drug-discovery-prompts/upstream/K-Dense-AI-scientific-agent-skills/skills/pi-agent/references/custom-provider.md

title, task, lineage_type, upstream_source, upstream_sha, imported_at, prompt_class, upstream_changes, author, validated

title	task	lineage_type	upstream_source	upstream_sha	imported_at	prompt_class	upstream_changes	author	validated
Custom Providers		import	https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills/blob/9c9bd2e9/skills/pi-agent/references/custom-provider.md	9c9bd2e9	2026-06-27	prompt	accepted	upstream	false

Custom Providers

Source: https://pi.dev/docs/latest/custom-provider

Extensions can register providers with pi.registerProvider() for proxies, private deployments, OAuth/SSO, and non-standard streaming APIs.

Quick Reference

import type { ExtensionAPI } from "@earendil-works/pi-coding-agent";

export default function (pi: ExtensionAPI) {
  pi.registerProvider("anthropic", { baseUrl: "https://proxy.example.com" });

  pi.registerProvider("my-provider", {
    name: "My Provider",
    baseUrl: "https://api.example.com",
    apiKey: "$MY_API_KEY",
    api: "openai-completions",
    models: [{
      id: "my-model",
      name: "My Model",
      reasoning: false,
      input: ["text", "image"],
      cost: { input: 0, output: 0, cacheRead: 0, cacheWrite: 0 },
      contextWindow: 128000,
      maxTokens: 4096
    }]
  });
}

Use an async extension factory for dynamic model discovery so models are available during startup and pi --list-models.

Overrides and New Providers

When only baseUrl and/or headers are provided, existing models for a built-in provider are preserved. When models is provided, it replaces dynamic models for that provider.

pi.unregisterProvider(name) removes dynamic models, API key fallback, OAuth registration, and custom stream handlers, restoring built-in behavior where relevant.

API Types

Common values: anthropic-messages, openai-completions, openai-responses, azure-openai-responses, openai-codex-responses, mistral-conversations, google-generative-ai, google-vertex, bedrock-converse-stream.

Most OpenAI-compatible providers work with openai-completions; use compat for quirks and thinkingLevelMap for model-specific thinking levels.

Auth Header and Secrets

Set authHeader: true to add Authorization: Bearer <apiKey>. apiKey and custom header values use !command, $ENV, ${ENV}, $$, and $! resolution like models.json.

OAuth

Register oauth with login(callbacks), refreshToken(credentials), getApiKey(credentials), and optional modifyModels(models, credentials). Credentials persist in ~/.pi/agent/auth.json with refresh, access, and expires fields. Users authenticate with /login provider-name.

Callbacks include onAuth, onDeviceCode, onPrompt, and onSelect.

Custom Streaming

For non-standard APIs, implement streamSimple(model, context, options). Create an AssistantMessage, push { type: "start", partial }, push content events as data arrives, then push { type: "done", reason, message } or { type: "error", reason, error }, and end the stream.

Content events include text_start, text_delta, text_end, thinking_start, thinking_delta, thinking_end, toolcall_start, toolcall_delta, and toolcall_end. Keep partial updated with the current assistant message state.

For tool calls, accumulate JSON deltas, parse into { id, name, arguments }, and end with toolcall_end.

Testing

Test provider registration with pi --list-models, authenticate through /login or env vars, run a simple prompt, then exercise tools, thinking levels, image input, cache behavior, retry behavior, and context overflow errors.