> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.profclaw.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# AI Providers Overview

> profClaw supports 37 AI providers. Mix cloud and local models, configure fallbacks, and use model aliases for concise references.

profClaw routes requests to the right AI provider based on configured API keys. Every provider is lazily loaded - unused providers add zero startup cost.

## Provider List

| Provider                                    | Type    | Status       | Key Variable            |
| ------------------------------------------- | ------- | ------------ | ----------------------- |
| [Anthropic](/ai-providers/anthropic)        | Cloud   | Stable       | `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`     |
| [OpenAI](/ai-providers/openai)              | Cloud   | Stable       | `OPENAI_API_KEY`        |
| [Azure OpenAI](/ai-providers/azure-openai)  | Cloud   | Stable       | `AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY`  |
| [Google Gemini](/ai-providers/google)       | Cloud   | Stable       | `GOOGLE_API_KEY`        |
| [Ollama](/ai-providers/ollama)              | Local   | Stable       | `OLLAMA_BASE_URL`       |
| [OpenRouter](/ai-providers/openrouter)      | Gateway | Stable       | `OPENROUTER_API_KEY`    |
| [Groq](/ai-providers/groq)                  | Cloud   | Stable       | `GROQ_API_KEY`          |
| [Mistral](/ai-providers/mistral)            | Cloud   | Stable       | `MISTRAL_API_KEY`       |
| [DeepSeek](/ai-providers/deepseek)          | Cloud   | Beta         | `DEEPSEEK_API_KEY`      |
| [xAI / Grok](/ai-providers/xai)             | Cloud   | Beta         | `XAI_API_KEY`           |
| [Cohere](/ai-providers/cohere)              | Cloud   | Beta         | `COHERE_API_KEY`        |
| [Perplexity](/ai-providers/perplexity)      | Cloud   | Beta         | `PERPLEXITY_API_KEY`    |
| [Together AI](/ai-providers/together)       | Cloud   | Beta         | `TOGETHER_API_KEY`      |
| [Fireworks AI](/ai-providers/fireworks)     | Cloud   | Beta         | `FIREWORKS_API_KEY`     |
| [Cerebras](/ai-providers/cerebras)          | Cloud   | Experimental | `CEREBRAS_API_KEY`      |
| [AWS Bedrock](/ai-providers/amazon-bedrock) | Cloud   | Stable       | `AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID`     |
| [LM Studio](/ai-providers/lmstudio)         | Local   | Beta         | `LM_STUDIO_BASE_URL`    |
| Zhipu AI                                    | Cloud   | Beta         | `ZHIPU_API_KEY`         |
| Moonshot (Kimi)                             | Cloud   | Beta         | `MOONSHOT_API_KEY`      |
| Qwen                                        | Cloud   | Beta         | `QWEN_API_KEY`          |
| Replicate                                   | Cloud   | Beta         | `REPLICATE_API_KEY`     |
| GitHub Models                               | Cloud   | Beta         | `GITHUB_TOKEN`          |
| Volcengine (Doubao)                         | Cloud   | Beta         | `VOLCENGINE_API_KEY`    |
| BytePlus                                    | Cloud   | Beta         | `BYTEPLUS_API_KEY`      |
| Baidu Qianfan                               | Cloud   | Beta         | `QIANFAN_API_KEY`       |
| ModelStudio                                 | Cloud   | Experimental | `MODELSTUDIO_API_KEY`   |
| Minimax                                     | Cloud   | Beta         | `MINIMAX_API_KEY`       |
| Xiaomi MiLM                                 | Cloud   | Experimental | `XIAOMI_API_KEY`        |
| HuggingFace                                 | Cloud   | Beta         | `HUGGINGFACE_API_TOKEN` |
| NVIDIA NIM                                  | Cloud   | Beta         | `NVIDIA_NIM_API_KEY`    |
| Venice AI                                   | Cloud   | Beta         | `VENICE_API_KEY`        |
| Kilocode                                    | Cloud   | Beta         | `KILOCODE_API_KEY`      |
| Vercel AI Gateway                           | Gateway | Beta         | `VERCEL_AI_API_KEY`     |
| Cloudflare AI                               | Gateway | Beta         | `CLOUDFLARE_AI_API_KEY` |
| IBM Watsonx                                 | Cloud   | Beta         | `WATSONX_API_KEY`       |
| GitHub Copilot                              | Proxy   | Experimental | `COPILOT_API_URL`       |
| SambaNova                                   | Cloud   | Beta         | `SAMBANOVA_API_KEY`     |

