lovelace setup

Configure AI providers with an interactive setup wizard

The setup command provides a guided, interactive wizard for configuring LLM (Large Language Model) providers like Anthropic Claude, OpenAI GPT, Google Gemini, and local models. It automatically detects installed providers, tests connections, and stores credentials securely.

Overview

The setup wizard helps you:

Detect providers automatically - Finds installed LLM providers on your system
Configure API keys - Securely stores credentials for cloud providers
Test connections - Validates provider configurations before saving
Set defaults - Choose your preferred provider and model
First-run experience - Automatically launches on first CLI use

The wizard runs in an interactive terminal UI with step-by-step guidance, making provider configuration straightforward even for first-time users.

Usage

bash

lovelace setup [options]

Options

Option	Description	Default
`--skip-detection`	Skip automatic provider detection	`false`
`--force`	Force re-setup even if providers are configured	`false`
`--status`	Show provider status without making changes	`false`

Interactive Examples

First-Time Setup

When you run Lovelace CLI for the first time, the setup wizard launches automatically:

$ lovelace chat

┌─ Welcome to Lovelace CLI ──────────────────────────────┐
│                                                         │
│  👋 Welcome! Let's get you set up with AI providers    │
│                                                         │
│  This wizard will:                                      │
│  • Detect installed LLM providers                       │
│  • Configure your API keys                              │
│  • Test connections                                     │
│  • Set your default provider                            │
│                                                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

🔍 Detecting providers...

Found 3 providers:
  ✓ Anthropic Claude (API key detected)
  ✓ OpenAI GPT (API key detected)
  ✓ Ollama (local, no credentials needed)

Press Enter to continue...

Manual Setup

Run setup manually to add or update providers:

$ lovelace setup

┌─ Provider Configuration ───────────────────────────────┐
│                                                         │
│  Current providers:                                     │
│  • Anthropic Claude (configured)                        │
│  • OpenAI GPT (not configured)                          │
│  • Google Gemini (not configured)                       │
│  • Ollama (local, available)                            │
│                                                         │
│  What would you like to do?                             │
│                                                         │
│  › Configure new provider                               │
│    Update existing provider                             │
│    Set default provider                                 │
│    Test connections                                     │
│    Exit                                                 │
│                                                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Use ↑↓ arrows to navigate, Enter to select

Configuring a Provider

Step-by-step provider configuration:

┌─ Configure Provider ───────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                         │
│  Select provider to configure:                          │
│                                                         │
│  › Anthropic Claude                                     │
│    OpenAI GPT                                           │
│    Google Gemini                                        │
│    Local Ollama                                         │
│                                                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

[Selected: Anthropic Claude]

┌─ Anthropic Configuration ──────────────────────────────┐
│                                                         │
│  API Key: sk-ant-api03-****************************    │
│                                                         │
│  Where to find your API key:                            │
│  → Visit https://console.anthropic.com/account/keys    │
│                                                         │
│  Enter your Anthropic API key:                          │
│  _                                                      │
│                                                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

[After entering API key]

✓ API key saved

🧪 Testing connection...

┌─ Connection Test ──────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                         │
│  Testing Anthropic Claude...                            │
│                                                         │
│  ✓ Authentication successful                            │
│  ✓ Available models:                                    │
│    • claude-sonnet-4-5                                  │
│    • claude-3-opus-20240229                             │
│    • claude-3-sonnet-20240229                           │
│    • claude-3-haiku-20240307                            │
│                                                         │
│  Connection test passed! ✓                              │
│                                                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Set as default provider? (Y/n): y

✓ Anthropic Claude configured and set as default

Configuring Local Provider (Ollama)

Local providers don't require API keys:

┌─ Configure Provider ───────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                         │
│  Selected: Ollama (Local)                               │
│                                                         │
│  Ollama runs locally and doesn't require an API key.    │
│                                                         │
│  Checking Ollama installation...                        │
│                                                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

✓ Ollama detected at http://localhost:11434

🧪 Testing connection...

