Providers & CLI agents
Koryphaios doesn't sell you inference. You bring your own models, and you can mix three different kinds freely — an API key here, a subscription CLI there, all in one model picker.
Three kinds of provider
API-key providers
You paste an API key (OpenAI, Google direct API, Google AI Studio, Vertex AI, Anthropic, xAI, Groq, OpenRouter, Azure, Bedrock, Mistral, and many OpenAI-compatible endpoints). Koryphaios calls the model directly over HTTP and runs the agent loop and all tools itself. Metered — you pay per token.
Subscription CLIs (agent harnesses)
If you already have an agent CLI installed and logged in — Claude Code, Codex, Grok, Cursor, Devin, Cline, Antigravity — Koryphaios detects it and drives it in headless mode through that provider's own account. Pricing and terms remain provider-specific. The CLI runs as a full agent. These have real trade-offs — see CLI agent limitations.
Cloud agents
Some providers (e.g. Google Jules) run the work on their own remote VMs and return results as pull requests. Neither Koryphaios nor your machine executes the loop.
How local agents work on your system
Koryphaios is a native desktop app with a local backend. The Local card is a shortcut to this part of the product: it does not send work to a Koryphaios server. It lets Koryphaios coordinate agents that are already available on your computer, alongside local model servers such as Ollama or llama.cpp.
On setup, Koryphaios checks for supported agent CLIs on your system and their sign-in state. When you use one, it launches the official CLI from the project workspace or its isolated git worktree, with the permissions of your desktop user. The agent can therefore read and change only what that local process is allowed to access; Koryphaios never uploads your repository merely to run the coordinator.
The model itself may still be remote: a logged-in CLI can contact its vendor, and an API-key provider sends requests to that provider. If you choose a local model server, model traffic stays on your machine. In every case, the desktop app streams the agent's progress back into the workspace so you can review its changes, run its output through the critic, or undo the resulting ghost commit.
Auto-detection
Open Settings → Providers and Koryphaios shows a “Detected on your system” panel: every agent CLI it found installed, with its login state. Anything installed and logged in can be enabled without a separate Koryphaios key. CLIs that are installed but logged out show the exact command to run (claude login, cursor-agent login, etc.).
Detection re-checks each time you open the Providers tab, so a login or logout in your terminal is picked up without restarting the app.
Connecting a provider
- API key: expand the provider card, paste the key, Connect. You can save multiple keyed accounts per provider and set a fallback order.
- Browser / device sign-in: providers that support this flow show their current authorization instructions in the provider panel.
- CLI harness (Claude, Grok, Cursor, Devin, Cline, Antigravity): just log in with the CLI in your terminal — Koryphaios uses that session and never holds your token.
Model routing
You can pick a specific model in the composer, or leave it on Auto and let the manager route each subtask to an appropriate model — frontend work to one, tests to another — subject to the models you've enabled. Each model advertises its real capabilities (context window, reasoning levels, vision) which Koryphaios reads live from the provider rather than hardcoding, so the reasoning-effort picker and context bar reflect what the model actually supports.
A note on subscription terms
Koryphaios shells out to the official, logged-in CLI and does not require a separate Koryphaios API key for that connection. Provider terms still govern how a subscription may be used. Sharing a subscription with another person is different: several providers' terms forbid account sharing. If you use model sharing, the app flags which providers are safe to share (your API keys) versus which would violate the vendor's terms (subscriptions).