AI providers
A provider is the LLM engine that runs your agents. arka-deck supports several and lets you freely choose per session.
Shipped providers
Section titled “Shipped providers”| Provider | Authentication | Available models | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Code (Anthropic) | OAuth through the claude binary | sonnet, opus, haiku | beta |
| Google Gemini | API key | gemini-2.5-flash, gemini-2.5-flash-lite, gemini-2.5-pro | beta |
| Codex CLI (OpenAI) | OAuth through the codex binary | managed by Codex CLI | beta |
Each provider keeps its native capabilities: modes, permissions, functions, reasoning. arka-deck adds a common orchestration, memory and governance layer on top, without hiding specifics.
Configure a provider
Section titled “Configure a provider”Open Settings → Providers in the application.
- Choose the provider to configure
- Paste your API key (or follow the OAuth flow if requested)
- Select the model(s) you will use
- Test the connection (fast check or live test)
You can configure several instances of the same provider (e.g. two Gemini keys for two environments).
Key security
Section titled “Key security”| Guarantee | Mechanism |
|---|---|
| No plain-text key on disk | AES-256-GCM encryption in ~/.arka-deck/providers/providers.db |
| Key never returned to UI | The app only shows “key configured” |
| No unsolicited external transmission | Only the live test (that you trigger) sends the key to the provider |
| Master key protected | secrets.key file in mode 600 under ~/.arka-deck/secrets/ |
If you delete ~/.arka-deck/secrets/secrets.key, keys become unrecoverable (at next launch you must re-enter them). This is intentional — no external recovery.
Choose a model
Section titled “Choose a model”| Use case | Recommended model |
|---|---|
| Complex task, reasoning, code | sonnet, opus, gemini-2.5-pro |
| Structured drafting, extraction | gemini-2.5-flash, sonnet |
| Short analysis, classification | haiku, gemini-2.5-flash-lite |
You can change model per session. Cost and speed vary significantly.
Add a new provider
Section titled “Add a new provider”The addon contract is stabilized to eventually allow third-party providers. For today, production providers stay first-party and explicitly wired.
To add a provider, see the dev tutorial write a provider.
What next?
Section titled “What next?”- Understand related concepts: 03-concepts
- Check the global security posture: 07-securite-et-donnees