@benvargas/pi-synthetic-provider

Synthetic model provider for pi, the AI coding agent.

Features

• Dynamic model discovery -- models fetched live from the Synthetic API at each session start
• OpenAI Completions API -- reuses pi's built-in streaming, no custom implementation
• Tool calling -- full support via OpenAI-compatible tool use
• Vision support -- image input for models that support it (e.g., Kimi-K2.5)
• Reasoning support -- extended thinking for reasoning-capable models
• Cost tracking -- accurate per-token pricing parsed from the API
• Graceful degradation -- fallback model list if the API is unreachable

Installation

pi install npm:@benvargas/pi-synthetic-provider

Or try without installing:

pi -e npm:@benvargas/pi-synthetic-provider

Setup

Option 1: Environment Variable

export SYNTHETIC_API_KEY="syn_your_key_here"
pi

Option 2: Auth Storage (persistent)

Add to ~/.pi/agent/auth.json:

{
  "synthetic": {
    "type": "api_key",
    "key": "syn_your_key_here"
  }
}

Option 3: Runtime CLI Flag

pi --api-key synthetic=syn_your_key_here

Usage

# Interactive model selection
pi /model

# Direct model selection
pi --model synthetic:hf:moonshotai/Kimi-K2.5

# Use default Synthetic model
pi --model synthetic

Extension Command

• /synthetic-models -- display all available models with pricing and capabilities

Available Models

Models are fetched dynamically. As of 2026-01-29, Synthetic provides:

| Model | ID | Reasoning | Vision | Context | Max Output | |-------|-----|-----------|--------|---------|------------| | Kimi K2.5 | hf:moonshotai/Kimi-K2.5 | Yes | Yes | 262K | 65K | | MiniMax M2.1 | hf:MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M2.1 | Yes | No | 196K | 65K | | GLM 4.7 | hf:zai-org/GLM-4.7 | Yes | No | 202K | 65K |

Run /synthetic-models inside pi for the full, current catalog.

API Key Priority

When multiple sources are configured, pi checks in this order:

1. CLI runtime flag (--api-key)
2. Auth storage (~/.pi/agent/auth.json)
3. OAuth credentials (if configured)
4. Environment variable (SYNTHETIC_API_KEY)

Requirements

• pi v0.51.0 or later
• A Synthetic API key from synthetic.new

Uninstall

pi remove npm:@benvargas/pi-synthetic-provider

License

MIT