Providers

Supported providers

Provider	Kind	Default endpoint	Credentials
Ollama	Local	http://localhost:11434	Optional
LM Studio	Local	http://localhost:1234	Optional
llama.cpp	Local	http://localhost:8080	Optional
Custom	Local	http://localhost:8080	Optional
OpenRouter	Cloud	https://openrouter.ai/api/v1	API key
Vercel	Cloud	https://ai-gateway.vercel.sh	API key

Ollama, LM Studio, and llama.cpp accept a remote address too. Point Cannonade at another machine on your network and mark the entry as remote, and its models behave like local ones apart from the actions that have to run on the server’s own machine.

You can configure the same provider type more than once, so two Ollama hosts can sit side by side. OpenRouter and Vercel are limited to one entry each.

What each provider supports

Capability	Ollama	LM Studio	llama.cpp	Custom	OpenRouter	Vercel
List models	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Chat and Playground	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Token and timing stats	yes	yes	yes	partial	partial	partial
Load and unload models	yes	yes	yes	no	no	no
Download models	yes	yes	yes	no	no	no
Delete models	yes	local only	yes	no	no	no
Start and stop the server	local, opt-in	local only	local, opt-in	no	no	no
Pricing and context length	no	no	no	no	yes	yes

Stats coverage on cloud and OpenAI-compatible endpoints depends on what the endpoint reports. Cannonade shows what it receives and leaves the rest blank rather than estimating.

For llama.cpp, model management needs llama-server running in router mode. A server started to hold a single model still handles chat and test runs.

The server controls marked opt-in are experimental and hidden until you enable them. See Managed server processes.

Model downloads

For local providers, Cannonade can pull models from the provider’s own registry or directly from Hugging Face, with progress reported in the app. llama.cpp is Hugging Face only. Downloads land wherever the provider stores its models; Cannonade does not keep a second copy.

You can also name a model that is not installed yet when starting a test run. Cannonade downloads it first, and a run option removes it again afterwards. See Model downloads.

Managed server processes

For local providers, the provider card in Settings > Providers shows server status and gives you start and stop buttons.

Where a server can start and stop itself, the controls are there for any local entry and Cannonade simply asks it to.

The rest offer no way to shut themselves down. The only way to stop one is to end its process, which is why those controls are hidden behind an experiment. The capability table above marks which is which.

Cannonade-managed servers (experimental)

Turn on Cannonade-managed servers in Settings > Experiments to get the controls for those providers. It only stops what it started, and stopping ends the process outright. See Experiments.

Credentials

A provider entry resolves its key one of three ways: none, an environment variable you name, or a key you paste, which is encrypted with the operating system’s secret storage before it is written to disk. Local providers default to none, cloud providers require a key.

Adding a provider that is not listed

Two options, in order of effort:

1. Use the Custom provider. If the endpoint speaks the OpenAI chat completions API, this works today and needs no code.
2. Contribute a native provider. Native providers get accurate stats, model management, and provider-specific features that the OpenAI-compatible shape cannot express. The provider layer is deliberately small: a factory, a set of mappers, and a registration entry. Start from the repository.

More native providers are in progress.