Configure LLM providers
Connect Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Groq, AWS Bedrock, NVIDIA NIM, Ollama, and other providers to Helix so agents have inference available.
Helix doesn't bundle its own models — it routes to providers you configure. Providers can be set at three levels:
- User — personal providers, visible only to you (Account → AI Providers)
- Organisation — shared across all org members (Organisation → Providers); see Manage your organisation
- Installation — configured in Helm values for self-hosted deployments; available to all users on the instance
This guide covers UI configuration and Helm values. For org-level providers, see Manage your organisation: Configure org-level AI providers.
Adding a provider in the UI
Go to Account → AI Providers and click Add Provider. Select the provider type, paste your API key, and save.
Supported providers
| Provider | Notes |
|---|---|
| Anthropic | Claude models (Sonnet, Opus, Haiku). Recommended for coding agents. |
| OpenAI | GPT-4o, o1, o3, and other OpenAI models |
| Google Gemini | Gemini models via the Gemini API |
| NVIDIA NIM | GPU-accelerated inference; add the NIM base URL and API key |
| AWS Bedrock | Claude and other models via Amazon Bedrock; configure region and AWS credentials |
| Groq | Ultra-low latency open-source model inference (Llama, Mistral, Gemma) |
| Cerebras | Wafer-scale inference for fast open-source models |
| xAI Grok | Grok models from xAI |
| Together AI | Wide catalogue of hosted open-source models |
| Fireworks AI | Fast inference for open-source models |
| Ollama | Local model server; run models on your own hardware |
| Custom (OpenAI-compatible) | Any endpoint that speaks the OpenAI /v1/chat/completions API — vLLM, LM Studio, LocalAI, etc. |
Once a provider is added, its models become available in the Model dropdown on any project, agent app, or agent.
Choosing a model for a coding project
Set model and provider on the agent in your project YAML:
spec:
agent:
name: "My Agent"
runtime: claude_code
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
provider: anthropicClaude Code is an exception — it manages its own model selection. Set runtime: claude_code and omit model/provider.
Helix Cloud: built-in providers
On Helix Cloud, built-in Helix inference providers are available by default — you can use these without adding your own API keys. Add your own keys if you want to use a specific model tier or route to your own accounts.
Self-hosted: configure providers via Helm
For Kubernetes deployments, configure providers under controlplane.providers in your values.yaml. Use existingSecret to keep API keys out of your values file and git history:
kubectl create secret generic anthropic-api-key \
--from-literal=api-key="sk-ant-..."controlplane:
providers:
anthropic:
existingSecret: "anthropic-api-key"
existingSecretApiKeyKey: "api-key"
openai:
existingSecret: "openai-api-key"
existingSecretApiKeyKey: "api-key"
groq:
existingSecret: "groq-api-key"
existingSecretApiKeyKey: "api-key"
vllm:
baseUrl: "http://my-vllm.vllm.svc.cluster.local:8000/v1"See Linux & Kubernetes for the full Helm values reference.
Local models with Ollama (Mac App)
On the Mac App with 64 GB+ unified memory, run models locally via Ollama:
- Install Ollama
- Pull a model:
ollama pull llama3.3 - In Helix, add an Ollama or Custom (OpenAI-compatible) provider with base URL
http://localhost:11434/v1and no API key - The model appears in the model dropdown as
llama3.3
Toggle wifi off and the agent still works — entirely local.
AWS Bedrock
Bedrock uses AWS IAM credentials rather than an API key:
- Add an AWS Bedrock provider and choose your region.
- Provide an IAM access key and secret (or use an instance role for EC2/EKS deployments).
- Enable the models you want in the AWS Bedrock console — models must be explicitly enabled per region.
For Helm-based deployments:
controlplane:
providers:
bedrock:
region: "us-east-1"
existingSecret: "aws-credentials"
existingSecretAccessKeyKey: "access-key-id"
existingSecretSecretKeyKey: "secret-access-key"Anthropic via GCP Vertex AI
For organisations that prefer to route Anthropic inference through Google Cloud:
controlplane:
providers:
anthropic:
vertexProjectID: "my-gcp-project"
vertexRegion: "us-east5"
vertexCredentialsSecret: "gcp-vertex-credentials"See the chart's values-example.yaml for the full shape.
Model availability
The Reference: Supported models page lists model identifiers and which providers support them.