AI Providers
Settings → AI Providers decides which AI model each TalkBar feature uses and where it runs. It has four inner tabs: AI Features, Providers, Models and Advanced. For the concepts behind these controls, see How TalkBar uses AI and Providers and models.
Page header
These controls sit above the inner tabs and stay visible on every tab.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Setup AI | Opens the guided AI setup, which walks you through providers, local models and feature assignments. | — |
| Issue count (for example 1 issue) | Appears only when an AI feature is failing. Click it to jump to the problem. | — |
| Private AI Mode | Keeps all AI on this computer and turns off any external providers you connected. Shown only after you add a cloud or CLI provider. You can't change it while a session is in progress. See Private AI Mode. | Off |
When an AI feature fails, a red card appears under the header with the affected provider and model and the latest error. Retry tests the connection again. Clear this error removes the error for that provider or model.
If an Ollama provider uses a host name, TalkBar can't tell whether it's on this computer, so it asks. Choose Treat as local or Keep as remote. Trusted hosts count as local in Private AI Mode; otherwise the feature shows a "Not local" warning, but nothing is blocked. You can change this later with Treat host as local when you edit the provider.
AI Features
The AI Features tab (search entry: AI Features) shows which model powers each feature.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Test | Sends a short test request for every enabled feature and lists the result, the model used and the response time. | — |
| Quick Apply Wizard | Opens the AI setup on its feature step, where you can assign models to features in one pass. | — |
Default model
Default model is used by every AI feature you haven't customized. It has two dropdowns. The one in use right now is marked Active.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | The model features use while Private AI Mode is off. Any model from any provider. | Qwen3.5 4B (Built-in AI) |
| Private AI | The model features use while Private AI Mode is on. Only models that run on this computer are listed. Disabled until you add a cloud or CLI provider, because until then all AI already runs locally. | Qwen3.5 4B (Built-in AI) |
If you haven't added a cloud or CLI provider yet, a Set up a provider button takes you to the Providers tab.
Per-feature models
Per-feature models lets individual features use their own model instead of the default. Click Customize to show the controls (and Hide to collapse them). A Standard / Private AI switch picks which set of assignments you're editing. The two sets are kept separately.
Features are grouped. Each group row has an on/off switch, a model dropdown and a Reset button. Show features expands a group so you can set each feature on its own.
| Group | Features in the group | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Chat & Ask AI | Chat replies, Ask AI (note text from a prompt) | On, uses the default model |
| Summaries | Voice summaries, Timeline (live timeline bullets) | On, uses the default model |
| Dictation & voice commands | Dictation polish, Command interpretation | On, uses the default model |
| Knowledge & titles | Knowledge extraction, Title generation | On, uses the default model |
| Control | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Group or feature switch | Turns that AI feature on or off. | On |
| Model dropdown | Picks a model for the group or feature. Use default follows the default model. Only models that can do the job are listed. | Use default |
| Reset | Returns the group or feature to the default model. | — |
A badge next to each feature shows its status: Ready, Disabled, Invalid or Needs config. Customized or Inherited tells you whether a group has its own model. Model not downloaded means the chosen local model still needs to be downloaded on Settings → Private Local AI.
In the Private AI set, Dictation polish starts out assigned to the small Qwen3 0.6B model instead of the default.
Providers
The Providers tab (search entry: Providers) lists every AI provider TalkBar can use. Built-in AI is always there and runs on this computer.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Set up via wizard | Opens the guided AI setup on its providers step. | — |
| Add Provider | Opens Add AI Provider, where you connect a cloud API or a command-line AI tool. | — |
Each provider
Each provider card shows its type (API / BYOK, Installed CLI or Built-in (on-device)), how many models it has, and warnings such as No API key, Invalid key or Validation failed.
| Control | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Test | Checks that the provider answers. | — |
| Manage downloads | Built-in AI only. Opens Settings → Private Local AI to download local models. | — |
| Edit | Opens Edit AI Provider to change the display name, endpoint, API key and, for CLI tools, prompt controls. Validate Provider tests the connection; Save Changes saves it. | — |
| Remove | Deletes the provider and its API key. Features that used it lose their model. | — |
| On/off switch | Turns the provider on or off. Built-in AI can't be turned off. | On |
Adding a provider
In Add AI Provider, choose a Provider Type:
- Cloud API: pick a provider and enter your API key. The list includes Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, Ollama (Local), Groq, xAI (Grok), DeepSeek, Cohere, Fireworks AI, Together AI, OpenRouter and AWS Bedrock. Custom... lets you enter any compatible endpoint.
- CLI Tool: pick an AI command-line tool that's installed on this computer. Scan detects installed tools; Use fills in a detected one. You can also set the Executable path yourself.
Advanced settings... shows extra fields such as Display name and Endpoint override (optional). Then click Connect & Select Models, tick the models you want and add them.
For command-line tools, the edit screen also has CLI prompt controls, including Enable CLI parallel execution. When it's on, long summaries send up to 3 requests to the tool at once. Turn it off if the tool hits its plan limits. Default: On.
