Providers and Models

Lectic speaks to several providers. You pick a provider and a model in your YAML header, or let Lectic choose a default based on which credentials are available in your environment.

Picking a default provider

If you do not set provider, Lectic checks for keys in this order and uses the first one it finds:

Anthropic → Gemini → OpenAI → OpenRouter.

Set one of these environment variables before you run Lectic:

  • ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
  • GEMINI_API_KEY
  • OPENAI_API_KEY
  • OPENROUTER_API_KEY

AWS credentials for Bedrock are not used for auto-selection. If you want Anthropic via Bedrock, set provider: anthropic/bedrock explicitly and make sure your AWS environment is configured.

ChatGPT subscription (no API key)

Lectic also supports provider: codex, which uses your ChatGPT subscription via the official Codex / ChatGPT OAuth flow.

Notes:

  • This provider is not auto-selected (there is no API key env var to check). If you want it by default, set provider: codex in your lectic.yaml or in the .lec frontmatter.
  • On first use, Lectic opens a browser window for login and stores tokens at $LECTIC_STATE/codex_auth.json (for example, ~/.local/state/lectic/codex_auth.json on Linux).
  • Login starts a local callback server on port 1455. If that port is in use, stop the other process and try again.
  • If you want to “log out”, delete that file.

Discover models

Not sure which models are available? Run:

lectic models

This queries each provider you have credentials for and prints the available models.

Tip

The LSP can also autocomplete model names as you type in the YAML header. See Editor Integration.

Note

provider: codex models only show up in lectic models after you have logged in at least once (since the login is browser-based, not an API key). If you have not logged in yet, run a .lec file with provider: codex first.

OpenAI: two provider strings

OpenAI has two modes in Lectic today.

  • openai selects the Responses API. Choose this when you want native tools like search and code.
  • openai/chat selects the legacy Chat Completions API.

Examples

These examples show the minimal configuration for each provider. You can omit provider and model if you want Lectic to pick defaults based on your environment.

Anthropic (direct API):

interlocutor:
  name: Assistant
  prompt: You are a helpful assistant.
  provider: anthropic

Anthropic via Bedrock:

interlocutor:
  name: Assistant
  prompt: You are a helpful assistant.
  provider: anthropic/bedrock
  model: anthropic.claude-3-haiku-20240307-v1:0

OpenAI (Responses API):

interlocutor:
  name: Assistant
  prompt: You are a helpful assistant.
  provider: openai

OpenAI Chat Completions (legacy API):

interlocutor:
  name: Assistant
  prompt: You are a helpful assistant.
  provider: openai/chat

Codex (via ChatGPT subscription):

interlocutor:
  name: Assistant
  prompt: You are a helpful assistant.
  provider: codex
  model: gpt-5.1-codex

Gemini:

interlocutor:
  name: Assistant
  prompt: You are a helpful assistant.
  provider: gemini

OpenRouter:

interlocutor:
  name: Assistant
  prompt: You are a helpful assistant.
  provider: openrouter
  model: meta-llama/llama-3.1-70b-instruct

Ollama (local inference):

interlocutor:
  name: Assistant
  prompt: You are a helpful assistant.
  provider: ollama
  model: llama3.1

Capabilities and media

Providers differ in what they accept as input. Here’s a rough guide:

Provider Text Images PDFs Audio Video
Anthropic ✓ ✓ ✓ ✗ ✗
Gemini ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
OpenAI ✓ ✓ ✓ varies* ✗
Codex ✓ ✓ ✓ varies* ✗
OpenRouter varies by model
Ollama ✓ varies ✗ ✗ ✗

* Audio support depends on model. For OpenAI audio workflows you may need provider: openai/chat with an audio-capable model.

Support changes quickly. Consult each provider’s documentation for current limits on formats, sizes, and rate limits.

In Lectic, you attach external content by linking files in the user message body. Lectic packages these and sends them to the provider in a way that fits that provider’s API. See External Content for examples and tips.