> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/charmbracelet/crush/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Provider Configuration
> Configure LLM providers and models in Crush
Crush supports multiple LLM providers including Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, AWS Bedrock, Azure, and many more. You can configure providers using environment variables or configuration files.
## Quick Start with Environment Variables
The quickest way to get started is to set an API key for your preferred provider. Crush recognizes these environment variables:
| Environment Variable | Provider |
| --------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` | Anthropic |
| `OPENAI_API_KEY` | OpenAI |
| `VERCEL_API_KEY` | Vercel AI Gateway |
| `GEMINI_API_KEY` | Google Gemini |
| `SYNTHETIC_API_KEY` | Synthetic |
| `ZAI_API_KEY` | Z.ai |
| `MINIMAX_API_KEY` | MiniMax |
| `HF_TOKEN` | Hugging Face Inference |
| `CEREBRAS_API_KEY` | Cerebras |
| `OPENROUTER_API_KEY` | OpenRouter |
| `IONET_API_KEY` | io.net |
| `GROQ_API_KEY` | Groq |
| `VERTEXAI_PROJECT` | Google Cloud VertexAI (Gemini) |
| `VERTEXAI_LOCATION` | Google Cloud VertexAI (Gemini) |
| `AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID` | Amazon Bedrock (Claude) |
| `AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY` | Amazon Bedrock (Claude) |
| `AWS_REGION` | Amazon Bedrock (Claude) |
| `AWS_PROFILE` | Amazon Bedrock (Custom Profile) |
| `AWS_BEARER_TOKEN_BEDROCK` | Amazon Bedrock |
| `AZURE_OPENAI_API_ENDPOINT` | Azure OpenAI models |
| `AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY` | Azure OpenAI models (optional when using Entra ID) |
| `AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION` | Azure OpenAI models |
Just set an environment variable and run Crush. If no API key is found, Crush will prompt you to enter one.
## Custom Provider Configuration
For advanced scenarios, you can configure custom providers in your `crush.json` file.
### OpenAI-Compatible Providers
Crush supports two OpenAI provider types:
* `openai` - For proxying/routing requests through OpenAI
* `openai-compat` - For non-OpenAI providers with OpenAI-compatible APIs
Here's an example configuration for Deepseek:
```json theme={null}
{
"$schema": "https://charm.land/crush.json",
"providers": {
"deepseek": {
"type": "openai-compat",
"base_url": "https://api.deepseek.com/v1",
"api_key": "$DEEPSEEK_API_KEY",
"models": [
{
"id": "deepseek-chat",
"name": "Deepseek V3",
"cost_per_1m_in": 0.27,
"cost_per_1m_out": 1.1,
"cost_per_1m_in_cached": 0.07,
"cost_per_1m_out_cached": 1.1,
"context_window": 64000,
"default_max_tokens": 5000
}
]
}
}
}
```
### Anthropic-Compatible Providers
For providers that use the Anthropic API format:
```json theme={null}
{
"$schema": "https://charm.land/crush.json",
"providers": {
"custom-anthropic": {
"type": "anthropic",
"base_url": "https://api.anthropic.com/v1",
"api_key": "$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY",
"extra_headers": {
"anthropic-version": "2023-06-01"
},
"models": [
{
"id": "claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
"name": "Claude Sonnet 4",
"cost_per_1m_in": 3,
"cost_per_1m_out": 15,
"cost_per_1m_in_cached": 3.75,
"cost_per_1m_out_cached": 0.3,
"context_window": 200000,
"default_max_tokens": 50000,
"can_reason": true,
"supports_attachments": true
}
]
}
}
}
```
## Local Models
You can run Crush with local models using OpenAI-compatible servers.
### Ollama
```json theme={null}
{
"providers": {
"ollama": {
"name": "Ollama",
"base_url": "http://localhost:11434/v1/",
"type": "openai-compat",
"models": [
{
"name": "Qwen 3 30B",
"id": "qwen3:30b",
"context_window": 256000,
"default_max_tokens": 20000
}
]
}
}
}
```
### LM Studio
```json theme={null}
{
"providers": {
"lmstudio": {
"name": "LM Studio",
"base_url": "http://localhost:1234/v1/",
"type": "openai-compat",
"models": [
{
"name": "Qwen 3 30B",
"id": "qwen/qwen3-30b-a3b-2507",
"context_window": 256000,
"default_max_tokens": 20000
}
]
}
}
}
```
## Cloud Providers
### Amazon Bedrock
Crush supports running Anthropic models through Bedrock (caching disabled):
1. Configure AWS credentials: `aws configure`
2. Set `AWS_REGION` or `AWS_DEFAULT_REGION` environment variable
3. (Optional) Use a specific profile: `AWS_PROFILE=myprofile crush`
4. Alternative: Set `AWS_BEARER_TOKEN_BEDROCK` instead of running `aws configure`
### Vertex AI Platform
Vertex AI appears when `VERTEXAI_PROJECT` and `VERTEXAI_LOCATION` are set:
```bash theme={null}
gcloud auth application-default login
```
Configure specific models:
```json theme={null}
{
"$schema": "https://charm.land/crush.json",
"providers": {
"vertexai": {
"models": [
{
"id": "claude-sonnet-4@20250514",
"name": "VertexAI Sonnet 4",
"cost_per_1m_in": 3,
"cost_per_1m_out": 15,
"cost_per_1m_in_cached": 3.75,
"cost_per_1m_out_cached": 0.3,
"context_window": 200000,
"default_max_tokens": 50000,
"can_reason": true,
"supports_attachments": true
}
]
}
}
}
```
## Model Configuration Options
When defining models in your provider configuration, you can specify:
* **id** (required) - Model identifier used by the provider API
* **name** (required) - Human-readable model name
* **cost\_per\_1m\_in** - Cost per 1M input tokens
* **cost\_per\_1m\_out** - Cost per 1M output tokens
* **cost\_per\_1m\_in\_cached** - Cost per 1M cached input tokens
* **cost\_per\_1m\_out\_cached** - Cost per 1M cached output tokens
* **context\_window** - Maximum context window size
* **default\_max\_tokens** - Default maximum tokens for responses
* **can\_reason** - Whether the model supports extended reasoning
* **supports\_attachments** - Whether the model supports file attachments
## Provider Auto-Updates
By default, Crush automatically updates the provider database from [Catwalk](https://github.com/charmbracelet/catwalk), the open source Crush provider database.
### Disabling Auto-Updates
For air-gapped or restricted environments:
```json theme={null}
{
"$schema": "https://charm.land/crush.json",
"options": {
"disable_provider_auto_update": true
}
}
```
Or use the environment variable:
```bash theme={null}
export CRUSH_DISABLE_PROVIDER_AUTO_UPDATE=1
```
### Manual Updates
Update providers manually:
```bash theme={null}
# Update from Catwalk
crush update-providers
# Update from custom URL
crush update-providers https://example.com/
# Update from local file
crush update-providers /path/to/local-providers.json
# Reset to embedded version
crush update-providers embedded
```
## Environment Variable Expansion
In configuration files, you can reference environment variables using the `$VARIABLE_NAME` syntax:
```json theme={null}
{
"providers": {
"openai": {
"api_key": "$OPENAI_API_KEY"
}
}
}
```
Crush automatically expands these variables when loading the configuration.
## Next Steps
Learn how to list and select models
Configure tool permissions