Base Context resolves providers through their actual API and credential routes. API keys can come from environment variables or the owned auth file. A model catalog entry does not establish subscription entitlement, OAuth-client permission or native context capabilities.
Use only the provider/auth routes authorized for your setup. /login exposes the available configured routes; a fork does not inherit permission to use upstream OAuth clients. Where writable credential storage is supported, it belongs under ~/.base-context/auth.json (or BASE_CONTEXT_HOME), not Prime's root. Login, refresh and logout behavior follows the selected route's permissions.
Do not copy a Prime credential store or enable an API-key billing fallback to bypass a subscription refusal. The offline migration command excludes credentials.
An existing authorized OpenAI Codex subscription can be supplied to an individual SDK instance through an explicitly injected read-only backend. See SDK authentication.
That mode uses the official openai-codex / openai-codex-responses route. It refuses missing, stale or expired credentials and disables login, refresh, credential writes and API-key fallback. Keep the backend outside tools. This is an instance-scoped permission, not a global OAuth-client approval or an OpenAI endorsement of this fork.
Use this route only where the exact client and account are authorized. This guide does not establish Claude subscription access, included usage or billing terms for the fork. An Anthropic API key is a separate credential route.
If the authorized Copilot login route is available, use the correct github.com or GitHub Enterprise domain. Model availability also depends on the account and enabled models. This guide does not grant the fork access to a Copilot subscription.
Use /login in interactive mode and select a provider to store an API key in auth.json, or set credentials via environment variable:
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
base-context| Provider | Environment Variable | auth.json key |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | ANTHROPIC_API_KEY |
anthropic |
| Azure OpenAI Responses | AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY |
azure-openai-responses |
| OpenAI | OPENAI_API_KEY |
openai |
| Prime Inference | PRIME_API_KEY |
prime-inference |
| DeepSeek | DEEPSEEK_API_KEY |
deepseek |
| Google Gemini | GEMINI_API_KEY |
google |
| Mistral | MISTRAL_API_KEY |
mistral |
| Groq | GROQ_API_KEY |
groq |
| Cerebras | CEREBRAS_API_KEY |
cerebras |
| Cloudflare AI Gateway | CLOUDFLARE_API_KEY (+ CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID, CLOUDFLARE_GATEWAY_ID) |
cloudflare-ai-gateway |
| Cloudflare Workers AI | CLOUDFLARE_API_KEY (+ CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID) |
cloudflare-workers-ai |
| xAI | XAI_API_KEY |
xai |
| OpenRouter | OPENROUTER_API_KEY |
openrouter |
| Vercel AI Gateway | AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY |
vercel-ai-gateway |
| ZAI | ZAI_API_KEY |
zai |
| OpenCode Zen | OPENCODE_API_KEY |
opencode |
| OpenCode Go | OPENCODE_API_KEY |
opencode-go |
| Hugging Face | HF_TOKEN |
huggingface |
| Fireworks | FIREWORKS_API_KEY |
fireworks |
| Kimi For Coding | KIMI_API_KEY |
kimi-coding |
| MiniMax | MINIMAX_API_KEY |
minimax |
| MiniMax (China) | MINIMAX_CN_API_KEY |
minimax-cn |
| Xiaomi MiMo | XIAOMI_API_KEY |
xiaomi |
| Xiaomi MiMo Token Plan (China) | XIAOMI_TOKEN_PLAN_CN_API_KEY |
xiaomi-token-plan-cn |
| Xiaomi MiMo Token Plan (Amsterdam) | XIAOMI_TOKEN_PLAN_AMS_API_KEY |
xiaomi-token-plan-ams |
| Xiaomi MiMo Token Plan (Singapore) | XIAOMI_TOKEN_PLAN_SGP_API_KEY |
xiaomi-token-plan-sgp |
Reference for environment variables and auth.json keys: env-api-keys.ts.
Store credentials in the owned ~/.base-context/auth.json (BASE_CONTEXT_HOME selects another product root):
{
"anthropic": { "type": "api_key", "key": "sk-ant-..." },
"openai": { "type": "api_key", "key": "sk-..." },
"prime-inference": { "type": "api_key", "key": "..." },
"deepseek": { "type": "api_key", "key": "sk-..." },
"google": { "type": "api_key", "key": "..." },
"opencode": { "type": "api_key", "key": "..." },
"opencode-go": { "type": "api_key", "key": "..." },
"xiaomi": { "type": "api_key", "key": "..." },
"xiaomi-token-plan-cn": { "type": "api_key", "key": "..." },
"xiaomi-token-plan-ams": { "type": "api_key", "key": "..." },
"xiaomi-token-plan-sgp": { "type": "api_key", "key": "..." }
}The file is created with 0600 permissions (user read/write only). Auth file credentials take priority over environment variables.
