Ambient mode: add provider_profile config option to route ambient to a different provider
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- Dominant language
- Rust
- Stars
- 19.9k
- Forks
- 2.3k
- Avg merge
- 2d 7h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 30
Description
Problem
Ambient mode always uses the default provider (e.g. Claude) regardless of what ambient.model is set to. There is no ambient.provider or ambient.provider_profile config option, so users cannot route ambient cycles to a different provider — such as a local model via [providers.<name>] — without changing the global default_provider, which would also affect interactive sessions.
Use case
I have a local Gemma 4 26B model running via llama.cpp with a [providers.gemma4] profile configured. I want ambient to use this free local model instead of burning Claude quota on cycles, while continuing to use Claude for interactive sessions.
Current config
[providers.gemma4]
base_url = "http://localhost:8080/v1"
api_key = "not-needed"
model = "gemma-4-26B-A4B-it-UD-Q4_K_XL.gguf"
[ambient]
enabled = true
model = "gemma-4-26B-A4B-it-UD-Q4_K_XL.gguf" # has no effect — still routes to Claude
Expected behavior
Setting ambient.model to a provider-profile model, or adding a new ambient.provider_profile field, should route ambient cycles through that provider instead of the default.
Proposed solution
Add one of:
ambient.provider_profile = "gemma4"— references a[providers.<name>]blockambient.provider = "openai-compatible"+ honor the model name to resolve the right profile- Automatically infer the provider profile when
ambient.modelmatches a model defined in a[providers.*]block
The first option (provider_profile) seems cleanest and most explicit.
Related
- #104 (ambient tool discovery bug — cycles are all Incomplete regardless of provider)
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
No files or tests are named; start by tracing ambient configuration parsing and the provider-selection path. Done means an explicit provider profile routes ambient cycles without changing the interactive default, while preserving the existing default-provider behavior.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- rust
- Domain
- backend, cli
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 48/100