Authentication
Ask LLM connects your host to the provider accounts you already use. Installing and signing in to a provider is your responsibility; setup never performs provider login.
| Provider or route | What must be ready |
|---|---|
| Codex | Installed Codex CLI, authenticated account |
| Claude | Installed Claude Code CLI, authenticated account; a host other than Claude Code |
| Grok | Authenticated official Grok Build with headless JSON support, or an explicitly configured metered xAI API key |
| Cursor Agent | Authenticated Cursor CLI and exact model ID from agent --list-models |
| Antigravity | Authenticated agy 1.1.5+ and explicit execution opt-in; opt-in has no read-only guarantee |
| Ollama | Running local server and the requested model pulled |
| Gemini | Authenticated CLI and an eligible Standard/Enterprise seat |
For subscription-backed routes, no separate model API key is needed. Grok's xai-api route requires XAI_API_KEY in the host's server environment and incurs metered charges. Pin grok-cli to use Grok Build rather than the default API route; routes never fail over to one another.
Provider credentials stay in the provider's login/configuration flow. The xAI API route reads the key from the process environment to authenticate requests; Ask LLM does not log or return it. Keep keys out of committed configuration.
Run ask-llm doctor to see what is installed and what authentication can be established without inference. An unknown auth state is not a successful login. Restart the host after adding a provider or changing its environment. See diagnostics for the optional quota-consuming live check.