Bring your own key
corein is free and non-profit. The model behind it costs money, and the developer pays for a starting allowance per account (the app shows the relay's current figures). When it is gone, there are two ways on that need nothing from corein: a key of your own at a model provider, or a plan you already pay for (ChatGPT, Claude, Kimi) signed in from the app.
Every client reads the same list of providers, with what each one covers: chat, the hands (a model that sees screenshots), pictures (the avatar studio) and clips (the avatar's short videos). A feature no configured provider covers is simply not offered, with one sentence saying which providers would; nothing breaks.
Your sign-in, your invite code and your devices are not affected: the account stays, only the model provider changes. Nothing you say passes through corein Cloud once your own key or plan is in use.
Where you are decides who comes first
| First | What one key there covers | |
|---|---|---|
| Mainland China | Alibaba Cloud Bailian | chat, the hands, pictures and clips, all four under one key |
| Everywhere else | OpenRouter, then OpenAI | chat, the hands and pictures; clips are Bailian only for now |
Bailian only signs up accounts with a mainland Chinese identity; outside, one OpenRouter account puts hundreds of models behind one key, pay as you go. Beyond the first pick, every provider below works on its own or beside another: DeepSeek for the chat and Zhipu for pictures, say.
Four jobs, four settings, one page: Settings › Models on Android, the iPhone and the desktop, the Connections page in the web console. The rows are Chat, Operating the screen, Making pictures and Making clips; each shows provider · model and opens a picker that lists only the models that can do that job (the screen needs a model that sees images). On the iPhone the screen row is disabled (Not on iPhone): a phone cannot operate its own screen, and your computer uses its own setting. Which model does what below has the details.
What each provider covers
Chat = the conversation; hands = reading screenshots to operate the phone or the computer; pictures = the avatar studio's images; clips = the avatar's short videos.
| Provider | Chat | Hands | Pictures | Clips | Region | Make a key |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alibaba Cloud Bailian | ● | ● | ● | ● | mainland China | bailian.console.aliyun.com |
| DeepSeek | ● | ● | both | platform.deepseek.com | ||
| Kimi (Moonshot AI) | ● | ● | both (a mainland and a global edition) | platform.moonshot.cn · platform.kimi.ai | ||
| Zhipu GLM | ● | ● | ● | mainland China | open.bigmodel.cn | |
| SiliconFlow | ● | ● | ● | mainland China | cloud.siliconflow.cn | |
| Volcengine Ark (Doubao) | ● | ● | ● | mainland China | console.volcengine.com | |
| MiniMax | ● | ● | both (a mainland and a global edition) | platform.minimaxi.com | ||
| OpenRouter | ● | ● | ● | outside mainland China | openrouter.ai/keys | |
| OpenAI | ● | ● | ● | outside mainland China | platform.openai.com | |
| Anthropic Claude | ● | ● | outside mainland China | platform.claude.com | ||
| Google Gemini | ● | ● | ● | outside mainland China | aistudio.google.com | |
| xAI Grok | ● | ● | ● | outside mainland China | console.x.ai | |
| Groq | ● | ● | outside mainland China | console.groq.com | ||
| Mistral AI | ● | ● | outside mainland China | console.mistral.ai | ||
| OpenCode Zen | ● | outside mainland China | opencode.ai/auth | |||
| OpenCode Go | ● | outside mainland China | opencode.ai/auth | |||
| Standard Compute | ● | outside mainland China | standardcompute.com | |||
| Ollama / LM Studio / vLLM (on your machine) | ● | both | no key |
Only Bailian has a dot under Clips because corein's clip generation speaks Bailian's video API; the other vendors' video models sit behind their own task APIs, not wired this round. Under Pictures, OpenRouter goes through its Image API with models such as openai/gpt-image-2; Gemini uses gemini-2.5-flash-image.
The table is the repository's catalogue, nanomuse/llm/providers.json: every client and the relay read it; endpoints, default models and what each covers are in there, checked against each vendor's documentation in October 2026.