┌─ Connection Test ──────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                         │
│  Testing Ollama...                                      │
│                                                         │
│  ✓ Server responding                                    │
│  ✓ Available models:                                    │
│    • llama2                                             │
│    • codellama                                          │
│    • mistral                                            │
│                                                         │
│  Connection test passed! ✓                              │
│                                                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Set as default provider? (Y/n): y

✓ Ollama configured and set as default

Checking Status

View provider status without making changes:

$ lovelace setup --status

Provider Configuration Status
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Configured Providers:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

✓ Anthropic Claude (default)
  Status: Connected
  Models: 4 available
  API Key: sk-ant-api03-****....**** (configured)

✓ Ollama (local)
  Status: Connected
  Models: 3 available
  Endpoint: http://localhost:11434

Not Configured:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

✗ OpenAI GPT
  Status: No API key configured
  Setup: lovelace setup

✗ Google Gemini
  Status: No API key configured
  Setup: lovelace setup

Default Provider: Anthropic Claude (claude-sonnet-4-5)

Force Re-setup

Re-run setup even when providers are already configured:

$ lovelace setup --force

⚠️  Warning: Existing Configuration Detected
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

You already have providers configured:
  • Anthropic Claude (default)
  • Ollama (local)

Re-running setup will allow you to:
  • Update API keys
  • Add new providers
  • Change default provider

Continue with setup? (Y/n): y

[Setup wizard proceeds...]

Skip Provider Detection

Skip automatic detection and configure manually:

$ lovelace setup --skip-detection

┌─ Manual Provider Configuration ────────────────────────┐
│                                                         │
│  Provider detection skipped.                            │
│                                                         │
│  Select provider to configure:                          │
│                                                         │
│  › Anthropic Claude                                     │
│    OpenAI GPT                                           │
│    Google Gemini                                        │
│    Ollama                                               │
│                                                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Common Use Cases

Initial CLI Setup

First time using Lovelace CLI:

$ lovelace chat

[Setup wizard launches automatically]

✓ Provider detection complete
✓ Anthropic Claude configured
✓ Default provider set

Ready to use Lovelace CLI!

Adding a New Provider

Add provider to existing configuration:

$ lovelace setup

[Select "Configure new provider"]
[Choose OpenAI GPT]
[Enter API key]

✓ OpenAI GPT configured
✓ 2 providers now available

Switching Default Provider

Change your preferred provider:

$ lovelace setup

[Select "Set default provider"]

Current default: Anthropic Claude

Available providers:
  › Anthropic Claude (current default)
    OpenAI GPT
    Ollama

[Select OpenAI GPT]

✓ Default provider changed to OpenAI GPT

Testing Provider Connections

Verify all providers are working:

$ lovelace setup

[Select "Test connections"]

Testing providers...
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

✓ Anthropic Claude
  Response time: 245ms
  Models: 4 available

✓ OpenAI GPT
  Response time: 312ms
  Models: 5 available

✗ Google Gemini
  Error: API key invalid
  Fix: Re-enter API key

✓ Ollama
  Response time: 89ms
  Models: 3 available

Results: 3 passed, 1 failed

Updating API Keys

Update credentials for existing provider:

$ lovelace setup

[Select "Update existing provider"]
[Choose Anthropic Claude]

Current API key: sk-ant-api03-****....**** (ends Dec 2025)

Enter new API key: _

[Enter new key]

✓ API key updated
🧪 Testing connection...
✓ Connection successful

Provider Support

Cloud Providers

Provider	API Key Required	Models Available	Setup Guide
Anthropic Claude	Yes	claude-sonnet-4-5, opus, sonnet, haiku	Get API key
OpenAI GPT	Yes	gpt-4, gpt-4-turbo, gpt-3.5-turbo	Get API key
Google Gemini	Yes	gemini-pro, gemini-ultra	Get API key

Local Providers

Provider	Installation	Models Available	Setup Guide
Ollama	Local server	llama2, codellama, mistral, etc.	Install Ollama

Configuration Storage

Provider configurations are stored securely:

~/.lovelace/
├── config.json           # Provider settings and defaults
└── credentials/          # Encrypted API keys
    ├── anthropic.key
    ├── openai.key
    └── google.key

Security:

API keys are encrypted at rest
Credentials never logged or transmitted
File permissions restricted to user only
Keys stored separately from config

Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`	Anthropic API key	-
`OPENAI_API_KEY`	OpenAI API key	-
`GOOGLE_API_KEY`	Google AI API key	-
`OLLAMA_HOST`	Ollama server endpoint	`http://localhost:11434`

Note: Environment variables take precedence over stored credentials.

