Helper and checking models

With your own key, the small jobs around a chat run on your provider. Before, several of them quietly switched to a platform model or failed.

Diagram as text

1. A chat starts a helper job, for example a summary, a /goal check, a planner or a checker.
2. A chat on your own key uses the helper model you set for that provider under Settings, Advanced.
3. Without a setting it uses a small model from the model list of your key. For Anthropic that is Claude Haiku 5.5.
4. If your key lists no small model, the run model does the job itself.
5. The job runs on your key. Your provider bills it and ZeroLog credit is not used.
6. A chat on a platform model keeps its Featherless helper.

• Helper jobs are summaries of long chats, /goal checks, Deep Research helpers, memory suggestions, the prompt improver, the design loop, the site builder, the Ultracode planner and reducer, the tool checker, second opinions from another model, Buddy, legal questions, Smart Auto and the small model of the terminal agent.
• On your own key they run on a helper model of that provider. Your provider bills them, so they need no ZeroLog credit and a balance of zero does not stop them.
• The default is a small, fast model from the list your key offers. For Anthropic it is Claude Haiku 5.5. For the others ZeroLog picks the smallest model of the newest family with names such as nano, mini, flash, small or haiku. If your key lists no small model, the run model does the job itself.
• You can choose another model per connected provider under Settings, Advanced, Helper model with your own key. The model that describes pictures for text-only models is set there too.
• A chat on a platform model keeps its Featherless helper. The penetration test keeps its fixed Featherless list on purpose.

The checking model of an Ultracode or goal run

• On your own key the checker can be any model on your keys or a Featherless model. On the platform it must be a Featherless model. Models of other platform providers are refused.
• The check happens at the start, also for the price estimate. A checker that is not allowed is refused at once, and the answer lists up to eight allowed models, the closest first.
• A checker on your own key counts as zero platform cost.

We tested this with a replica of the provider lists. We have not yet run every helper against a real key of each of the 25 providers, so the default for providers other than Anthropic depends on what your key lists.

See your own API key and /ultracode.