Connect OpenAI, Gemini, Groq or OpenRouter

Four presets connect a provider with one API key, the way Connect Anthropic does for Claude:

Preset	Provider	Key
openai	GPT on the OpenAI API	OPENAI_API_KEY
gemini-api	Gemini on the Gemini Developer API, with an API key from Google AI Studio	GEMINI_API_KEY
groq	Open-weight models on Groq's fast inference	GROQ_API_KEY
openrouter	A hosted service in front of several vendors: your prompts pass through OpenRouter	OPENROUTER_API_KEY

For Gemini with your Google Cloud credentials instead of a key, use Gemini on Vertex AI (the gemini preset).

OpenRouter is an option if you choose it. It's one more hosted service your prompts pass through: for data that must stay in your environment, use a direct vendor's preset, or a model you serve yourself.

1. Store the key

With kindgi dev running, in the pack, store the key under the preset's name (OpenAI here):

kindgi secrets set OPENAI_API_KEY --env=local --scope=tenant

It prompts for the key without echoing it and writes it to Kindgi's own .kindgi/secrets.env, a file only you can read, which your app doesn't load. A line OPENAI_API_KEY=… in your app's .env or .env.local works too (Keep local values in env files). Keep your env files out of git; kindgi init already keeps .kindgi/ out.

2. Register the preset

kindgi providers register --preset=openai

{
  "providerId": "openai"
}
✓ Registered openai: gpt-6.1-sol (default), gpt-6-astra, gpt-6-luna — key OPENAI_API_KEY (env local)

The others answer the same way:

✓ Registered gemini-api: gemini-3.8-flash (default), gemini-3.1-pro-preview, gemini-3.5-flash-lite — key GEMINI_API_KEY (env local)
✓ Registered groq: openai/gpt-oss-120b (default), openai/gpt-oss-20b — key GROQ_API_KEY (env local)
✓ Registered openrouter: anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5 (default), openai/gpt-6.1-sol, google/gemini-3.8-flash, openai/gpt-6-luna — key OPENROUTER_API_KEY (env local)

As with Anthropic, the preset checks that its key is there first, --models registers only the models you list, --secret=<NAME> reads the key from another variable, and { preset: 'openai' } in the pack's config registers it on every boot: see Connect Anthropic.

The provider answers from the next turn on; nothing restarts.

Their models

Among the models that meet an agent's needs, Kindgi takes the agent's preferred one, else the preset's default, marked below: a mid-priced model, not the dearest. Register only the model you want (--models=gpt-6-luna) or set the agent's preferredModel: see Choose the model an agent uses.

Preset	Model	Features	Context window	Per 1K input / output tokens
openai	gpt-6.1-sol (default)	tool-use, parallel-tool-use, structured-output, long-context	1,050,000	$0.002 / $0.01
	gpt-6-astra	tool-use, parallel-tool-use, structured-output, long-context	1,050,000	$0.01 / $0.05
	gpt-6-luna	tool-use, parallel-tool-use, structured-output, long-context	1,050,000	$0.0001 / $0.0005
gemini-api	gemini-3.8-flash (default)	tool-use, structured-output, long-context	1,048,576	$0.00075 / $0.00375
	gemini-3.1-pro-preview	tool-use, long-context	1,048,576	$0.002 / $0.012; a prompt over 200,000 tokens: $0.004 / $0.018
	gemini-3.5-flash-lite	tool-use, structured-output, long-context	1,048,576	$0.0003 / $0.0025
groq	openai/gpt-oss-120b (default)	tool-use	131,072	$0.00015 / $0.0006
	openai/gpt-oss-20b	tool-use	131,072	$0.000075 / $0.0003
openrouter	anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5 (default)	tool-use, parallel-tool-use, structured-output, long-context	1,000,000	$0.002 / $0.01
	openai/gpt-6.1-sol	tool-use, parallel-tool-use, structured-output, long-context	1,050,000	$0.002 / $0.01
	google/gemini-3.8-flash	tool-use, parallel-tool-use, structured-output, long-context	1,048,576	$0.00075 / $0.00375
	openai/gpt-6-luna	tool-use, parallel-tool-use, structured-output, long-context	1,050,000	$0.0001 / $0.0005

The prices are the presets' own, checked against the providers on 2026-10-07 (pricesCheckedAt in kindgi providers presets); a turn's totalCostUsd uses them. A prompt over a model's long-context threshold prices the whole call at the higher rates. Which of these models take a temperature, and which think: see Temperature and thinking.

A provider registered from a preset before 0.1.4 has no default, so an agent that names no model gets the first by name, and it keeps only the two base rates. Register it again: unregister it, then register the preset (or restart kindgi dev for one the pack's config declares).

OpenAI

The openai preset calls OpenAI through its Responses API, which GPT-6 models need to call tools. An agent with tools works on any of them, and so do typed answers. Every call sends store: false, so OpenAI keeps no conversation state for Kindgi's calls. A GPT-6 model takes no temperature: the call goes without it, with a sampling-unsupported warning (see Temperature and thinking).

OpenAI bills cached prompt tokens at a fraction of the input price, writes to its prompt cache at more, and a prompt over 272,000 input tokens at higher rates for the whole call. The preset's prices follow, per 1K tokens:

Model	Input	Cached input	Cache write	Output	Past 272,000 input tokens (input / output)
gpt-6.1-sol	$0.002	$0.0001	$0.0025	$0.01	$0.004 / $0.015
gpt-6-astra	$0.01	$0.001	$0.0125	$0.05	$0.02 / $0.075
gpt-6-luna	$0.0001	$0.00001	$0.000125	$0.0005	$0.0002 / $0.00075

Past 272,000 tokens, cached input and cache writes keep their share of the higher input rate. Kindgi counts every input token of a call toward the 272,000, cached ones included: that's its reading of OpenAI's pricing page, which doesn't spell it out. On a data-residency host (eu.api.openai.com), every rate is 10% higher. The OpenAI registration's settings are on Connect an OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

If it doesn't answer

A wrong key fails the turn with the provider's own message. To change the key, set it again with --write-mode=add-version; the next turn uses the new one.

A key a header can't carry, such as one pasted with a line break inside it, fails the turn before anything is sent, naming the provider, never the key:

@kindgi/adapter-model-anthropic: provider "acme": its API key has a line break, which a header can't carry: store the secret without it

If dev-echo still answers (its answer starts with ⚠ dev-echo isn't a real model), the agent needs something none of the registered models has: see dev-echo, the fallback.