Making a key
The same three steps everywhere: sign up → create an API key in the console → paste it into corein. The key is for corein only; never send it to anyone or paste it into a chat.
- Alibaba Cloud Bailian. Sign in to bailian.console.aliyun.com with an Alibaba Cloud account (identity verification is required), accept Enable Model Studio on first entry, then create a key on the API-KEY page; it starts with
sk-. A new account comes with free tokens for a while. Set a usage alert in the console. - DeepSeek. Sign up, add credit and create a key at platform.deepseek.com; base URL
https://api.deepseek.com/v1. - Kimi. The mainland edition is platform.moonshot.cn, base URL
https://api.moonshot.cn/v1; the global one is platform.kimi.ai, base URLhttps://api.moonshot.ai/v1. Accounts and keys are not shared between the two. - Zhipu GLM. open.bigmodel.cn, base URL
https://open.bigmodel.cn/api/paas/v4. - SiliconFlow. cloud.siliconflow.cn, base URL
https://api.siliconflow.cn/v1; model ids carry the vendor prefix, e.g.deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4-Flash. - Volcengine Ark. console.volcengine.com: enable the models you want in Ark, then create a key; base URL
https://ark.cn-beijing.volces.com/api/v3. - MiniMax. Mainland edition at platform.minimaxi.com, base URL
https://api.minimaxi.com/v1; the global base URL ishttps://api.minimax.io/v1. - OpenRouter. Sign in at openrouter.ai with Google, GitHub or an e-mail address, add credit under Credits, create a key under Keys; it starts with
sk-or-v1-. Settings → Limits puts a monthly cap on a key. - OpenAI. platform.openai.com, base URL
https://api.openai.com/v1. - Anthropic. platform.claude.com. corein speaks Anthropic's own API; no compatibility layer is needed.
- Google Gemini. aistudio.google.com/apikey, base URL
https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai. - xAI, Groq, Mistral. A key from each console; base URLs
https://api.x.ai/v1,https://api.groq.com/openai/v1,https://api.mistral.ai/v1. - OpenCode Zen. A key from opencode.ai/auth; pay per request from a balance, a few models are free. Base URL
https://opencode.ai/zen/v1. Only the models on the OpenAI shape are reached, so chat and no hands: the vision model OpenCode lists,deepseek-v4-flash-vision-exp, is an id DeepSeek has retired on its own platform. OpenCode publishes no plan sign-in, only a key, so there is nothing to sign in with here. - OpenCode Go. The subscription on the same host: Go ($10 a month) or Go Plus ($40) in the OpenCode console, then a key from opencode.ai/auth. Base URL
https://opencode.ai/zen/go/v1. Usage is counted per model against monthly, weekly and five hour limits. OpenCode means Go for coding agents and asks a client to name itself and to send one stable id per conversation inx-opencode-session(its Go page, under Can I use Go with other coding agents?). The runtime (and so the web console) sendscorein/<version>as its user agent and the conversation's id in that header on every Go request; a call outside a conversation, such as the connection test, carries an id of its own. The desktop writes Go as its model adapter's own OpenCode Go route, which sends the same header and reaches each model on its own shape: the desktop offers the models that route's catalog lists, those on the Responses and Messages shapes included; elsewhere only the OpenAI shape is reached. The phone apps send it too, on chat and Responses requests to OpenCode's host: the id is the chat's prompt cache key, a hash of its first message that stays the same across its turns (two chats that open with the very same words share one). Chat only, for the same reason as Zen. - Standard Compute. A key from standardcompute.com/dashboard/api-keys; a fixed monthly plan from $19 with a monthly compute budget, and once it is used, requests stop with 402 (no overage charges). Base URL
https://api.stdcmpt.com/v1. The default model,standardcompute, is a router that picks a model for each request from the ones enabled on the account's Models page; any id fromhttps://api.stdcmpt.com/v1/modelscan be set instead. Chat only: the router's entry in that list declares no picture input, so the hands are not claimed.
Paste it into corein.
