Chapter 3 of 14

Getting Connected

Freddy is scaffolded but the brain isn't wired yet. This chapter is the shortest and the most consequential: providers, models, and thinking levels decide the cost and quality of every session that follows.

The problem

Most people run their coding agent on exactly one model — whichever their vendor gave them — at one setting, forever. That's like owning a car with one gear. Model choice is a per-task decision: the model that plans Freddy's search architecture and the model that renames a variable should not cost the same. Elyra is provider-agnostic precisely so this becomes a dial you actually turn.

Logging in

Inside the session: 

/login

Two paths, pick per provider:

  • Use a subscription — OAuth login for Claude Pro/Max, ChatGPT Plus/Pro, GitHub Copilot. If you already pay for one of these, you have an agent budget already.
  • Use an API key — any of the supported providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, xAI, Mistral, Moonshot, DeepSeek, Groq, OpenRouter, and more). Keys are stored in ~/.elyra/agent/auth.json, or picked up from environment variables if you prefer.
Do this once, for two providers. Not one. The whole point of the next section — and of the failover safety net — is having somewhere else to go. A subscription plus one cheap API key is a fine start.

Choosing models

See what you have and switch anytime: 

/model

A searchable selector opens — type to filter (/model sonnet jumps straight to matches). For Freddy's build work, a strong general coding model is the daily driver. Switching is mid-session and instant; the conversation carries over. Nothing is lost when you change models — this matters more than it sounds, and Chapter 8 exploits it for cross-vendor review.

A lineup, not a model

Now define your rotation — the short list you'll cycle through with Ctrl+P: 

/models

For Freddy, a sensible three-model lineup: 

  [x] claude-sonnet-5        daily driver: features, edits
  [x] gpt-5.6                second opinion, cross-vendor review
  [x] claude-haiku-4-5       cheap: commit messages, quick questions

The habit this enables: before sending a prompt, ask yourself "is this a haiku task or a sonnet task?" and tap Ctrl+P accordingly. Renaming things, writing a commit message, asking what a file does — cheap model. Designing, implementing, debugging — strong model. This single habit routinely halves a project's model spend.

Later, automate it: Elyra can classify each turn and pick the tier for you (smart routing, plus a local ledger that measures how models actually perform for you). That's Chapter 13 — learn the manual gear-shift first.

Thinking levels

The second dial: how long the model reasons before answering. Cycle with Shift+Tab — levels run from off through minimal, low, medium, high, to xhigh. The current level is always visible in the footer.

  • low/medium — Freddy's everyday setting. Edits, small features, questions.
  • high — architecture decisions, debugging something genuinely weird, Chapter 9's search feature.
  • xhigh — rare. You'll know the moment when it comes.

Thinking is money and time: a high-effort answer to a trivial question buys you nothing but latency. Match the dial to the question.

The safety net you get for free

Because you logged into two providers, something quietly important is now true: a provider outage no longer ends your session. If a turn fails because a provider is overloaded, rate-limited, or a model vanishes, Elyra classifies the failure and retries the turn on an equivalent model from your other provider — automatically, visibly, and modality-aware. It's on by default (providerFailover setting); you did everything required by having two logins.

Check the whole setup before moving on: 

elyra doctor preflight
  ✓ All default models resolve against the registry.

What you learned

  • Log into two providers, not one. Options are the point — for cost, for review quality, and for the failover net.
  • /model to switch, /models + Ctrl+P for your lineup. Cheap model for cheap tasks is the highest-ROI habit in agent work.
  • Shift+Tab sets thinking effort. Default low-medium, reach for high deliberately.
  • Failover is free insurance — already on, powered by your second login.
  • elyra doctor preflight confirms the wiring before real work starts.
Next: in Chapter 4, Freddy's first real feature: creating a note. The edit loop, pinned context, and the LSP extensions catching mistakes the moment they're made.