Connect a model

Nodal-Agents is multi-provider: you add one key per provider, then each agent independently picks which provider and model to use. You can mix Anthropic, OpenAI, and a local Ollama instance across different agents in the same workspace.

Supported providers

Add a provider

1. In the dashboard open Settings at the foot of the rail, then LLM Providers.
2. Click Add provider.
3. Select your Provider from the dropdown. Already-configured providers are greyed out.
4. Set the Base URL. Cloud providers pre-fill a canonical URL — leave it blank to use the default. Local providers (Ollama, OpenAI-compatible) require a URL.
5. Paste your API key. For local models with no key, leave the field empty.
6. Click Test connection. The dashboard sends a live request to the provider and reports pass or fail inline. Save is blocked until the test passes (or you are editing an existing key without changing it).
7. Click Add provider. The key is stored encrypted in the embedded database.

Local models (Ollama, LM Studio, Jan.ai, llama.cpp, vLLM)

Start your local server first, then add it as an Ollama or OpenAI-compatible provider. The base URLs the init wizard uses as defaults:

Ollama          http://localhost:11434
LM Studio       http://localhost:1234/v1
Jan.ai          http://localhost:1337/v1
llama.cpp       http://localhost:8080/v1
vLLM            http://localhost:8000/v1

The dashboard fetches the live model list from the provider's /v1/models endpoint when you open the model picker on an agent — so new models appear automatically once loaded into your server.

Assign a model to an agent

Provider keys are shared across the workspace. Each agent picks:

1. LLM provider key — which configured provider to use.
2. Model — fetched live from that provider's endpoint, with a curated list as fallback.
3. Fallback chain (optional) — ordered list of (provider key, model) pairs tried in sequence when the primary provider can't serve (retries exhausted, timeout, or quota). When a provider is rate-limited and a fallback exists, the chain hands over after one quick retry instead of waiting out the congestion.

Change these on the agent's Overview tab, in its Model section. The Reasoning control sits there too, when the model declares one.

Update or replace a key

Go to Settings → LLM Providers, find the row, and click Edit. The API key is masked after saving — click Replace to enter a new one. Saving without touching the key field keeps the existing key unchanged.

Notes

• Disabling a provider key (uncheck Active) prevents agents from using it without deleting it — useful for temporary key rotation.
• Each agent's model selection is independent. An orchestrator can use Claude while its worker sub-agents use a local Ollama model.
• The runner reads LLM config from the database at job start, so a key change takes effect on the next job with no restart needed.