gemini-2.0-flash-exp

Available Models: See Google's model documentation for the latest available models.

Best for: Development and prototyping within rate limits

Industry-standard GPT models. Most widely used and documented.

Setup:

  1. Get API key from platform.openai.com
  2. Add payment method (required for API access)
  3. Configure your environment:
export AI_PROVIDER=openai
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your_key_here
export AI_MODEL=gpt-3.5-turbo

Available Models: See OpenAI's model documentation for the latest available models.

Best for: Production with familiar API, extensive ecosystem

Claude models from Anthropic. Known for safety and reasoning.

Setup:

  1. Get API key from console.anthropic.com
  2. Add payment method
  3. Configure your environment:
export AI_PROVIDER=anthropic
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-your_key_here
export AI_MODEL=claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022

Available Models: See Anthropic's model documentation for the latest available models.

Best for: High-quality responses, safety-critical applications

Open-source Mistral models with European data residency.

Setup:

  1. Get API key from console.mistral.ai
  2. Configure your environment:
export AI_PROVIDER=mistral
export MISTRAL_API_KEY=your_key_here
export AI_MODEL=mistral-small-latest

Available Models: See Mistral's model documentation for the latest available models.

Best for: Open-source preference, European compliance requirements

Command models optimized for enterprise and RAG use cases.

Setup:

  1. Get API key from dashboard.cohere.com
  2. Configure your environment:
export AI_PROVIDER=cohere
export COHERE_API_KEY=your_key_here
export AI_MODEL=command-r-plus

Available Models: See Cohere's model documentation for the latest available models.

Best for: Enterprise features, RAG applications

Switching Providers

You can switch providers at any time by changing your .env file:

# Switch from PUBLIC to Groq
AI_PROVIDER=groq
GROQ_API_KEY=your-key-here
AI_MODEL=llama-3.1-8b-instant

Then restart your application:

# Stop the server
make stop

# Start with new provider
make serve

Testing the switch:

# Verify new provider is active
my-app ai config show

# Test with a message
my-app ai chat send "Hello from the new provider!"

Troubleshooting

"Missing API key" Error

❌ Missing API key for groq provider. Set GROQ_API_KEY environment variable.

Solution: Add the API key to your .env file:

GROQ_API_KEY=your-actual-key-here

"Provider not available" Error

Check configuration:

my-app ai config validate

Verify provider is installed:

my-app ai providers list

Next Steps: