Zed

Before you start

1. Create an API key. In the portal, open Keys and click Create Key. Your key starts with ni_live_.
2. Add credit. New accounts start with a balance of $0, and every request is refused until you add credit. Open Billing and click Buy credits.
3. Pick a model. Northern Inference model names end in a tier tag, for example claude-sonnet-4-6-t4. See them all on the Models page.

Connect Zed to Northern Inference

1. Open the command palette and run agent: open settings.
2. In LLM Providers, click Add Provider and choose an OpenAI-compatible provider.
3. Fill in the fields with the values in the table below.
4. Enter your ni_live_ key in the provider's settings.
5. Open the Agent Panel, choose claude-sonnet-4-6-t4 in its model list and send a message. It appears in the portal under Usage within a few seconds.

Or edit the settings file

Run zed: open settings file from the command palette and add:

{
  "language_models": {
    "openai_compatible": {
      "northern-inference": {
        "api_url": "https://northerninference.ca/v1",
        "available_models": [
          {
            "name": "claude-sonnet-4-6-t4",
            "display_name": "Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Northern Inference)",
            "max_tokens": 200000
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

Do not put your key in this file. Enter it in agent: open settings under the provider, or set it in the environment variable NORTHERN_INFERENCE_API_KEY (Zed builds the name from the provider name).

In Zed, max_tokens is the model's context window, not the length of the reply. To add more models, add more entries with exact names from the Models page.

Images

Zed treats a model on a custom provider as text-only unless you say otherwise. To send images to a model that accepts them, add "capabilities": { "images": true } to that model's entry. The Vision and capabilities page lists which models accept images.

If a model name is not recognized

Northern Inference answers with HTTP 404 and Model 'X' is not a route this key can call. It never swaps in a different model. Use a name from the Models page, or type ni-models as a message to list the models your key can call.

Troubleshooting