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H.O.T-Jarvis

Add a free cloud key

import { Tabs, TabItem } from ‘@astrojs/starlight/components’;

H.O.T-Jarvis prefers a local model, but you can add a free cloud tier — as your only provider (no Ollama needed) or as a fallback when the local model is down. No paid plan is required.

1. Get a free key

Section titled “1. Get a free key”
Create a key at [console.groq.com/keys](https://console.groq.com/keys). Fast, generous free tier. Create a key at [openrouter.ai/keys](https://openrouter.ai/keys) and use a model whose id ends in `:free`.

2. Put it in .env

Section titled “2. Put it in .env”

Copy the example file and add your key:

Terminal window
cp .env.example .env
.env
# one is enough — the router uses whatever is present
GROQ_API_KEY=gsk_your_key_here
# GROQ_MODEL=llama-3.3-70b-versatile


# OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-your_key_here
# OPENROUTER_MODEL=meta-llama/llama-3.3-70b-instruct:free

3. Restart

Section titled “3. Restart”

Restart the app. The router tries Ollama first (local, private), then any configured cloud provider in order. The reply footer shows which one answered.

How routing behaves

Section titled “How routing behaves”
  • Local is always preferred. Cloud is only used when Ollama isn’t reachable.
  • Free-tier hygiene is built in. Identical requests are served from a short cache, and a provider that rate-limits is skipped on a cooldown instead of hammered. Full detail in Configuration.
  • The local model is never penalized — it’s unlimited, so it stays first.
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