Configuration

Provider configuration is managed in the Settings dialog. Open it by clicking the Settings gear icon at the bottom of the left sidebar.

The Settings Dialog

The Settings dialog has a two-panel layout:

• Left panel — list of all providers. Providers with a configured API key are shown first with a checkmark (✓). Providers without a key are shown below.
• Right panel — detail view for the selected provider: API key input, credit balance (where applicable), and model list.

Click any provider in the left panel to manage it.

Adding an API Key

1. Open Settings.
2. Click a provider in the left panel.
3. In the right panel, paste your API key into the input field.
   • Click the eye icon to toggle show/hide.
4. Close the dialog — keys are saved automatically on close.

Keys are saved locally in the Tarsk database on your machine. They are never sent anywhere except directly to the provider’s API.

Where to Get Keys

Provider	Key URL
Anthropic	console.anthropic.com/keys
OpenAI	platform.openai.com/api-keys
Google	aistudio.google.com
xAI	console.x.ai
DeepSeek	platform.deepseek.com
OpenRouter	openrouter.ai/keys
AIHubMix	aihubmix.com
Groq	console.groq.com/keys

See Providers Overview for all providers and their key URLs.

Checking Your Credit Balance

For OpenRouter and AIHubMix, the right panel shows your current account balance beneath the API key field. This is fetched live from the provider. If the balance reads $0.00 and you expect more, verify the key is correct.

Enabling and Disabling Models

After adding a key, the right panel shows all available models for that provider. Each model has a checkbox:

• Checked — model appears in the model selector dropdown in every thread
• Unchecked — model is hidden from the selector

By default, no models are enabled until you check them. Enable the models you plan to use to keep the selector uncluttered.

Sorting and Filtering Models

Use the controls above the model list:

Filter	Shows
All	Every available model
Free	Models with no token cost (on supporting providers like OpenRouter)
Tools	Models that support tool/function calling (required for the AI agent to use its built-in tools)

Sort	Order
A–Z	Alphabetical by model name
Price ↑	Cheapest per-token first
Price ↓	Most expensive per-token first

Caution

The agent requires tool calling support to use its read, write, bash, and other built-in tools. Use the Tools filter to identify compatible models. If you pick a model without tool support, the agent can only return text responses.

Onboarding Wizard

When you first launch Tarsk, the Onboarding Wizard guides you through the minimum setup:

1. Git Check — verifies git is on your PATH
2. Provider Setup — select a provider and enter an API key
3. Model Selection — enable the models you want to use

The wizard can be reset at any time by triple-clicking the description text at the top of the Settings dialog. This is useful if you want to walk through it again after adding a new provider.

Using Multiple Providers

You can configure as many providers as you like. Each thread has an independent model selector, so you can use Anthropic in one thread and Google in another simultaneously.

A common pattern:

• Set a capable, tool-using model (e.g. Claude Sonnet 4, GPT-4.1) as the default for active coding threads
• Set a fast, cheap model (e.g. Gemini 2.5 Flash, DeepSeek V3) for lighter tasks like summarisation or commit message generation