- Phone: Set it up on the allowance card opens the provider form pre-filled; or Settings → Providers → Add, pick the provider, paste the key, save.
- Desktop: Set it up on the allowance card opens Settings → corein Cloud at the provider's row; or paste the key on that provider's row under Ways on there. The address is already filled in.
- Web console: Set it up on the allowance card opens Connections with the provider chosen; or Connections → Chat model, click the provider, paste the key, save.
- A runtime of your own:
[llm] provider = "bailian"(any id from the table) andapi_keyinconfig.toml; the address and the default model fill in from the catalogue. Pictures or clips from another provider are an[image]/[video]block (configuration.md).
Use it for. Once the key is saved, a card asks what this key should handle: one switch per job the provider can do (chat, operating the screen, making pictures, making clips), all on. Use it moves those rows to this provider, on the catalogue's default model for each job (or the first model of its list that fits); Not now changes nothing, and so does a switch you turned off. Signed in, the card says corein Cloud keeps the rest. Every row can be changed later under Settings › Models (web console: Connections).
Which model does what
Settings › Models (Android: the card at the top of Settings; iPhone: the first card of Settings; desktop: right after General; web console: the Chat model, Hands model, Making pictures and Making clips cards on Connections) has one row per job:
| Row | What it does | Who is listed |
|---|---|---|
| Chat | The model that talks with you. | corein Cloud's chat models while signed in and switched on, then every provider of yours with chat models |
| Operating the screen | Looks at the screen and acts for you. Needs a model that can see images. | corein Cloud's hands model, then your providers' models that see images; disabled on the iPhone (Not on iPhone) |
| Making pictures | Portraits of your Muse and the pictures you ask for. | corein Cloud, then your providers with image models |
| Making clips | Short clips of your Muse. | corein Cloud, then your providers with video models (Bailian) |
Each row shows provider · model and opens a picker: the corein Cloud group first while signed in, its recommended model marked, then one group per provider of yours holding only the models that fit. A provider without the capability does not appear in that row at all. A row nothing covers shows the one sentence naming who could, and Add a provider. A chat pick is the default for new chats and moves the main chat (Applies to the main chat and to new chats; a side chat keeps its model.): the main chat is the one conversation the Chat tab always shows and is never new, so it would otherwise stay on the provider it started with; a side chat already open keeps its model. A chat that has not been written to yet takes the pick as well: the main chat right after a sign-in (the account starts with an empty one), or a new chat you opened and left. So what the Chat row names is what answers the next message you send, in the main chat and in a new one, whichever source you came from: a plan you signed in with (ChatGPT, Claude, Kimi), a key of yours or corein Cloud; a sign-in never steps in front of a pick. The same on the phones and the desktop. A group of yours picked in a chat's own picker (a row of the ••• menu, or a model under it) becomes the default as it is, never reordered, and the main chat follows it with the model the chat resolved; only a group named after a provider and holding that provider alone is led with the pick, as a pick on the Models page does. On the phones, where a model group of yours can carry a default thinking level (All settings › Model Groups on the iPhone, Model Groups from the chat's picker on Android), the main chat takes that level along when it follows the pick, as a new chat and the chat's own picker do.
Automatic. The screen, pictures and clips rows open with an Automatic entry that says what it gives right now (Currently corein Cloud · qwen3.8-27b, say). Pick it and the row forgets any choice made there and follows one order: the chat model's provider when it is one of yours and can do the job (its catalogue default), else corein Cloud while signed in and switched on, else the first provider of yours that can. A choice you made always wins; corein Cloud never steps in front of a provider you chose. Each device keeps its own choice, because keys never leave the device where they were entered.
No silent fallback. When a model of your own fails under a turn, nothing switches by itself: the error card offers Use corein Cloud this time (signed in only), which runs that one turn on the account's model and changes no row. The desktop shows the same button after a failed studio round and a failed set of clips.
