The default model

An app that says ai: { chat: true } in its manifest (OpenMail, OpenCRM's research agent) takes the workspace's default chat model, through /api/ai/default/…; it never names a provider. One key, set once, makes every such app work. This guide sets that one key and, when the person wants a particular provider or model, the one setting (<provider>[/<model>]). At the end the person has one model provider's key on the Gateway, pnpm everyapp ai show saying what the default resolves to, and every app that needs "a chat model" open.

Settings

The order the Gateway resolves the default in, the first whose settings are set: openrouter (one key, many models, the price in every answer), workers-ai (no provider account: the Gateway's own Cloudflare token; weaker models), openai, anthropic, groq, mistral, gemini. The setting wins over the order. Cloudflare AI Gateway is never the default: it fronts whichever provider resolves (ai-gateway.md).

Costs and plans

The provider's: OpenRouter is prepaid in USD at the providers' own prices (openrouter.md); Workers AI bills the Cloudflare account per token (workers-ai.md); the others each have a plan of their own, named in their section of providers.md. The model the Gateway fills in when an app names none is a cheap capable one per provider (OpenRouter anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5, Workers AI @cf/meta/llama-4-scout-17b-16e-instruct, OpenAI gpt-6-luna, Groq openai/gpt-oss-20b, Mistral mistral-small-latest, Gemini gemini-3.1-flash-lite); pnpm everyapp ai default <provider>/<model> picks another. Usage by provider and model is on Manage workspace → Usage and in pnpm everyapp workspace usage --json (byModel).

Only a person can

• Open an account with the provider and buy credits or add a card.
• Create the key there and paste it into the terminal (the value never goes through the chat or the command line).
• Decide the provider and model when the shipped order isn't what they want (a model they trust, a region, a budget).

Before you start

1. pnpm everyapp status --json: data.installed and data.claimed true; otherwise gateway.md first.
2. Whether this guide applies: an app in data.apps[] whose setup.unmet has a setting with kind: "ai-default" (label "A chat model (…)"), or whose setup.settings lists one. Its names is the key the order asks for first and its hint names the alternatives. No such app: nothing to do here; an app that pins a provider is that provider's file.
3. pnpm everyapp ai show --json: done.data.configured false means no provider is set yet; done.data.provider and done.data.settings say which key the default would use; done.data.candidates[] lists every provider with configured.

Steps

1. Pick the provider with the person. Default to OpenRouter unless they say otherwise: it is one key for every model and the only one whose spend the Gateway counts in dollars. Workers AI when they want no provider account at all. A single vendor when they already have a key there.
2. Set that provider's key, by its own file: openrouter.md (OPENROUTER_API_KEY), workers-ai.md (WORKERS_AI_API_TOKEN), openai.md (OPENAI_API_KEY), or the provider's section of providers.md (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, GROQ_API_KEY, MISTRAL_API_KEY, GEMINI_API_KEY). Each ends with pnpm everyapp secret set <NAME>, the value from the person's terminal, or pnpm everyapp configure <app id>, which asks for exactly the one key the app's ai-default setting names.
3. Store the setting when it isn't the order's. The first configured provider of the order is the default by itself, with its catalog model; nothing to store when it is OpenRouter and the person is happy with its model. Otherwise: pnpm everyapp ai default <provider> (groq), or with a model, pnpm everyapp ai default openrouter/anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5 (the provider id up to the first slash, the model after it). pnpm everyapp ai default off clears it. Each change queues the ai.default_changed event. Embeddings always use the provider's catalog model. The same setting is Manage workspace → Usage → AI default in the browser.
4. Optionally put AI Gateway in front: ai-gateway.md (pnpm everyapp ai gateway on), for logs, caching and limits on every model call; it changes no app and no key.

Verify

1. pnpm everyapp ai show --json: done.data.configured true, done.data.provider the one the person picked (or the order's first), done.data.model the model that will be filled in, done.data.via ai-gateway once the gateway is on, else direct.
2. pnpm everyapp status --json: every app that said ai.chat has setup.ready true and no ai-default setting in setup.unmet.
3. In the app: a chat answer arrives (OpenMail: open a thread and ask the agent; OpenCRM: run research on a company). Manage workspace → Usage → By provider shows the provider and, under it, the model.

If it fails

• ai_default_not_configured in an app's error (503): no provider's key is set, or the chosen one's isn't. The message names the key; step 2. pnpm everyapp ai show says the same with configured: false.
• AI_DEFAULT_INVALID from ai default: the id isn't a provider the Gateway knows, is an API provider (Stripe), has no OpenAI-shaped chat route (Cohere: an app pins it under providers), or is ai-gateway (turn it on with ai gateway on and pick a model provider). The message names the candidates.
• ai_route_not_allowed on the default route: the app called something other than chat completions or embeddings; it lists the provider under providers for that.
• model_not_allowed never comes from the default route; an app seeing it pinned a provider and limited ai.models.
• A provider's own error (401, 429, a model name it doesn't serve): the provider's file, "If it fails".

Rerun, rotate, remove

• Rerunning any step is safe: ai default overwrites the setting, a key set again replaces the old one on the next request.
• Rotate a key as its provider's file says; the default resolves to the same provider.
• Remove the setting with pnpm everyapp ai default off; remove a key with pnpm everyapp secret unset <NAME>, after which the order moves to the next configured provider, or apps that need the default show "Needs setup" again.

Sources

• https://everyapp.com/docs/agent/ai (in the checkout landing-page/content/agent/ai.md): the route, the order, the commands and their --json, the event.
• packages/sdk/src/internal/aiDefault.ts: the resolution rule.