Providers

nca supports five LLM provider backends. You can switch between them at any time via config, environment variables, or the interactive /connect and /provider commands.

Supported Providers

MiniMax (Default)

MiniMax is nca’s primary provider, using an Anthropic-compatible API endpoint.

Setup

export MINIMAX_API_KEY="your-minimax-api-key"

Or in config:

# ~/.local/share/ncacli/config.toml
[provider]
default = "minimax"

[provider.minimax]
api_key = "your-key"
base_url = "https://api.minimax.io/anthropic"
model = "MiniMax-M2.7"
temperature = 0.7

Features

• Anthropic-compatible protocol (/v1/messages endpoint)
• Extended thinking support
• Native vision/image processing
• Streaming responses

Anthropic

Direct access to Claude models via the native Anthropic API.

Setup

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="your-anthropic-key"

[provider]
default = "anthropic"

[provider.anthropic]
api_key_env = "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY"
base_url = "https://api.anthropic.com"
model = "claude-3-7-sonnet-latest"
temperature = 1.0

OpenAI

Standard OpenAI chat completions API.

Setup

export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-openai-key"

[provider]
default = "openai"

[provider.openai]
api_key_env = "OPENAI_API_KEY"
base_url = "https://api.openai.com"
model = "gpt-4o-mini"
temperature = 0.7

OpenAI-Compatible Endpoints

You can point the OpenAI provider at any OpenAI-compatible API by changing base_url:

[provider.openai]
base_url = "https://my-local-llm:8080"
model = "local-model"

OpenRouter

Access to hundreds of models from multiple providers through a single API key.

Setup

export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="your-openrouter-key"

[provider]
default = "openrouter"

[provider.openrouter]
api_key_env = "OPENROUTER_API_KEY"
base_url = "https://openrouter.ai/api"
model = "openai/gpt-4o-mini"
temperature = 0.7
site_url = "https://my-app.com"    # Optional
app_name = "my-app"                # Optional

Model Format

OpenRouter uses provider/model naming:

openai/gpt-4o
anthropic/claude-3-7-sonnet
google/gemini-2.0-flash
meta-llama/llama-3.1-70b-instruct

Custom Provider

Use the custom provider when you want nca to talk to a non-built-in endpoint such as a self-hosted gateway or a third-party OpenAI-compatible / Anthropic-compatible service.

Setup

[provider]
default = "custom"

[provider.custom]
compatibility = "openai"   # or "anthropic"
base_url = "https://sumopod.example"
api_key_env = "CUSTOM_PROVIDER_API_KEY"
model = "my-model"
temperature = 0.7

Environment variables:

export CUSTOM_PROVIDER_API_KEY="your-key"
export CUSTOM_PROVIDER_BASE_URL="https://sumopod.example"
export CUSTOM_PROVIDER_MODEL="my-model"
export CUSTOM_PROVIDER_COMPATIBILITY="openai"

Interactive Setup

TUI wizard — run /provider, scroll to “Add custom provider…”, and follow the guided steps.

Slash command:

/custom openai https://sumopod.example your-key my-model
/custom anthropic https://my-gateway.example your-key my-model

Notes:

• compatibility = "openai" uses /v1/chat/completions and GET /v1/models
• compatibility = "anthropic" uses /v1/messages with x-api-key header
• After setup, use /model <name> to switch the configured custom model
• Press c in the provider picker for a quick-reference help card

Switching Providers

Via CLI Flag

nca --model "claude-3-7-sonnet-latest"

Via Environment Variable

NCA_DEFAULT_PROVIDER=anthropic nca
NCA_MODEL=gpt-4o nca

Via Interactive Commands

/connect           # Opens provider picker UI
/provider openai   # Switch default provider
/provider custom   # Use the configured custom endpoint
/provider          # TUI picker — select "Add custom provider…" to configure
/custom openai https://sumopod.example your-key my-model
/model gpt-4o      # Switch model
/models            # Browse available models

Via Config

[provider]
default = "anthropic"

Model Aliases

nca ships with built-in model aliases for quick switching:

Add custom aliases in config:

[model.aliases]
fast = "gpt-4o-mini"
smart = "claude-3-7-sonnet-latest"
local = "ollama/llama3"

Use aliases anywhere a model name is expected:

nca --model fast

/model smart

API Key Resolution

For each provider, the API key is resolved in this order:

1. api_key field in config (not recommended for security)
2. api_key_env — read from the named environment variable (default and recommended)

The default environment variable names are:

You can change the environment variable name via api_key_env in config.

Extended Thinking

Some models support extended thinking (chain-of-thought reasoning). Enable it with:

nca -t                        # Enable with default budget (5120 tokens)
nca -t --thinking-budget 10000  # Custom budget

Or in config:

[model]
enable_thinking = true
thinking_budget = 10000

Toggle visibility in an interactive session:

/thinking

Context Window Management

nca auto-detects context window sizes by querying the provider’s model API. This enables automatic context compaction when the conversation gets too long.

[memory.context]
auto_detect_context_window = true
query_provider_models_api = true
max_retained_messages = 50
auto_summarize_threshold = 75     # Trigger at 75% of context window
enable_auto_summarize = true

Disable provider API queries if needed:

export NCA_SKIP_CONTEXT_API=1