Thinking level (desktop). The composer's model picker offers a thinking level for a model of yours where the vendor documents one, in the vendor's own shape: DeepSeek, Kimi (kimi-k3), Zhipu (GLM-5.2 and 5.3), SiliconFlow and Volcengine (their DeepSeek-V4 and GLM-5.2 ids, Doubao Seed 2), MiniMax (M3.1), OpenRouter (the levels its model list gives per model), OpenAI (the o-series, GPT-5 onwards), Anthropic (Claude 4.6 onwards), Gemini through its OpenAI layer, xAI (Grok 4.5 onwards), Groq, Mistral, and gpt-oss on Ollama or vLLM. The levels are the vendor's (low, high, max for DeepSeek, say), and Provider default sends no level at all, so the model thinks the way its vendor documents. There is no Off entry: with these vendors, turning thinking off is a different switch or a different model. A model nobody documents a level for shows no control, as do Bailian (its switch is enable_thinking, which cannot be left unsent), LM Studio and a custom endpoint. A key saved before this build gets the control at the next start.
Switching corein Cloud off. While signed in, the Models page has one switch, Use corein Cloud models. Off, the Cloud leaves the pickers and the automatic order, no side call (a chat's title, memory, a portrait, the hands) runs on it, and the only thing that spends your allowance is the Use corein Cloud this time button, each time you tap it. You stay signed in: sync, your devices and the account page keep working. The Cloud provider cannot be deleted the way one of yours can (deleting it was the same as signing out); signing out is under Settings › corein Cloud.
Without an account. With a key of your own the app works signed out: chat, the hands, pictures and clips run on your providers, and the first screen offers Use your own API key instead next to the sign-in. The sign-in is needed only for corein Cloud's models, conversation sync and your devices reaching each other.
Known limits. On the iPhone the pictures and clips rows list, besides corein Cloud, only your providers on a DashScope host (Alibaba Cloud Bailian); a key the catalogue says can draw (OpenRouter, OpenAI, Gemini, a custom endpoint) is named in one sentence under the picker, Not offered here: …, with where it does work, so you know the phone has not lost it. On the desktop the hands speak OpenAI's shape, so an Anthropic or native Gemini key is named under the screen row and not listed; a hands change takes effect at the hands' next step, no restart. Pictures through a Gemini key go through Google's OpenAI-compatible layer: images/generations accepts gemini-2.5-flash-image, but Google's page does not document images/edits there, so the pose pictures of the avatar studio may not work with a Gemini key.
Sign in with a plan you already pay for
Some plans sign in directly, with no key to make:
| Plan | Covers | Where the sign-in is |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT (Plus / Pro / Team) | chat, the hands | Android, iPhone, desktop, web |
| Claude (Pro / Max) | chat, the hands | Android, iPhone |
| Kimi | chat, the hands | Android, iPhone (device code) |
| OpenRouter | chat, the hands, pictures | Android, iPhone (one tap; the key comes back to the app) |
The ChatGPT sign-in uses the authorisation flow of OpenAI's own Codex (web console: Connections → Or sign in with a ChatGPT plan; desktop: the ChatGPT row under Settings → corein Cloud; phone: Settings → Providers → OpenAI → Sign in). Signed in, it covers chat and the hands only: the Codex backend has no image or video endpoints, so pictures and clips still want a key.
From a terminal it is the same flow: nanomuse chatgpt login opens the page and waits for the browser to come back, nanomuse chatgpt status says who is signed in and until when, nanomuse chatgpt logout forgets it; then [llm] provider = "chatgpt" in config.toml (no base_url, no api_key; an empty model is gpt-5.6-sol). The browser has to reach port 1455 on the machine the runtime runs on; when the runtime is elsewhere, copy the whole address the browser ends on and give it to the CLI's prompt or to POST /api/chatgpt/callback {"url": …} (configuration.md).
