AI Providers
Configure local and cloud LLMs for use with AI nodes.
Overview
Watchflows supports multiple AI providers so you can choose the model that best fits your needs. Run models locally with Ollama or LM Studio for complete privacy, or connect to cloud providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google for access to frontier models.
Every AI node in a workflow specifies which provider and model to use. You can mix providers within the same workflow — for example, use a fast local model for classification and a cloud model for complex generation.
Supported Providers
| Provider | Display Name | Default URL | API Key | Custom URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ollama | Ollama | http://localhost:11434 | Not required | Editable |
| lmStudio | LM Studio | http://localhost:1234 | Not required | Editable |
| openAI | OpenAI | https://api.openai.com | Required | Fixed |
| anthropic | Anthropic (Claude) | https://api.anthropic.com | Required | Fixed |
| googleAI | Google (Gemini) | https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com | Required | Fixed |
| openRouter | OpenRouter | https://openrouter.ai/api | Required | Fixed |
| openAICompatible | OpenAI Compatible | https://api.openai.com | Required | Editable |
Local Models
Ollama and LM Studio run models entirely on your Mac. No API key is needed, no data leaves your machine, and there are no per-request costs. This is ideal for privacy-sensitive workflows or offline use. If your LM Studio server is configured to require an access token, paste it into the LM Studio provider's optional API Key field — leave it blank otherwise.
Both providers expose an OpenAI-compatible HTTP API on localhost. Watchflows auto-discovers available models when you select either provider. If you run the server on a non-default port, update the base URL in the provider settings.
Tip: Start Ollama or LM Studio before running your workflow. Watchflows will show a connection error if the local server is not reachable.
Cloud Providers
OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google require an API key to authenticate requests. Cloud providers give you access to the latest frontier models with high throughput and large context windows.
API keys are stored in the macOS Keychain, not in plain text. Watchflows never sends your key anywhere except the provider's own API endpoint.
OpenRouter
OpenRouter is a unified gateway that routes one API key to 300+ models from many vendors — Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Mistral, Meta, and more. You pay OpenRouter directly for usage; Watchflows takes no cut and has no business relationship with OpenRouter.
Model IDs are vendor-prefixed: openai/gpt-5, anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet, google/gemini-2.0-flash. Watchflows handles the prefix transparently — reasoning models like openai/gpt-5 and openai/o3-mini are detected and called with the right parameters.
Get a key at openrouter.ai/keys, paste it into the OpenRouter provider in Settings, pick a model, and you're connected. The base URL is fixed at https://openrouter.ai/api.
BYO-LLM (OpenAI Compatible)
The OpenAI Compatible provider lets you connect to any service that implements the OpenAI chat completions API. This includes services like Together AI, Groq, Fireworks, or a custom proxy.
Set the base URL to your provider's endpoint and enter your API key. Watchflows will use the standard /v1/chat/completions path for requests.
{
"provider": "openAICompatible",
"baseURL": "https://api.together.xyz",
"model": "meta-llama/Llama-3-70b-chat-hf"
}Credential Storage
All API keys are stored in the macOS Keychain. This provides OS-level encryption and access control. Keys are never written to disk in plain text, never included in workflow exports, and never transmitted to Watchflows servers.
- Keys are stored per-provider in your login Keychain.
- Exporting a workflow never includes credentials.
- Local providers (Ollama, LM Studio) need no credentials at all.