Cloud providers and their keys
Cloud providers holds a place for an API key from each of three companies — Anthropic, OpenAI and Google — so that the edit page's Ask for an adjustment… field can send a sentence to that company's model when Ollama is not answering. In this version only the Anthropic key is used; the other two can be saved, but nothing in Vixlo 0.1 sends anything to OpenAI or Google.
Each row
Every row has the company's name, a line under it, and a dot with a word at the right:
| Line | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| No key on file. | Not configured | Nothing saved for this provider. |
| Ready to use. | Key set | A key is saved. |
| Disabled while Local only is on. | Disabled | A key may or may not be saved; the switch under Privacy is on, so it is not used. |
Under the line is a password-style field with Save beside it, and Clear once a key is on file.
Saving a key
- Paste the key into the field. It shows dots, not characters. The field's placeholder reads sk-… when nothing is saved and Enter a new key to replace it when something is.
- Press Save, or
↩in the field. The button stays dimmed while the field is empty.
The field empties, the row reads Key set, and a small line appears under it: Stored key ends in •••• 9f2a, the last four characters of what was saved. That is the only part of a key Vixlo ever shows you. It is there so you can check the right key went in, not so you can read it back; nothing on this page, or anywhere else in the app, displays a saved key.
Spaces at either end are trimmed before saving. Saving a new key replaces the old one. Clear removes the key from this Mac, and the row goes back to Not configured.
If the key could not be saved or cleared, a banner at the foot of the page says so, with the Keychain's own reason: Could not save the Anthropic key: and the reason. See Where keys and sign-in details are kept.
Anthropic's Model row
The Anthropic row alone has a Model row of chips, because it is the one provider this version can talk to: Fable 5.1, Opus 5, Sonnet 5 and Haiku 4.5. A fresh install starts on Sonnet 5. The line under the chips names the exact model id Vixlo sends — Sends as claude-sonnet-5. — so you know which model your Anthropic account is being billed for.
| Chip | Sends as |
|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | claude-fable-5-1 |
| Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 |
| Sonnet 5 | claude-sonnet-5 |
| Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 |
OpenAI and Google have no Model row. A control that looked live and did nothing would be worse than none.
What a cloud request carries
When the Anthropic route is in use, what leaves the Mac is small: your sentence; the photograph's file name; the name of the look or film simulation it wears, if it has one; the frame's current values for the eight sliders the assistant can move (Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Temperature, Tint, Saturation and Vibrance) and whether they apply to the whole frame, the subject or the background; Vixlo's own fixed instructions to the model; and the description of the one adjustment Vixlo is willing to make. Never the photograph itself — no pixels, no file, no thumbnail. The edit page tells you the route before you type: its field's header reads via Anthropic · claude-sonnet-5 in warning ink, with the tooltip Sentences on this page are sent to Anthropic. Turn Local only on in Settings to keep them on this Mac.
A key is used only when all three hold: a key is saved in the Anthropic row, Local only is off, and Ollama is not answering at all. If Ollama answers but has no model Vixlo can run, the field is disabled instead; the sentence is never sent to Anthropic in its place. The order is set out on Local only, and which route a sentence takes.
With no key saved, Ollama not answering and Local only off, the field is disabled and reads Needs an API key., with a Settings link under it that opens this window. (A read-only account, or a library that cannot store adjustments, disables the field first, with a different sentence and no link; see Before the order.)
Your account with Anthropic is billed by Anthropic for what you send; Vixlo has no meter. Nothing is sent until you press ↩ or Ask on the edit page, but one press can send two requests: if the model's first answer asks for something other than the one adjustment Vixlo offers, Vixlo sends the conversation back once for a second try, and Anthropic counts both. Never more than two.