AI Provider Overview

The Three Supported Providers

YeePilot supports these providers directly:

• openrouter
• openai
• anthropic

The provider controls which API endpoint and model catalog YeePilot uses. The safety layer, approvals, sandboxing, and vault behavior stay the same regardless of provider.

Default Provider Settings

If you set only ai.provider, YeePilot fills in the default model and base URL automatically unless you override them yourself.

Which Provider Should Most Users Pick?

• choose OpenRouter if you want the easiest low-cost or free starting point
• choose OpenAI if you want strong general-purpose behavior and broad model choice inside the OpenAI stack
• choose Anthropic if you prefer Claude-style reasoning for longer multi-step work

The best provider depends on your budget, model preference, and account access.

How To Switch Providers

Setup wizard

yeepilot setup --provider

This is the safest option for end users because it updates provider settings and lets you store credentials cleanly.

Manual config

ai:
  provider: openai
  model: gpt-4o

One-shot override

yeepilot exec --provider openai --model gpt-4o "summarize this folder"

This only affects that single exec run.

Model Selection In Practice

During setup or in the TUI, YeePilot can show provider-specific models. When live provider fetching is available, you will usually see a richer list than the hard-coded defaults.

Use:

/model

to open the interactive selector during a session.

Provider Credentials

The recommended end-user path is:

1. run yeepilot setup
2. choose the provider
3. store the credential via the OS keyring or YeePilot's secure fallback

You can also use environment variables such as:

• OPENAI_API_KEY
• ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
• OPENROUTER_API_KEY

Failover

YeePilot supports fallback providers through ai.failover.

Example:

ai:
  provider: anthropic
  model: claude-sonnet-4-20250514
  failover:
    enabled: true
    chain:
      - provider: openai
        model: gpt-4o
      - provider: openrouter
        model: openai/gpt-oss-120b:free

This is useful if you want YeePilot to keep working when your primary provider is unavailable.

Best End-User Advice

• keep one dependable default provider
• switch models before you switch providers
• use failover if uptime matters
• use the setup wizard when you change provider credentials