AI Providers

VibeCody supports 23 AI providers, covering cloud APIs, local models, inference platforms, and specialized services. This page provides a comparison and links to individual setup guides.

Quick Start

Pick a provider from the table below
Follow its setup guide to get an API key (or install locally)
Set the environment variable or edit ~/.vibecli/config.toml
Run vibecli --provider <name> or enable it in VibeUI settings

Provider Comparison

Provider	Type	API Key Env Var	Default Model	Free Tier	Streaming
Ollama	Local	None (no key needed)	`qwen3-coder:480b-cloud`	Yes (fully free)	Yes
Claude	Cloud	`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`	`claude-sonnet-4-6`	No	Yes
OpenAI	Cloud	`OPENAI_API_KEY`	`gpt-4o`	No	Yes
Gemini	Cloud	`GEMINI_API_KEY`	`gemini-2.5-flash`	Yes (generous)	Yes
DeepSeek	Cloud	`DEEPSEEK_API_KEY`	`deepseek-chat`	No	Yes
Grok	Cloud	`GROK_API_KEY`	`grok-3-mini`	No	Yes
Groq	Cloud	`GROQ_API_KEY`	`llama-3.3-70b-versatile`	Yes (rate-limited)	Yes
OpenRouter	Cloud	`OPENROUTER_API_KEY`	`anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet`	No	Yes
Azure OpenAI	Cloud	`AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY`	`gpt-4o`	No	Yes
AWS Bedrock	Cloud	`AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID`	`anthropic.claude-3-sonnet-*`	No	Yes
GitHub Copilot	Cloud	`GITHUB_TOKEN`	`gpt-4o`	Yes (with subscription)	Yes
Mistral	Cloud	`MISTRAL_API_KEY`	`mistral-large-latest`	No	Yes
Cerebras	Cloud	`CEREBRAS_API_KEY`	`llama3.1-70b`	Yes (limited)	Yes
Zhipu GLM	Cloud	`ZHIPU_API_KEY`	`glm-4`	No	Yes
Vercel AI	Cloud	Via provider key	Provider-dependent	No	Yes
MiniMax	Cloud	`MINIMAX_API_KEY`	`abab6.5s-chat`	No	Yes
Perplexity	Cloud	`PERPLEXITY_API_KEY`	`sonar-pro`	No	Yes
Together AI	Inference	`TOGETHER_API_KEY`	`meta-llama/Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct-Turbo`	Yes (limited)	Yes
Fireworks AI	Inference	`FIREWORKS_API_KEY`	`llama-v3p1-70b-instruct`	Yes (limited)	Yes
SambaNova	Inference	`SAMBANOVA_API_KEY`	`Meta-Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct`	Yes (limited)	Yes
LocalEdit	Local	None	Local model	Yes (fully free)	Yes
Failover	Wrapper	N/A	N/A	N/A	Yes

Choosing a Provider

For beginners: Start with Ollama – it is free, runs locally, and requires no API key. Pull qwen3-coder or llama3.2 and you are ready.

For best quality: Claude (Opus 4.6 or Sonnet 4.6) and OpenAI (GPT-4o) provide the highest-quality code generation and reasoning.

For budget-conscious use: DeepSeek offers strong coding performance at very low prices. Gemini has a generous free tier.

For fastest inference: Groq runs open-source models on custom LPU hardware with extremely low latency. Cerebras and SambaNova also provide fast inference on custom hardware.

For open models: Together AI, Fireworks AI, and SambaNova host open-source models (Llama, Mixtral, Qwen) with competitive pricing and free tiers.

For search-augmented AI: Perplexity’s Sonar models combine LLM reasoning with real-time web search — excellent for research tasks.

For enterprise: Azure OpenAI and AWS Bedrock integrate with your existing cloud infrastructure and compliance requirements.

For reliability: The Failover provider wraps multiple providers and automatically falls back if one fails.

Quick Examples by Provider

Every provider works with the same CLI interface. Here are copy-paste examples:

# ── Local (free, private) ─────────────────────────────────────────
ollama pull qwen3-coder
vibecli --provider ollama "Explain the borrow checker"

# ── Cloud APIs ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."
vibecli --provider claude "Fix the bug in src/auth.rs" --agent

export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
vibecli --provider openai --model gpt-4o "Write unit tests for parser.rs"

export GEMINI_API_KEY="AIza..."
vibecli --provider gemini "Summarize this codebase" --add-dir ./src/

export GROK_API_KEY="..."
vibecli --provider grok "What does this error mean? E0308: mismatched types"

# ── Fast inference (great for quick iterations) ───────────────────
export GROQ_API_KEY="gsk_..."
vibecli --provider groq "Convert this JSON to a Rust struct"

export CEREBRAS_API_KEY="..."
vibecli --provider cerebras "Write a regex for email validation"

export SAMBANOVA_API_KEY="..."
vibecli --provider sambanova "Explain this stack trace"

# ── Budget-friendly ───────────────────────────────────────────────
export DEEPSEEK_API_KEY="..."
vibecli --provider deepseek "Write comprehensive tests for src/db.rs"

# ── Search-augmented ──────────────────────────────────────────────
export PERPLEXITY_API_KEY="pplx-..."
vibecli --provider perplexity "What breaking changes are in Tokio 1.40?"

# ── Multi-model gateways ─────────────────────────────────────────
export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="sk-or-..."
vibecli --provider openrouter --model "meta-llama/llama-3.3-70b" "Hello"

# ── Enterprise ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
export AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY="..." AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT="https://myco.openai.azure.com"
vibecli --provider azure "Audit this code for OWASP top 10"

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="AKIA..." AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="..." AWS_REGION="us-east-1"
vibecli --provider bedrock "Generate a CloudFormation template"

vibecli --provider copilot "Complete this function"   # Uses existing GitHub Copilot

# ── Failover chain ────────────────────────────────────────────────
vibecli --provider failover "Fix the build errors"
# Tries: claude → openai → gemini → ollama (configured in config.toml)

Agent Mode Examples

# Interactive (approve each step)
vibecli --agent "Add input validation to all API endpoints" --provider claude

# Auto-edit (approve shell commands only)
vibecli --agent "Refactor to async/await" --provider openai --auto-edit

# Full-auto (CI/scripts — no prompts)
vibecli --exec "Run tests and fix any failures" --provider claude --full-auto

# Resume a previous session
vibecli --resume 1711234567

REPL Session

vibecli
> [src/main.rs]                    # Add file to context
> What does this function do?
> /model claude-opus-4-6           # Switch mid-conversation
> Now refactor it to use async
> /cost                            # Check token usage

Configuration

All providers are configured in ~/.vibecli/config.toml. See the Configuration Guide for the full reference with all 21 providers, usage examples, and safety settings.

Environment variables take precedence over config file values.

# Example: enable Claude and Ollama
[claude]
enabled = true
model = "claude-sonnet-4-6"

[ollama]
enabled = true
api_url = "http://localhost:11434"
model = "qwen3-coder:480b-cloud"

API Key Helpers

For teams that rotate keys or use vaults, every provider supports an api_key_helper field that runs a script to fetch the current key:

[claude]
enabled = true
api_key_helper = "~/.vibecli/get-key.sh claude"

The script must print the API key to stdout and exit with code 0.