Supported AI Providers

OpenCrabs supports 15 built-in providers + Custom OpenAI Compatible. Switch between them at any time via /models in the TUI or any channel.

How It Works

• One provider active at a time per session — switch with /models
• Per-session isolation — each session remembers its own provider and model. Changing provider in the TUI does not affect other active sessions (Telegram, Discord, Slack)
• Fallback chain — configure automatic failover when the primary provider goes down
• Models fetched live — no binary update needed when providers add new models
• Function calling detection — OpenCrabs detects when a model doesn’t support tool use and warns you with a model switch suggestion, rather than silently failing
• tool_choice: "auto" — sent automatically for OpenAI-compatible providers when tools are active, enabling function calling on models that require explicit opt-in
• vision_model works on ANY provider — add vision_model = "..." to any built-in or custom provider block and the agent routes incoming images through that model on the same endpoint. No second API key, no Gemini dependency. See Image Generation & Vision for the full two-path setup

Custom Provider Onboarding (v0.3.24)

Adding a custom OpenAI-compatible provider is now smoother:

• Paste-by-default: Ctrl+V / Cmd+V on the API key field pastes immediately — no need to tab into the field first
• Enter-to-load: type a model name not in the fetched list and press Enter — it’s added to the list and selected
• Field refresh: saved values (base URL, API key, model list) appear instantly without restarting the dialog

Provider Registry (v0.3.34)

All provider resolution now routes through a single registry source of truth: no more hardcoded if-else ladders scattered across the codebase. The registry correctly enforces api_key requirements for API providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, GitHub Copilot, Gemini, OpenRouter, MiniMax), so resolution skips them cleanly when keys are missing instead of silently falling back. Adding a new provider is now a one-file change.

Retry & Fallback Overhaul (v0.3.36)

The provider retry and fallback system was rebuilt for reliability:

• Patient backoff — defaults changed from 100ms hammering to 1s / 2s / 4s / 8s, giving rate-limited endpoints time to recover
• In-place rate limit retry — hits 3 retries on the same provider before falling through the fallback chain, preventing unnecessary provider switches
• Full fallback chain on any HTTP error — previously only 5xx/429 triggered fallback; now any HTTP error walks the chain
• Fail fast on hard-down endpoints — DNS failures and connection refused bail immediately instead of wasting retries
• Retry events surfaced to user — each retry shows as RetryAttempt 1/3 - rate_limit_exceeded so you always know what’s happening
• Transient 4xx HTML pages retried — Cloudflare/nginx error pages that look like 4xx but are actually transient infra issues are now retried

Qwen Cache Auto-Enable (v0.3.30)

Custom providers targeting Qwen-shaped endpoints (base URLs containing dashscope, aliyun, aliyuncs, dialagram, or models prefixed with qwen-*) automatically get ephemeral cache_control markers on the system prompt, last streaming message, and last tool call. Zero-config cost savings for Qwen custom providers, no API key or flag needed.

Qwen Tool-Call Leak Strip (v0.3.35)

Qwen models sometimes emit bare JSON tool-call objects like {"name":"bash","arguments":{"command":"ls"}} directly in the content text instead of through the proper tool-call API. A new bare_tool_call_extractor detects and strips these leaks so they don’t appear as raw JSON in the chat output.

/models Picker (v0.3.30)

The /models command now surfaces every known provider including unconfigured ones, marked with a 🔒 lock icon and setup help text. This helps users discover available providers without needing to know which ones need API keys. Custom providers with no configured models show a helpful empty-state message instead of an inert button.

OpenRouter Reasoning

For models that support extended reasoning (e.g. Qwen 3.6 Plus), OpenCrabs sends include_reasoning: true automatically when using OpenRouter. Thinking/reasoning output is displayed in collapsible sections:

▶ Thinking... (click to expand)
  The user wants to refactor...

Reasoning text wraps to screen width instead of truncating.

See Provider Setup for configuration details and API key setup.