Connect LLM Providers to GSD Pi: Anthropic to Ollama

Connect Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, Ollama, and 10+ other LLM providers to GSD Pi — set API keys, list models, and switch providers per session.

GSD Pi supports a wide range of LLM providers. During first-run setup, the onboarding wizard walks you through provider configuration. At any point afterward, re-run the setup wizard to add or change providers.

gsd config

This opens an interactive wizard that shows which credentials are configured and which are missing. Select a provider to enter or update its credentials.

Supported Providers

Cloud APIs

Provider	Environment Variable	Notes
Anthropic (Claude)	ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Recommended. Deepest integration: built-in web search, extended thinking, prompt caching. Includes Claude Fable 5 (1M context, Opus-tier reasoning).
OpenAI	OPENAI_API_KEY	GPT-4o, o1, o3, and all current OpenAI models.
Google Gemini	GEMINI_API_KEY	Gemini 1.5 Pro, Flash, and Gemini 2.x models.
OpenRouter	OPENROUTER_API_KEY	200+ models from multiple providers via a single key.
Groq	GROQ_API_KEY	High-throughput inference for Llama, Mixtral, and others.
xAI (Grok)	XAI_API_KEY	Grok-2 and Grok-3 models.
Mistral	MISTRAL_API_KEY	Mistral Large, Small, and Codestral.
GitHub Copilot	GH_TOKEN	OAuth-based — sign in via browser with gsd config.

Set any of these as environment variables before starting GSD:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."
gsd

Or save them permanently with gsd config — keys are stored in ~/.gsd/agent/auth.json and apply to all projects automatically.

Cloud Infrastructure

Provider	Auth Method	Configuration
Amazon Bedrock	IAM credentials	AWS_PROFILE, or AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID + AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY + AWS_REGION
Anthropic on Vertex AI	Application Default Credentials	Run gcloud auth application-default login, set ANTHROPIC_VERTEX_PROJECT_ID
Azure OpenAI	API key	AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY

Bedrock example:

export AWS_PROFILE="my-bedrock-profile"
gsd

ECS task roles and IRSA (Kubernetes) are detected automatically for Bedrock.

Vertex AI example:

gcloud auth application-default login
export ANTHROPIC_VERTEX_PROJECT_ID="my-gcp-project"
gsd

Local Models

Local providers run on your machine and require a ~/.gsd/agent/models.json configuration file so GSD knows the endpoint URL and which models are available.

Ollama:

# Start Ollama and pull a model
ollama serve
ollama pull llama3.1:8b

{
  "providers": {
    "ollama": {
      "baseUrl": "http://localhost:11434/v1",
      "api": "openai-completions",
      "apiKey": "ollama",
      "compat": {
        "supportsDeveloperRole": false,
        "supportsReasoningEffort": false
      },
      "models": [
        { "id": "llama3.1:8b" },
        { "id": "qwen2.5-coder:7b" }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Set OLLAMA_HOST to override the default server URL:

export OLLAMA_HOST="http://my-ollama-server:11434"

For remote Ollama endpoints that require authentication:

export OLLAMA_API_KEY="your-bearer-token"

LM Studio, vLLM, SGLang: Follow the same models.json pattern, adjusting baseUrl and apiKey for your server. Set compat.supportsDeveloperRole: false and compat.supportsReasoningEffort: false for all local inference servers.

Listing Available Models

List all models GSD can find with your current credentials:

gsd --list-models

Filter by name or provider:

gsd --list-models claude
gsd --list-models gpt-4
gsd --list-models openrouter

Overriding the Model for a Session

Pass --model when starting GSD to use a specific model for that session, ignoring whatever is set in preferences:

gsd --model claude-opus-4-6
gsd --model openrouter/deepseek/deepseek-r1

Switching Models In-Session

Change the active model without restarting the session:

/gsd model

This opens an interactive model picker showing all available models from your configured providers. The models.json file reloads each time you open the picker — no restart needed.

You can also switch directly:

/gsd model claude-haiku-4-5-20250414

Claude Fable 5

Claude Fable 5 is an Opus-tier Anthropic model that ships across the Anthropic API, Anthropic on Vertex AI, Amazon Bedrock, and OpenRouter. Pi treats it the same as claude-opus-4-8: it advertises a 1M-token context window, 128K max output, image and text input, and adaptive thinking with the xhigh effort level enabled by default.

Use it when you want maximum reasoning quality on planning, debugging, or long-context refactors and you’re willing to spend Opus-tier dollars (or, on a Claude Pro / Max / Team / Enterprise subscription, route through Claude Code for subscription-covered usage).

Once your Anthropic credentials are configured, Claude Fable 5 appears in the model picker by ID:

/gsd model claude-fable-5

Or pin it for a specific phase in PREFERENCES.md:

models:
  planning: claude-fable-5
  execution: claude-sonnet-4-6

To use Claude Fable 5 through a non-direct provider, prefix the model ID with the provider:

models:
  planning: bedrock/claude-fable-5
  execution: vertex/claude-fable-5

When invoked through the Claude Code CLI, claude-fable-5 is also exposed on the heavy routing tier with subscription-covered pricing and the context-1m-2025-08-07 beta enabled automatically.

Using Claude Subscriptions via Claude Code

If you have a Claude Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise subscription, authenticate through Anthropic’s official Claude Code CLI instead of an API key:

# Install and sign into Claude Code
claude

# Then start GSD — it detects Claude Code automatically
gsd

GSD detects your local Claude Code installation and routes through it automatically. This is the terms-of-service-compliant path for subscription users — GSD never handles your subscription credentials directly.

Adding Custom or Unlisted Models

Define custom models, local endpoints, and OpenAI-compatible proxies in ~/.gsd/agent/models.json:

{
  "providers": {
    "my-custom-endpoint": {
      "baseUrl": "https://my-proxy.example.com/v1",
      "apiKey": "MY_PROVIDER_API_KEY",
      "api": "openai-completions",
      "models": [
        {
          "id": "my-model-id",
          "name": "My Custom Model",
          "contextWindow": 128000,
          "maxTokens": 16384,
          "cost": { "input": 0.15, "output": 0.60, "cacheRead": 0, "cacheWrite": 0 }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

The apiKey value is the name of the environment variable GSD should read (not the literal key). GSD resolves it automatically at runtime.

Per-Phase Model Routing

Assign different providers or models to different phases of the auto-mode pipeline in PREFERENCES.md:

models:
  research: openrouter/deepseek/deepseek-r1    # Cheaper for research
  planning: claude-opus-4-6                     # Best quality for planning
  execution: claude-sonnet-4-6                  # Balanced for execution
  execution_simple: claude-haiku-4-5-20250414   # Fast and cheap for simple tasks

Verifying Your Setup

After configuring a provider, verify everything is working:

1. Start GSD

   gsd
   
2. Open the model picker

   /gsd model
   

   Your provider’s models should appear in the list.

3. Run a health check

   /gsd doctor
   

   GSD checks provider connectivity and reports any credential or configuration issues.

If a model doesn’t appear, check that:

• The environment variable is exported in the current shell
• ~/.gsd/agent/models.json is valid JSON (cat ~/.gsd/agent/models.json | python3 -m json.tool)
• The local inference server is running (for Ollama, LM Studio, etc.)