Providers and keys
Hotline Agent, the built-in agent, runs on a model from a provider you connect under Settings → Providers. Keys live in Hotline’s vault on this machine and are never written into a conversation, a teammate’s files or a log.
Providers
Section titled “Providers”| Provider | Connects with |
|---|---|
| Anthropic | API key |
| OpenAI | API key |
| ChatGPT | Sign in with your ChatGPT subscription |
| OpenRouter | Sign in, or API key |
| API key | |
| xAI | Sign in (Grok device sign-in), or API key |
| Z.AI, and Z.AI Coding Plan | API key |
| Groq | API key |
| DeepSeek | API key |
| Mistral | API key |
| GitHub Copilot | Sign in |
| Ollama Local | A server URL, no key |
| Ollama Cloud | API key |
| OpenAI-compatible | Any endpoint that speaks the OpenAI API: URL, optional key, your own model IDs |
Add provider lists what is not connected yet. Once every provider is connected the list says so.
Models
Section titled “Models”Each connection has a Connection and a Models shown section. Hotline ships a catalogue of the models each provider serves and refreshes the list from the provider itself when it can, so a newly released model is usable before Hotline ships an update. Untick models you do not want in the picker; every model checked is the same as no filter. Manual model IDs adds an ID the provider has not listed.
For Ollama Local, Hotline discovers whatever the server has installed. For an OpenAI-compatible endpoint you supply the model IDs, and Hotline will list them from the server when it can.
GitHub Copilot lists the models your account is offered, and each model is
sent to the endpoint Copilot names for it, so Grok and the newer OpenAI
models work alongside the Claude ones. If a Copilot model still refuses
with a message about /chat/completions, press Refresh on the Copilot
connection so the list is read again.
The default model
Section titled “The default model”Settings → General → Default model is what a new Hotline Agent teammate starts on. Last used picks up whatever you chose most recently. Each teammate’s model can be changed any time from the picker in its title bar.
Teammates that bring their own login
Section titled “Teammates that bring their own login”Teammates that run Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, opencode, Gemini CLI or Grok Build sign in through that tool, not through Hotline. Hotline holds no key for them. See Teammates and drivers.