The key field supports three formats:
- Shell command:
"!command"executes and uses stdout (cached for process lifetime){ "type": "api_key", "key": "!security find-generic-password -ws 'anthropic'" } { "type": "api_key", "key": "!op read 'op://vault/item/credential'" } - Environment variable: Uses the value of the named variable
{ "type": "api_key", "key": "MY_ANTHROPIC_KEY" } - Literal value: Used directly
{ "type": "api_key", "key": "sk-ant-..." }
Writable OAuth storage is used only when the configured route permits it. The read-only existing-Codex subscription mode does not write this file or refresh credentials. Shell-backed API-key entries execute commands; use only trusted local configuration, never unreviewed imported instructions.
Prime Inference uses the OpenAI-compatible endpoint at https://api.pinference.ai/api/v1. Set PRIME_API_KEY or store an API key for prime-inference via /login.
export AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY=...
export AZURE_OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://your-resource.openai.azure.com
# also supported: https://your-resource.cognitiveservices.azure.com
# root endpoints are auto-normalized to /openai/v1
# or use resource name instead of base URL
export AZURE_OPENAI_RESOURCE_NAME=your-resource
# Optional
export AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION=2024-02-01
export AZURE_OPENAI_DEPLOYMENT_NAME_MAP=gpt-4=my-gpt4,gpt-4o=my-gpt4o# Option 1: AWS Profile
export AWS_PROFILE=your-profile
# Option 2: IAM Keys
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=AKIA...
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=...
# Option 3: Bearer Token
export AWS_BEARER_TOKEN_BEDROCK=...
# Optional region (defaults to us-east-1)
export AWS_REGION=us-west-2Also supports ECS task roles (AWS_CONTAINER_CREDENTIALS_*) and IRSA (AWS_WEB_IDENTITY_TOKEN_FILE).
base-context --provider amazon-bedrock --model us.anthropic.claude-sonnet-4-20250514-v1:0Prompt caching is enabled automatically for Claude models whose ID contains a recognizable model name (base models and system-defined inference profiles). For application inference profiles (whose ARNs don't contain the model name), set AWS_BEDROCK_FORCE_CACHE=1 to enable cache points:
export AWS_BEDROCK_FORCE_CACHE=1
base-context --provider amazon-bedrock --model arn:aws:bedrock:us-east-1:123456789012:application-inference-profile/abc123If you are connecting to a Bedrock API proxy, the following environment variables can be used:
# Set the URL for the Bedrock proxy (standard AWS SDK env var)
export AWS_ENDPOINT_URL_BEDROCK_RUNTIME=https://my.corp.proxy/bedrock
# Set if your proxy does not require authentication
export AWS_BEDROCK_SKIP_AUTH=1
# Set if your proxy only supports HTTP/1.1
export AWS_BEDROCK_FORCE_HTTP1=1CLOUDFLARE_API_KEY can be set via /login. The account ID and gateway slug must be set as environment variables.
export CLOUDFLARE_API_KEY=... # or use /login
export CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID=...
export CLOUDFLARE_GATEWAY_ID=... # create at dash.cloudflare.com → AI → AI Gateway
base-context --provider cloudflare-ai-gateway --model "claude-sonnet-4-5"Routes to OpenAI and Anthropic through Cloudflare AI Gateway. OpenAI uses the OpenAI passthrough route (/openai) with native OpenAI model IDs such as gpt-5.1. Anthropic uses the Anthropic passthrough route (/anthropic) with native Anthropic model IDs such as claude-sonnet-4-5. Cloudflare-hosted @cf/... models are available through the separate cloudflare-workers-ai provider.
AI Gateway authentication uses CLOUDFLARE_API_KEY as cf-aig-authorization. Upstream authentication can be one of:
| Mode | Request auth | Upstream auth |
|---|---|---|
| Workers AI | Cloudflare token only | Cloudflare-native |
| Unified billing | Cloudflare token only | Cloudflare handles upstream auth and deducts credits |
| Stored BYOK | Cloudflare token only | Cloudflare injects provider keys stored in the AI Gateway dashboard |
| Inline BYOK | Cloudflare token plus upstream Authorization header |
The request supplies the upstream provider key |
For normal Base Context usage, prefer unified billing or stored BYOK. Inline BYOK requires configuring an additional upstream Authorization header for the Cloudflare AI Gateway provider, for example via a models.json provider/model override.
CLOUDFLARE_API_KEY can be set via /login. CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID must be set as an environment variable.
export CLOUDFLARE_API_KEY=... # or use /login
export CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID=...
base-context --provider cloudflare-workers-ai --model "@cf/moonshotai/kimi-k2.6"Base Context automatically sets x-session-affinity for prefix caching discounts.
Uses Application Default Credentials:
gcloud auth application-default login
export GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT=your-project
export GOOGLE_CLOUD_LOCATION=us-central1Or set GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS to a service account key file.
Via models.json: Add Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM, or any provider that speaks a supported API (OpenAI Completions, OpenAI Responses, Anthropic Messages, Google Generative AI). See models.md.
Via extensions: For providers that need custom API implementations or OAuth flows, create an extension. See custom-provider.md and examples/extensions/custom-provider-gitlab-duo.
When resolving credentials for a provider:
- CLI
--api-keyflag auth.jsonentry (API key or OAuth token)- Environment variable
- Custom provider keys from
models.json