<Note>
  "Stable" providers are fully tested and used in production deployments. "Beta" providers work but may have edge cases. "Experimental" providers are early integrations that may change.
</Note>

## Auto-Selection

When multiple providers are configured, profClaw picks the best available one based on a priority order. Cloud providers with tool-calling support are preferred over local models for full tool tier access.

```bash theme={null}
# Default priority order (first configured wins):
# anthropic -> openai -> azure -> google -> groq -> xai -> mistral
# -> deepseek -> cohere -> perplexity -> together -> fireworks
# -> bedrock -> openrouter -> ... -> ollama (always last)
```

Override the default at any time:

```bash theme={null}
profclaw config set provider anthropic
```

Or per-session with the `--model` flag:

```bash theme={null}
profclaw chat --model groq
```

## Configuration

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Environment Variables">
    Set API keys in your environment or `.env` file. profClaw reads these at startup and configures each provider:

    ```bash theme={null}
    ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
    OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
    GOOGLE_API_KEY=AIza...
    GROQ_API_KEY=gsk_...
    ```

    See [Environment Variables](/configuration/environment-variables) for the complete list.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="settings.yml">
    Reference env vars in your `settings.yml` for explicit per-provider config:

    ```yaml theme={null}
    providers:
      default: anthropic
      anthropic:
        api_key: "${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY}"
      openai:
        api_key: "${OPENAI_API_KEY}"
      ollama:
        base_url: "http://localhost:11434"
        default_model: "llama3.2"
    ```

    See [settings.yml Reference](/configuration/settings-yml) for all options.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="CLI">
    Add and manage providers interactively:

    ```bash theme={null}
    profclaw config provider add anthropic --key sk-ant-...
    profclaw config provider list
    profclaw config provider set-default openai
    ```
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

## Model Aliases

Model aliases let you reference models by short names instead of full IDs:

```bash theme={null}
# These are equivalent:
profclaw chat --model opus
profclaw chat --model claude-opus-4-6

# Provider/model shorthand also works:
profclaw chat --model anthropic/claude-opus-4-6
```

Common aliases:

| Alias      | Provider  | Model                   |
| ---------- | --------- | ----------------------- |
| `opus`     | Anthropic | claude-opus-4-6         |
| `sonnet`   | Anthropic | claude-sonnet-4-5       |
| `haiku`    | Anthropic | claude-haiku-4-5        |
| `gpt`      | OpenAI    | gpt-4o                  |
| `gemini`   | Google    | gemini-1.5-pro          |
| `groq`     | Groq      | llama-3.3-70b-versatile |
| `local`    | Ollama    | llama3.2                |
| `grok`     | xAI       | grok-2                  |
| `mistral`  | Mistral   | mistral-large-latest    |
| `deepseek` | DeepSeek  | deepseek-chat           |

## Local Models

For fully offline usage without API costs, profClaw supports [Ollama](/ai-providers/ollama) and [LM Studio](/ai-providers/lmstudio). Both run models locally on your hardware.

<Tip>
  Local models receive the Essential tool tier (10 tools) by default. Model-aware routing ensures small models are not overwhelmed with too many tool choices. See [Tools Overview](/tools/overview) for details on tier routing.
</Tip>

See the [Local LLM guide](/guides/local-llm) for setup instructions.

## Resilience

All providers include automatic retry with exponential backoff for transient errors (429, 503, network timeouts):

```bash theme={null}
AI_MAX_RETRIES=2               # Default: 2 retries
AI_PROVIDER_TIMEOUT_MS=120000  # Default: 120 seconds
```

## Health Check

```bash theme={null}
profclaw doctor --providers
```

This checks connectivity for all configured providers and reports latency. Any provider that fails to respond within the timeout is flagged.

## Related

* [profclaw provider](/cli/provider) - Add, remove, and test AI providers from the CLI
* [profclaw models](/cli/models) - List available models and manage aliases
* [Configuration Overview](/configuration/overview) - settings.yml and environment variables
* [Local LLM Guide](/guides/local-llm) - Run profClaw fully offline with Ollama or LM Studio