Connect a Model Provider

Give your account access to a model with an API key, a provider account, or Claude Code.

A bot needs a model provider to answer, and the provider you connect decides which models your bots can pick. Providers belong to your account, and the server encrypts their keys and sign-ins with your account’s key.

The server ignores provider API keys in its own environment, so OPENAI_API_KEY in your shell does nothing here. All provider settings are in the web app under Settings > Providers.

API Keys

Click Add key next to the provider, paste the key, and save. To replace or remove the key later, open the provider’s More menu.

Keys in a Password Manager

Instead of storing the key in Crumble, you can read it from 1Password or Bitwarden Secrets Manager. Connect the password manager first. Then click Add key, or Replace key in the provider’s More menu, select the password manager, and paste the reference.

Over the API, send reference instead of value to PUT /v1/providers/{provider}:

{
  "reference": {
    "passwordManager": "1password",
    "reference": "op://Vault/OpenAI/key"
  }
}

Crumble reads the reference once to check it. If it can’t, it keeps the previous key. If a model call later can’t read the key, the call fails with a message that names the provider and the password manager’s error.

Provider Accounts

Some providers let you sign in with an account you already have instead of a key, such as ChatGPT, Codex, Claude, or GitHub Copilot. Click Sign in next to the provider, then Start sign-in, and follow the link or code prompt.

Closed the dialog by accident? Click Continue sign-in to pick up where you left off. A sign-in stays open for 10 minutes per prompt and 30 minutes in total.

Claude Code

Claude Code lets your bots use a Claude Pro or Max subscription. It runs the official claude command-line tool on the server, so you sign in from the server’s terminal, not from the browser. Any version of claude works.

1. Find Claude Code in the provider list.
2. Open its menu (⋯), select Copy sign-in command, and run the command on the server.
3. Refresh the provider list.

If the status still says you’re signed out, wait a moment: it can take up to 30 seconds to update. To sign out, select Copy sign-out command in the same menu and run that command on the server.

Each account gets its own Claude Code sign-in, so two accounts on one server never share a subscription.

Claude Code in Docker

The container doesn’t ship with claude. Install it onto the persistent volume once:

docker compose exec crumble sh -c 'mkdir -p /var/lib/crumble/claude-code && cd /var/lib/crumble/claude-code && echo "{\"trustedDependencies\":[\"@anthropic-ai/claude-code\"]}" > package.json && bun add @anthropic-ai/claude-code'

Then run the sign-in command inside the container:

docker compose exec -it crumble sh -c 'PASTE_THE_SIGN_IN_COMMAND_HERE'

Vision Model

Some models can’t read images. The vision model reads images for bots that use one, so you can pick a cheaper or text-only model for a bot and still send it images. It’s off until you choose one in Settings > Vision model, or with PUT /v1/vision-model. The choices are the models your providers reach that read images.

The vision model describes each image once per conversation, and its tokens and cost count toward the conversation’s usage. Bots whose model reads images never use it.

With a provider connected, create your first bot.