Providers

tldr supports seven summarization providers.

Comparison

	Claude Code (default)	Anthropic API	OpenAI-compatible	Gemini	Codex CLI	Ollama	xAI / Grok
Cost	$0 (subscription)	~$0.005/summary	Varies	Varies	Subscription	FREE (local)	Varies
Speed	~5s	~2s	Varies	~2s	~5s	Varies	~2s
Requires	Claude Code + sub	ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	OPENAI_API_KEY	GEMINI_API_KEY	Codex CLI installed	Ollama running	XAI_API_KEY
How it works	Shells out to claude -p	Anthropic API	OpenAI-compatible API	Google GenAI SDK	Shells out to codex	Local REST API	OpenAI-compatible API

Claude Code Provider (Default)

tldr uses Claude Code by default. If you have it installed and authenticated, no setup is needed:

tldr "https://example.com/article"

On first run, the setup wizard asks you to pick a provider. If the chosen provider needs an API key, the wizard shows which environment variable to set.

Installing Claude Code

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
claude    # Authenticate

Anthropic API Provider

# Set your API key (one of these methods)
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...        # Environment variable
tldr config set apiKey sk-ant-...          # Save to config file

# Switch to Anthropic API provider
tldr config set provider anthropic

OpenAI-compatible Provider

Works with any endpoint that implements the OpenAI chat completions API: OpenAI, Groq, Together, Fireworks, and more.

# Set provider and API key
tldr config set provider openai
tldr config set apiKey sk-...

# Or use environment variables
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
export OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.openai.com/v1   # optional, defaults to OpenAI

Set a model that your provider supports:

tldr config set model gpt-4o

Provider examples

Provider	Base URL	Example model
OpenAI	(default)	gpt-4o
Groq	https://api.groq.com/openai/v1	llama-3.3-70b-versatile
Together	https://api.together.xyz/v1	meta-llama/Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct-Turbo
Fireworks	https://api.fireworks.ai/inference/v1	accounts/fireworks/models/llama-v3p3-70b-instruct

Gemini Provider

Uses the Google Gemini API via the @google/genai SDK.

# Set your API key
export GEMINI_API_KEY=...
# Or save to config
tldr config set apiKey ...

# Switch to Gemini
tldr config set provider gemini
tldr config set model gemini-2.0-flash

Gemini models

Model	Notes
gemini-2.0-flash	Fast, good for quick summaries
gemini-2.5-pro	Most capable, best for detailed analysis
gemini-2.5-flash	Balanced speed and quality

Codex CLI Provider

Shells out to OpenAI's Codex CLI, similar to how claude-code shells out to Claude.

# Install Codex CLI
npm install -g @openai/codex

# Switch to Codex
tldr config set provider codex
tldr config set model o4-mini

Codex CLI must be installed and authenticated. If not found, tldr shows an install hint.

Ollama Provider (Native)

Talks directly to Ollama's REST API — no extra dependency needed. Ollama must be running locally.

# Start Ollama
ollama serve

# Pull a model
ollama pull llama3.3

# Switch to Ollama
tldr config set provider ollama
tldr config set model llama3.3

By default, tldr connects to http://localhost:11434. Override with:

export OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://my-server:11434

No API key needed — Ollama runs locally.

Ollama models

Model	Notes
llama3.3	Meta's latest, good all-around
mistral	Fast, good for quick summaries
gemma2	Google's open model
qwen2.5	Strong multilingual support

xAI / Grok Provider

Uses xAI's OpenAI-compatible API at https://api.x.ai/v1.

# Set your API key
export XAI_API_KEY=...
# Or save to config
tldr config set apiKey ...

# Switch to xAI
tldr config set provider xai
tldr config set model grok-3-mini-fast

xAI models

Model	Notes
grok-3	Most capable
grok-3-mini	Balanced speed and quality
grok-3-mini-fast	Fastest

Model Selection in the Interactive Editor

The preset editor (tldr preset edit / /config) uses a free-text input for the model field. Enter any model ID your provider supports — the value is passed through as-is. Anthropic aliases (haiku, sonnet, opus) are resolved automatically.

Audio

The same provider you use for summarization also rewrites summaries as spoken scripts for audio playback. See the Audio guide for TTS providers, voices, and models.