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
`0`	Setup completed successfully
`1`	Setup failed or was cancelled
`2`	Interactive mode not supported (CI/non-TTY environment)

Tips & Best Practices

Keeping API Keys Secure

Store in environment variables:

bash

# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-api03-..."
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."

# Then run setup without manual entry
lovelace setup

Rotate keys regularly:

bash

# Update keys periodically
lovelace setup
# Select "Update existing provider"

Using Multiple Providers

Configure all providers you have access to:

bash

# Configure all three
lovelace setup
# Set up Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini

# Switch between them easily
lovelace chat --provider openai
lovelace chat --provider anthropic

Local Development with Ollama

Run entirely offline using Ollama:

bash

# Install Ollama
curl -fsSL https://ollama.ai/install.sh | sh

# Start Ollama
ollama serve

# Configure in Lovelace
lovelace setup
# Select Ollama, set as default

# No API costs, full privacy
lovelace chat --provider ollama

Verifying Setup

Check configuration is working:

bash

# 1. Check status
lovelace setup --status

# 2. Test a simple chat
lovelace chat

# 3. Verify provider switching
lovelace chat --provider openai
lovelace chat --provider anthropic

Troubleshooting

Setup Wizard Won't Launch

$ lovelace setup

Error: Interactive mode not supported in this terminal.

Solution: You're in a non-interactive environment (CI/CD, piped output)
Use status-only mode: lovelace setup --status

API Key Invalid

✗ Connection test failed
Error: Invalid API key

Solution:
1. Verify API key is correct (check for extra spaces)
2. Ensure key has proper permissions
3. Check if key has expired
4. Re-run setup: lovelace setup --force

Provider Not Detected

🔍 Detecting providers...
⚠️  Warning: No providers detected

Solution:
1. Install provider (e.g., ollama)
2. Set environment variables (e.g., ANTHROPIC_API_KEY)
3. Or configure manually: lovelace setup --skip-detection

Ollama Connection Failed

✗ Ollama connection failed
Error: Could not connect to http://localhost:11434

Solution:
1. Check if Ollama is running: ollama serve
2. Verify port: echo $OLLAMA_HOST
3. Check firewall settings
4. Try explicit host: OLLAMA_HOST=http://localhost:11434 lovelace setup

Cannot Update Credentials

Error: Failed to save credentials
Permission denied

Solution:
1. Check ~/.lovelace/ permissions: ls -la ~/.lovelace/
2. Fix permissions: chmod 700 ~/.lovelace/
3. Ensure disk space available: df -h

Related Commands

lovelace config - View and manage configuration
lovelace doctor - Diagnose setup issues
lovelace chat - Start using configured providers

Related Guides

Getting Started Guide - First-time setup walkthrough
Provider Configuration - Detailed provider setup
Troubleshooting Guide - Common setup issues

See the Command Reference for all available commands.

Lovelace Developer Portal

lovelace setup

Overview

Usage

Options

Interactive Examples

First-Time Setup

Manual Setup

Configuring a Provider

Configuring Local Provider (Ollama)

Checking Status

Force Re-setup

Skip Provider Detection

Common Use Cases

Initial CLI Setup

Adding a New Provider

Switching Default Provider

Testing Provider Connections

Updating API Keys

Provider Support

Cloud Providers

Local Providers

Configuration Storage

Environment Variables

Exit Codes

Tips & Best Practices

Keeping API Keys Secure

Using Multiple Providers

Local Development with Ollama

Verifying Setup

Troubleshooting

Setup Wizard Won't Launch

API Key Invalid

Provider Not Detected

Ollama Connection Failed

Cannot Update Credentials

Related Commands

Related Guides

Lovelace Developer Portal