Models
The model catalog, model tiers, and connecting your own provider account with bring-your-own-key.
Every agent runs on a model from the model catalog. Browse and assign models from the dashboard's Models page, or from the model drawer on an agent.
Model catalog
The catalog holds two kinds of entries:
- System defaults — global models maintained by KlicForge, available to every workspace.
- Custom models (BYOK) — models you add with your own API key, scoped to your workspace.
Model tiers
System models are grouped into tiers, and access is gated by your plan's capability tier. Higher tiers unlock more capable models. The dashboard shows a lock and an upgrade prompt on models above your current tier.
Choosing a model
| Use case | Look for |
|---|---|
| Simple FAQ agents, lowest cost, fastest response | A fast, lower-tier model |
| General-purpose agents | The balanced default tier — the best fit for most agents |
| Complex decisions, multi-step reasoning | A higher-tier reasoning model |
| Multi-language agents | A model with strong non-English support |
| Document-heavy agents needing very large context | A model with an extended context window |
Pair model choice with temperature (0.0–1.0): lower values produce more precise, repeatable answers; higher values are more conversational. Support and factual agents generally want 0.1–0.4.
Reasoning effort
Some models can work through a problem internally before they answer. On those models, the agent's model drawer shows a Reasoning effort setting with three levels:
| Level | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Low | Straightforward questions where speed and cost matter more than depth |
| Medium | A middle ground — more care than Low without Low's ceiling |
| High | Multi-step decisions, ambiguous requests, anything the agent gets wrong today |
More effort means a slower, more expensive answer, so raise it only where the extra care earns its keep. Leave it unset and the model reasons at its own default depth — a reasoning-capable model thinks through a request whether or not you pick a level, so the setting steers how much reasoning happens rather than whether it happens at all.
The setting only appears on models that support it — pick a different model and it disappears, and the agent goes back to that model's default behaviour. The agent's internal reasoning is never shown to the person chatting, whichever level you choose — KlicForge actively watches for reasoning that leaks into a reply and rewrites the answer before it goes out, so an occasional slower or re-worded response from a reasoning-capable model is this working, not a fault. There is no separate switch to turn reasoning off; pick a model that does not reason if the extra latency is not worth it.
Bring your own key (BYOK)
Custom models route an agent to your own LLM provider account — useful for a specific model, your own rate limits, or your own billing relationship with a provider.
Supported providers
| Provider | API key required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| OpenRouter | Yes | |
| OpenAI | Yes | |
| Ollama | No | Self-hosted; point at your own base URL |
KlicForge's own platform-billed providers are not available for BYOK.
Requirements
Creating custom models requires the Pro capability tier (Business plan or higher), and is restricted to workspace owners and admins.
Adding a custom model
- Go to Settings → Models.
- Select Add custom model and choose a provider.
- Enter the model label, provider model ID, your API key (for OpenRouter or OpenAI), and an optional base URL.
- Set capabilities — chat, image generation, video generation — plus input and output modalities and metadata such as context window and description.
- Save. The model becomes available for assignment to any of your agents.
How API keys are handled
- Keys are write-only — the dashboard only ever shows whether credentials are set, never the key itself.
- On edit, the key field is masked; select Rotate key to enter a new one.
- Keys are encrypted at rest and used only transiently to authenticate outbound requests to the provider. They are never logged or stored in plaintext.