Providers and models
Brilliant's chat runs on the model you choose, through your own key or local CLI. This page covers every provider you can connect, how to switch models and thinking levels, and where your keys are stored. For the two-minute version, see Connect an AI Provider.
Supported providers
All of these are managed in Settings (Cmd+,) → AI Providers. You can connect more than one and switch between them per chat.
Claude Code leads the list and needs no key. Install the
claudeCLI and Brilliant detects it on launch; if it is not signed in, run/loginin the chat input. This routes through your existing Claude subscription.Anthropic, OpenAI, Google (Gemini), and OpenRouter each take an API key. Paste it into the provider's row and it is validated before it saves. Google can alternatively sign in with Google instead of a raw key.
OpenAI covers both its standard chat models and its reasoning line (including Codex and the Pro tiers, which run over OpenAI's Responses API). You do not pick the API; Brilliant routes each model correctly.
OpenRouter is a single key that reaches many models across vendors, handy for trying different models without juggling keys.
A separate Quiver row powers AI vector generation and image vectorization. It is set up the same way, but it is not a chat provider.
Custom and self-hosted endpoints
Any OpenAI-compatible endpoint can be added under Settings → AI Providers → Custom Providers. Pick a preset to pre-fill the base URL, or choose the generic option for anything else:
| Preset | Kind | Key |
|---|---|---|
| LM Studio, Ollama, vLLM | Local (localhost) | None needed |
| GLM (Z.ai), Moonshot (Kimi), DeepSeek, Xiaomi MiMo | Hosted | Required |
| Custom OpenAI-compatible | Anything else | Optional |
On save, Brilliant tests the connection, then lists the models: curated defaults for the preset plus whatever the endpoint reports. Local runtimes ship no curated list, so theirs is whatever you have loaded; use the row's refresh button after pulling a new model. Leave the key blank for local runtimes.
Choosing and switching models
The model selector sits in the chat input bar. Only models whose provider currently has a valid key (or, for Claude Code, a detected install) appear in it. Each shows a short quality-and-speed subtitle like "Best", "Excellent", or "Good + Fast".
Click the model selector to change the model for the current chat. Your choice becomes the default for new chats.
Type
/modelfor an interactive provider-then-model picker.
Enabling extra models
The selector normally shows a curated set per provider. To use a model the app didn't ship (an older, newer, or niche one your key can reach):
Open Settings → AI Providers.
On a connected provider row, click Choose models (the sliders icon).
Brilliant fetches that provider's full model list live. Shipped models sit at the top, locked on; every other model is a toggle, with a search field to filter.
Toggle the ones you want. They appear in the chat model selector immediately, no restart.
Capabilities for a manually enabled model (context window, thinking support) are inferred from its id, so a niche model may show a conservative context window or no thinking selector.
Thinking levels
When a model supports reasoning, a thinking-level selector appears next to the model selector:
Claude models support off, low, medium, high. Claude is the only family you can turn off.
OpenAI and Gemini reasoning models always reason, so they offer low, medium, high with no off. Some OpenAI reasoning models add an xhigh level.
Text-only models that do not reason show no thinking selector at all.
The default level is right for almost everything; raise it when you want more room to plan through a longer task.
Where your keys live
Keys are stored locally in your OS credential store (macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager) and are sent only to that provider's own API endpoint. Brilliant also reads provider environment variables as a fallback: ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, GOOGLE_API_KEY, and OPENROUTER_API_KEY. Keys never appear in a chat transcript. For the full data story, see Privacy and consent.
Playground mode
With no provider connected, the chat opens in Playground mode and replays bundled demo conversations so you can see the agent work without a key or a network call. Connect any provider and it flips to live sessions automatically. A Playground toggle at the bottom of the AI Providers pane lets you revisit the demos later.
Next
Send a prompt: Your First AI Chat.
Learn the panels and shortcuts: Sessions and chat.