AI Providers - Deco CMS

What are AI Providers?

AI Providers supply the language models that power Decopilot and agents in deco Studio. The provider system supports multiple vendors simultaneously, each with their own credentials and model catalogs.

Provider keys are organization-scoped and encrypted at rest in the credential vault. You can configure multiple providers and switch between models as needed.

Supported Providers

Provider	ID	Auth Methods	Key Features
Deco AI Gateway	`deco`	OAuth PKCE, API key	Managed access to 100+ models, credit balance, top-ups
Anthropic	`anthropic`	API key	Direct access to Claude models
Google	`google`	API key	Access to Google AI models
OpenRouter	`openrouter`	OAuth PKCE, API key	Unified API for 100+ model families
Claude Code	`claude-code`	CLI activate	Claude Code CLI integration — detects local installation

The Deco AI Gateway is optionally enabled via the DECO_AI_GATEWAY_ENABLED environment variable. When enabled, it provides managed access to models from multiple vendors through a single billing relationship.

Authentication Methods

Each provider declares which connection methods it supports:

API Key

The most common method. You provide a secret key issued by the provider (e.g., from the Anthropic Console or Google AI Studio). The key is encrypted and stored in deco Studio’s vault.

Keys are hashed (SHA-256) for deduplication — if you add the same key twice, the existing entry is updated rather than creating a duplicate.

OAuth PKCE

A browser-based authorization flow for providers that support it (OpenRouter, Deco AI Gateway). The flow:

deco Studio generates an authorization URL with a PKCE challenge
You complete the authorization in your browser
deco Studio exchanges the code for an API key
The key is stored encrypted in the vault

CLI Activate

For Claude Code integration only. Detects the local CLI installation and authentication state — no manual key entry needed.

Managing Provider Keys

Provider key management is available through MCP tools:

Tool	Purpose
`AI_PROVIDER_KEY_CREATE`	Store a new API key (encrypted at rest)
`AI_PROVIDER_KEY_LIST`	List stored keys, optionally filtered by provider
`AI_PROVIDER_KEY_DELETE`	Remove a stored key
`AI_PROVIDERS_ACTIVE`	List providers that have at least one configured key

Keys are organization-scoped with audit tracking — each key records who added it and when.

Model Discovery

Once a provider key is configured, you can discover available models:

 AI_PROVIDERS_LIST_MODELS(provider_key_id)

Each model includes:

Model ID and title — identifier and human-readable name
Capabilities — what the model can do: text , vision , tools , reasoning , image , audio
Context limits — context window size and max output tokens
Costs — input and output token pricing

Model lists are cached per organization and provider to avoid redundant API calls. Models from non-OpenRouter providers are enriched with metadata from OpenRouter’s catalog when available (descriptions, capabilities, pricing).

Model availability may be filtered by organization-level model permission policies. If a model you expect isn’t listed, check your organization’s model permissions.

Credits and Billing

For providers that support it (currently Deco AI Gateway):

Tool	Purpose
`AI_PROVIDER_CREDITS`	Check remaining balance (in cents)
`AI_PROVIDER_TOPUP_URL`	Generate a checkout URL to add credits (USD or BRL)

Check credit balance when users report generation failures — insufficient credits are a common cause.

How Decopilot Uses Providers

Decopilot and agents select models from active providers when processing tasks. The provider system handles:

Model selection — choosing the right model for the task
Credential injection — decrypting and providing the API key at request time
Fallback — using alternative providers when the primary is unavailable

See Decopilot Overview for details on how agents interact with AI models.

Next Steps

Start by configuring at least one AI provider to enable Decopilot. See Decopilot Quickstart to get started, or API Keys for managing programmatic access to deco Studio itself.