Provider ${providerName}: must specify "baseUrl", "headers",

Error message

Provider ${providerName}: must specify "baseUrl", "headers", "apiKey", "auth: none", "compat", "disableStrictTools", "guardrailIdentifier", "remoteCompaction", "modelOverrides", "discovery", or "models"

What it means

validateProviderConfiguration rejects a provider entry that is effectively empty: in models-config mode with no `models` array, the config must contribute at least one meaningful setting (baseUrl, headers, apiKey, auth:none, compat, disableStrictTools, guardrailIdentifier, remoteCompaction, modelOverrides, or discovery). A provider stanza that sets none of these has nothing to apply and is rejected rather than silently ignored.

Source

Thrown at packages/coding-agent/src/config/models-config.ts:59

	const hasProviderApi = !!config.api;
	const models = config.models;

	if (models.length === 0) {
		if (mode === "models-config") {
			const hasModelOverrides = config.modelOverrides && Object.keys(config.modelOverrides).length > 0;
			if (
				!config.baseUrl &&
				!config.headers &&
				!config.compat &&
				!config.apiKey &&
				config.auth !== "none" &&
				!config.disableStrictTools &&
				!config.guardrailIdentifier &&
				!config.remoteCompaction &&
				!hasModelOverrides &&
				!config.discovery
			) {
				throw new Error(
					`Provider ${providerName}: must specify "baseUrl", "headers", "apiKey", "auth: none", "compat", "disableStrictTools", "guardrailIdentifier", "remoteCompaction", "modelOverrides", "discovery", or "models"`,
				);
			}
		}
	} else {
		if (!config.baseUrl) {
			throw new Error(`Provider ${providerName}: "baseUrl" is required when defining custom models.`);
		}
		const requiresAuth =
			mode === "runtime-register"
				? !config.apiKey && !config.oauthConfigured
				: !config.apiKey && (config.auth ?? "apiKey") !== "none" && (config.auth ?? "apiKey") !== "oauth";
		if (requiresAuth) {
			throw new Error(
				mode === "runtime-register"
					? `Provider ${providerName}: "apiKey" or "oauth" is required when defining models.`
					: `Provider ${providerName}: "apiKey" is required when defining custom models unless auth is "none" or "oauth".`,
			);

View on GitHub (pinned to 9690622007)

Solutions

Add the intended setting — most commonly `baseUrl` plus `apiKey` — to the provider stanza.
If the provider was a leftover placeholder, delete the stanza entirely.
If you only wanted global tweaks, use the correct key (compat, modelOverrides, disableStrictTools, etc.) recognized by the schema.

Example fix

// before (models.json)
"providers": { "mygw": {} }
// after
"providers": { "mygw": { "baseUrl": "https://gw.example.com/v1", "apiKey": "sk-...", "models": [{ "id": "mini" }] } }

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

function providerStanzaMeaningful(cfg: Record<string, unknown>): boolean {
  const keys = ["baseUrl", "headers", "apiKey", "auth", "compat", "disableStrictTools", "guardrailIdentifier", "remoteCompaction", "modelOverrides", "discovery", "models"];
  return keys.some(k => cfg[k] !== undefined);
}

Type guard

function isConfigurableProvider(cfg: object): cfg is { baseUrl: string } & Record<string, unknown> {
  return "baseUrl" in cfg || "models" in cfg || "discovery" in cfg;
}

Try / catch

try {
  modelsConfig.apply(parsed);
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof Error && err.message.includes('must specify "baseUrl"')) {
    const provider = err.message.match(/Provider ([^:]+):/)?.[1];
    logger.warn(`Provider ${provider} stanza is empty; removing or filling it required`);
  }
  throw err;
}

Prevention

Delete placeholder provider stanzas instead of leaving them empty.
Validate models.json against the schema in CI to catch empty blocks before runtime.
After config migrations, diff provider blocks for keys dropped by renames.
Every provider entry should carry at least baseUrl or models.

When it happens

Trigger: Defining a provider in models.json / the models config file (via ModelsConfigFile, or indirectly through registerProvider) with only a name — e.g. `{ "providers": { "mygw": {} } }` or a stanza containing only unrelated keys like `name`/`description`.

Common situations: Hand-editing models.json and leaving a placeholder provider; deleting the baseUrl line while keeping the provider block; migrating configs where the old key names were dropped by a schema change, leaving an empty stanza.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of can1357/oh-my-pi@9690622007 (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b8ef32abf7ba411f. Report an issue: GitHub.