# Connect a model

> Give the built-in agent a model to run on.

The agents are [Pi](https://github.com/earendil-works/pi), an open-source coding agent ([more about Pi here](https://solipsist.sh/docs/engines/pi/)). It's built into Solipsist, so
there's nothing extra to install. Pi needs a model, and there are two ways to give it one.

If you ask for something before a model is connected, you get this dialog instead of a request that would fail:

*[Picture: The Connect a model dialog: an OpenRouter key, or a login saved in Pi]*

## An OpenRouter key

Set the key in your environment, in your shell's profile (`~/.zshrc`, `~/.bashrc`) to keep it:

```bash
export SOLIPSIST_OPENROUTER_KEY=sk-or-...
```

Solipsist doesn't read a `.env` from the folder it runs in: that folder may be someone else's.

More on [OpenRouter](https://solipsist.sh/docs/start/openrouter/). You can also put it in `solipsist.yaml` as `pi.openrouter_key`, but that file is easy to commit by accident. The
server never prints a key. Errors and `--print-config` only say whether one is set.

## A login you saved in Pi

If you already use Pi in a terminal, Solipsist picks up Pi's own configuration, the same way the `pi` command does in
that folder (`~/.pi/agent`, plus a project `.pi`). Your saved logins, skills and connected tools work here too. To add
a login, run `pi` and then `/login`.

## A model on your own computer

Pi can also run through Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp or vLLM. See [Local models](https://solipsist.sh/docs/start/local-models/).

## Choosing the model

Each page has its own model. You pick it in the [agent panel](https://solipsist.sh/docs/reference/agent-panel/), next to the
switch that turns the page's agents on and off, and the [status bar](https://solipsist.sh/docs/reference/status-bar/#model) shows which model
the page is using. The picker shows a shortlist first, and you can search
every model Pi can run. To pin your favourites to the top of the list on every page:

```yaml
agent:
  preferred_models:
    - pi:openrouter/~deepseek/deepseek-flash-latest
```

If a run is in progress when you change the model, it finishes on the old one. If no model can run yet, the status
bar's model reads [Connect a model](https://solipsist.sh/docs/reference/status-bar/#model) instead.

*[Picture: The status bar: editing mode, the agent on, the model, what the page has cost]*

:::tip[Something not working?]
[When it goes wrong](https://solipsist.sh/docs/engines/when-it-goes-wrong/) lists the messages you can see and what fixes each.
:::

:::caution
Like Pi in a terminal, an agent can run commands on your computer, and Solipsist doesn't sandbox them. Pi's own
`write` and `edit` tools can only write to the images folder, but its shell can do anything you can.
:::

Source: https://solipsist.sh/docs/start/connect-a-model/