AI
AI
AI is where the models that do the thinking come from (module ai). Each connection is a provider, a model and an API key. Agents, briefings, extraction, shop picture retouching and knowledge search all use these connections and need no set-up of their own.
In the sidebar under Agents → AI.
What you see
The page has three tabs: Connections, Model order and Usage.
Connections
One row per model connection you may see: its name and note, the Provider, the Model, what it is Used for, and its state: default, active or disabled, with a warning badge when it is resting after failures, such as "Resting until 14:32 — timed out (3×)".
Every connection has an owner. One you add is yours: only you can use it until you share it, and nobody, an administrator included, sees its key. A Workspace connection is looked after by whoever manages AI. A connection whose owner has left says Owner has left.
Buttons on a row:
- Test: send one request and report what came back.
- Model: ask the provider which models this key can reach, and switch to one.
- Account: ask the provider for the credit left on this key and its details, where the provider gives them.
- Make default: use this one when a job has no model order and names no connection.
- Try now: end a rest and send one test request.
- Share: who else may use it, with limits and prices (see below).
An administrator also sees Rest settings, and on a workspace connection a section to lend it to a client organisation on this instance.
Use of the connections you share shows each person's month on your shared connections, with cost, price and margin, and can be exported as a spreadsheet file. What you used of other people's connections this month shows your side, and an estimate of what a job would be charged before you run it.
Model order
One card per job: Chat and agents, Pictures and documents, Writing, Listening, Speaking, Document reading, Thinking (agents plan with it), Video and, for the workspace only, Search by meaning (embeddings). Each lists the connections to try, first choice first; the rest are backups. Without your own order you use the workspace's. Embeddings follow the workspace order only. Use the workspace order on a card drops your own.
Usage
AI use by connection and by person over a period: calls and tokens. You see your own calls, and every call on a connection you own. Background work shows as Nobody (background work).
Providers and roles
The Provider list includes OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, xAI Grok, OpenRouter, Ollama, Qwen (DashScope), Groq, Mistral and Other (OpenAI-compatible), among others. Ollama and Other are for a model on your own machine or behind your own proxy.
A connection can be ticked Use for one or more roles:
| Role | Used for |
|---|---|
| chat | Agent turns and anything that uses tools. |
| embed | Search by meaning in knowledge and documents. Not a chat model. |
| vision | Reading pictures and PDFs. |
| write | One-shot drafting: briefings, summaries, rewrites. |
| image | Editing pictures, such as the shops' retouch. Needs an image model. |
| listen | Hearing voice notes sent to agents (Groq or OpenAI). |
| speak | Saying an agent's answer out loud (OpenAI). |
| document | Reading statements and receipts exactly as printed (Mistral). A document reader does nothing else. |
| video | Making video. Nothing makes video until one is chosen. |
A job with no model order uses the default connection and the roles ticked on each.
What you can do
Connect your own AI key
- On Connections, press Add connection.
- Give it a Name and choose the Provider.
- Paste the key into API key. It is encrypted and never shown again.
- Choose the Model, or Other — type a model id and fill in Model id.
- Tick the roles it should do. If you manage AI, leave Workspace connection unticked to keep it yours.
- Optionally set Base URL, Can read images, Native tool calls, Timeout (seconds) and Max tools per turn.
- Press Create, then Test on its row.
Share a connection
- Press Share on its row.
- Under Share with, choose a person, a team, or Everyone at your organisation. Press Share.
- On a share you can set limits: a monthly cap in tokens or money, which models they may use, and requests a minute. A team's limit counts each member on their own.
- You can set a price for the connection or one model: the cost plus a percentage, or a price per million tokens. People you share with see what they were charged, never what it cost you.
- To stop, open Share again and press Remove.
Set the order models are tried
- Open Model order and find the job's card.
- Under Add a connection, add the first choice and up to four backups. Use the arrows to reorder.
- Press Save.
Let agents hear and speak
Add a Groq connection with whisper-large-v3-turbo ticked Use for listen, and an OpenAI connection with gpt-4o-mini-tts ticked Use for speak. Put them in the Listening and Speaking orders. Then give an agent a voice on the Agents page.
Read statements with a document reader
Add a Mistral connection with mistral-ocr-latest, tick only the document box, Test it, add it to the Document reading card, and set its page price under AI spend.
Let a failing connection rest
A connection that times out, is overloaded or is rate-limited rests, and its backups answer meanwhile. By default it rests 30, then 60, then 300 seconds. A refused key or bill rests it for an hour. Try now ends a rest. An administrator changes the times under Rest settings.
Who can do what
| Permission | Label | Lets you |
|---|---|---|
ai:read | Use model connections, and add your own | Open the page, use connections shared with you, add and share your own, set your own model order, and see your usage. |
ai:manage | Add and change model connections | Look after workspace connections, set the workspace model order, and share with everyone. Rest settings and lending also need an administrator. |
What happens on its own
Nothing in this module runs on a schedule.
Needs
Nothing else switched on. AI spend prices the calls and holds budgets.
What agents can do
An agent can see connections, test them, change a saved one, add one from a key a person stored under Secrets (never a key typed into chat), and manage sharing. It cannot delete a connection. Read-only tools run at once; the rest ask first under the default rules. Tools marked outside call the provider with the stored key.
- Read-only:
ai.connections,ai.connection,ai.catalogue,ai.order,ai.shares,ai.limits,ai.estimateShare,ai.usage - Reach the provider (outside):
ai.models,ai.check,ai.account - Change:
ai.add,ai.amend,ai.setOrder,ai.share,ai.unshare,ai.setShareLimit,ai.setCustomerPrice - Used inside a model turn, not called directly (read-only):
ai.webSearch(the model's own web search),ai.xSearch(the model's own search of X)
Over MCP the same tools are named ai__connections and so on.
Related
- Agents
- AI spend: what calls cost, and budgets.
- Knowledge: search by meaning needs an embed connection.
- Extraction
- Secrets