A proxy or VPN on the phone can swallow the callback. On Android the sign-in page sends the browser back to http://localhost:1455/auth/callback, which only the app on the same phone answers. A proxy or VPN app (Clash, for example) that routes every address into its tunnel, or whose DNS answers for localhost, takes that address too; the browser shows a connection error and the app keeps waiting. Two ways through: add localhost and 127.0.0.1 to the proxy app's bypass (direct) list and sign in again, or copy the address of the error page and paste it into the box that appears under Sign in after about ten seconds (at once when the phone's proxy settings would take the address); Continue hands the code to the waiting sign-in without going through the proxy. The same box appears for the Anthropic, xAI and OpenRouter sign-ins, which use the same kind of redirect; the Kimi sign-in uses a device code and does not need it.
One honest line. OpenAI's terms cover using a ChatGPT plan inside OpenAI's own Codex; other apps have had this access cut off before (OpenCode, January 2026). If it stops working, an API key does.
When the provider cannot be reached
Some networks do not get to chatgpt.com at all (the name does not resolve, the connection times out, TLS fails, an HTML interception page comes back where JSON was due), and in some regions OpenAI refuses outright (HTTP 403 unsupported_country_region_territory). The chat on the phone then shows a card, not the socket's words: what happened (chatgpt.com cannot be reached from this network or OpenAI does not serve this region), what helps (a VPN on this phone; the app's own proxy under Settings → Network; another provider with a key of your own), a Try again button, and the raw line behind Details for a bug report. An expired sign-in (401) reads The ChatGPT sign-in is no longer valid with Sign in again; a plan whose window is spent (a 429 that names a usage limit) reads The ChatGPT plan has nothing left for now with OpenAI's own sentence and when it resets; any other 429 is Too many requests at once. A key of your own that meets the same network trouble gets the same card with that provider's host in it.
Settings → Network → HTTP proxy for own providers (Android and iPhone): host, port, an optional user name and password; off by default, kept on this phone only. Only the requests to the providers you added with your own key and to the ChatGPT plan go through it; corein Cloud, your computers and the local network never do. A Test row fetches https://chatgpt.com/ through the proxy as entered and says whether it got through and in how many milliseconds. The same setting lives where each app keeps its keys: the phones have it in the provider form; the desktop under Settings → corein Cloud → Network, one address (http://host:port or socks5://host:port) that the app applies to its host process at the next start (Restart now is under the row), so every own key, the ChatGPT sign-in, the hands' runtime and whatever else the app sends out go through it, and corein Cloud never does (desktop.md); the web app has the Proxy field in the own-key form; the runtime has [llm] proxy in config.toml (configuration.md).
Local models
Ollama, LM Studio and vLLM on your own computer work too: pick the preset (web console: Connections; desktop: Settings → corein Cloud; phone: Settings → Providers); the address defaults to the local port (http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1, :1234, :8000) and no key is needed. They count as chat; the hands need a model that sees, so run a multimodal one locally (Ollama's qwen3-vl, say) and pick it under Operating the screen (web console: the Hands model row under Chat model lists what the endpoint serves; pick it there). Pictures and clips need one of the providers in the table.
Any other OpenAI-compatible endpoint
Anything that speaks the OpenAI API works; choose Custom:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Base URL | the provider's address, usually ending in /v1; the runtime, the web console and the desktop refuse an address with user:pass@ in it (the key has its own field) |
| API key | the key made in the provider's console (a local server may leave it empty) |
| Model | pick from the list after saving; if the endpoint does not list its models, the form asks for their ids (comma-separated) and saves with those |
What a custom endpoint covers is yours to say: corein takes it for chat, and the hands, picture and clip models count once their ids are filled in.
Several at once. On the desktop app and in the web console the custom endpoints are a list, not one slot (#294): each one you add keeps its own key and its own models, and adding a second never replaces the first. On the desktop, Settings → Account → Any OpenAI-compatible endpoint shows one row per endpoint (its name over its host, with Change key, Rename and Remove) and an Add an endpoint row under them; the model pickers on Settings → Models list each endpoint as a group of its own. In the web console, Connections → Chat model shows one tile per endpoint under Local or your own endpoint with Add an endpoint last; the hands, pictures and clips pickers list the endpoints too (web.md). A custom endpoint set before the list existed becomes its first entry, key and all, the next time the app starts. The phones keep one slot per provider.