Local CLI Tools
The Local CLI Tools card detects AI command-line tools installed on this computer. Supported tools are Claude Code, Codex, Agy, Grok CLI and OpenCode (marked Experimental). Click Scan (or Rescan) to check again. Each tool shows Detected or Not found.
Models
The Models tab (search entry: Models) lists the models attached to your providers.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Add Model | Attaches a model to an existing provider. Choose the Provider, click Get list to load its available models (or type a Remote model key), set a Display name and the Capabilities (Text, Vision, Structured), then click Create Model. | — |
Each model card shows which features use it and has these controls:
| Control | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Test | Sends a short request and shows how long the model took to answer. | — |
| Chat budgets | Built-in models only. Opens Chat context and generation. | — |
| Generation limits | Built-in models only. Opens Summary generation limits. | — |
| Manage | Built-in models only. Opens Settings → Private Local AI to download or delete the model. | — |
| Edit | Other models. Changes the display name, Context limit and capabilities. The edit screen also has the Chat context and generation and Summary generation limits sections. | — |
| Remove | Other models. Deletes the model. | — |
| On/off switch | Turns the model on or off. | On |
Chat context and generation
Sets how much room a model gets for chat. Values are in tokens. The panel first shows read-only figures, such as Effective chat context, Chat working input and Reserved generation. Changes apply to your next message. Reset to Auto clears your values.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Chat input ceiling | Caps how much input (sources and conversation) a chat sends. Custom lets you enter a Custom token limit. | Auto |
| Chat generation ceiling | Caps how long an answer can be, including reasoning where the provider counts it. A small ceiling can cut an answer short. | Auto |
| Ollama context allocation | Ollama models only. How much context TalkBar asks Ollama to load. Auto requests up to 16K tokens within the model's capacity. Custom allocation uses more memory. | Auto |
| Declared model capacity | Shown when TalkBar can't verify the model's capacity. Enter the model's context size to confirm it. Leave it blank to use discovered limits or a safe fallback. | Blank (Auto) |
For providers that manage their own limits, the panel shows Provider-managed limits instead of these fields.
Summary generation limits
Sets output limits for session summaries. Changes apply to the next summary. Reset to Auto clears your values.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Extraction output limit | Caps the output of each extraction step of a long summary. Auto adapts to segment size, sections and language. | Auto |
| Final output limit | Caps the length of the final summary. Auto depends on the summary length. | Auto |
| Local summary context | Built-in models only. The context window used for summaries. Choose Auto or a fixed size. | Auto |
| Reasoning budget | Built-in models that support it. Caps tokens spent on reasoning. Leave blank for Auto. | Blank (Auto) |
For providers that manage their own limits, Output limits and Reasoning budget show Provider-managed.
Advanced
The Advanced tab holds diagnostics and settings that apply to all AI requests.
Diagnostics
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Ollama (Local) — GPU memory | Shown only when Ollama is installed or running. Lists what Ollama holds in GPU memory. Unload now frees the GPU for the built-in model. | — |
| AI Usage Overview | A Feature routing table that shows each feature, the provider and model it uses, and whether it can run. Refresh reloads it. | — |
| Diagnostics | Shows each provider's health, how many features are ready, its last validation and recent errors. Clear issue history removes past errors. | — |
Request Settings
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Redact URLs | Replaces full web addresses in content with placeholders before it's sent to an AI provider, so tokens and private links don't leave your device. | On |
| Log requests | Saves a local copy of every AI request and response for troubleshooting. Logs stay on your device. | Off |
AI time limits on this computer
Gives built-in and local Ollama models more time on slower computers before a request counts as timed out. Cloud models and command-line tools are not affected.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Auto | Sets the limits from the measured speed of your computer. Until a built-in model has run, Auto doubles the limits. Under the control, TalkBar shows the measured speed for each model. | Selected |
| Standard | Keeps the default limits. | — |
| Longer | Doubles the limits. | — |
| Longest | Allows four times as long. | — |
Local AI request queue
Runs built-in and Ollama requests one after another, so tasks don't compete for the same GPU.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Queue built-in and Ollama | Turns the queue on. Cloud providers and command-line tools always run outside it. | On |
| Concurrent local requests | How many local requests run at the same time (1–8). Use 1 to fully serialize GPU work. | 1 |
| Pending local requests | How many requests can wait in line (up to 512). | 32 |
Response Language
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Response Language | The language AI writes in, including chat replies. A chat can override it with Reply language in its Answer using menu. In Auto, chat replies follow the language of your question. Ask AI in notes keeps the language of the selected text or note and uses this setting only for an empty note. Custom... lets you type any language (up to 30 characters). | Auto (Application UI Language) |
Custom AI Instructions
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Custom AI Instructions | Extra instructions added to every AI feature, up to 300 characters. They add to the built-in prompts; they don't replace them. | Empty |
Voice
A shortcut card. Open Voice settings takes you to Settings → Voice, where recording, transcription, dictation and speaker labels live.