Add Provider

Add Provider Skill

Scaffold a new AI provider package and integrate it into the aico CLI.

Arguments

$ARGUMENTS is the provider name (e.g. together, fireworks, deepseek).

Prerequisite: Gather Provider Information

Before writing any code, gather the following:

1. Provider name — lowercase, used as package name and directory name
2. API endpoint — the chat completions URL
3. API compatibility — OpenAI-compatible or custom SDK
4. API key environment variable — e.g. AICO_DEEPSEEK_API_KEY
5. Initial models — at least 1 model to include (model ID, description, pricing)

If the user provides a reference URL, fetch it. Otherwise, search the web for the provider's API documentation.

Step-by-step Procedure

1. Read existing provider implementations

Read at least one complete provider to understand the pattern:

• OpenAI-compatible: read internal/providers/groq/groq.go + one model file (e.g. llama3_3_70b.go)
• Custom SDK: read internal/providers/anthropic/anthropic.go + one model file

Most new providers will be OpenAI-compatible (same API shape as Groq/Cerebras).

2. Create the provider package

Create internal/providers/<provider>/ with:

<provider>.go — Provider main file

Must contain:

• const Endpoint = "https://..." — API endpoint
• const ProviderName = "<provider>" — provider identifier
• func AvailableModels() []assistant.ModelDescriptor — returns all model structs
• func DescribeModel(modelName string) (desc string, found bool) — lookup by name
• func selectModel(modelName string) (assistant.GenerativeModel, bool) — internal switch
• func NewGenerativeModel(modelName, apiKey string) (assistant.GenerativeModel, error) — factory

Template: internal/providers/groq/groq.go

Model files — one per model

Follow the same pattern as the add-model skill. For OpenAI-compatible providers:

package <provider>

import (
    "context"
    "iter"

    "micheam.com/aico/internal/assistant"
    "micheam.com/aico/internal/providers/openai"
)

type ModelStruct struct {
    systemInstruction []*assistant.TextContent
    client            *openai.APIClient
}

var _ assistant.GenerativeModel = (*ModelStruct)(nil)

func NewModelStruct(apiKey string) *ModelStruct {
    return &ModelStruct{client: openai.NewAPIClient(apiKey)}
}

func (m *ModelStruct) Provider() string    { return ProviderName }
func (m *ModelStruct) Name() string        { return "model-id" }
func (m *ModelStruct) Description() string { return `...` }

func (m *ModelStruct) SetSystemInstruction(contents ...*assistant.TextContent) {
    m.systemInstruction = contents
}

func (m *ModelStruct) GenerateContent(ctx context.Context, msgs ...assistant.Message) (*assistant.GenerateContentResponse, error) {
    return openai.GenerateContent(ctx, m.client, Endpoint, m.Name(), m.systemInstruction, msgs)
}

func (m *ModelStruct) GenerateContentStream(ctx context.Context, msgs ...assistant.Message) (iter.Seq2[*assistant.GenerateContentResponse, error], error) {
    return openai.GenerateContentStream(ctx, m.client, Endpoint, m.Name(), m.systemInstruction, msgs)
}

3. Register the provider in CLI

Edit cmd/aico/models.go:

1. Add import: "micheam.com/aico/internal/providers/<provider>"
2. allAvailableModels(): append <provider>.AvailableModels()...
3. validateProviderModel(): add case <provider>.ProviderName:
4. detectProviderByModelSpec(): add to the providers search order slice

Edit cmd/aico/main.go:

1. Add API key flag: define flagAPIKey<Provider> with env source AICO_<PROVIDER>_API_KEY
2. detectModel(): add case <provider>.ProviderName: to the provider switch

4. Update provider prefix detection (if applicable)

In the add-model skill's argument parsing and in any documentation, note the new provider's model name prefix pattern.

5. Build and test

make test

6. Verify with CLI

go run ./cmd/aico models
go run ./cmd/aico models describe <new-model-id>

7. Commit

feat(api): add <Provider Name> provider with <Model Name> support