Tuning LLM configuration

The LLM Config page in the sidebar is where you go beyond the "paste one API key and roll" defaults. You probably don't need it in your first session. Come back when you want to:

  • Connect a second provider, or a second key on the same provider.
  • Change which model a call site uses (dialogue, mission decomposition, research…).
  • Set up a fallback chain (primary configuration fails → retry on the next one).
  • Restyle the whole setup in one click with a configuration mode.

A Project selector sits at the top of the page: System (default) edits the shared configuration; picking a project scopes your changes to that project only.

The six tabs

The page is organised as six tabs: Providers, Tools, Presets, Call Sites, Prompts, Modes.

  1. Providers — the providers you've connected and the credentials (API keys) attached to each. This is where keys live.
  2. Tools — coding-agent tooling for the coder fleet: the default tool, variant and model coders run with, and how many can run at once. Most testers never touch it.
  3. Presets — saved model configurations built from steps. Step 0 is the primary configuration; additional steps form the fallback chain.
  4. Call Sites — every place the product calls a model, grouped Research / Planning / Build. Attach a preset or manage a site's existing overrides here. This is the main lever you'll use.
  5. Prompts — per-site system prompt adjustments: add a preamble in front of the default prompt, or replace it entirely, with an Effective prompt preview.
  6. Modes — one-click switches that apply a named configuration across all call sites at once.

Common things you'll want to do

Add a provider and a key

Open the Providers tab. Click Add Provider and fill in a Name, the Provider Kind (Anthropic, OpenAI / Synthetic, Ollama or JetBrains) and optionally an Endpoint (leave blank for the provider's default). Then expand the provider row and click Add Credential: give the key a Label, optionally a Rate Limit Group and a Priority, and paste the API Key.

Click Test on the credential row to check that the key authenticates. The provider row has its own Test button too — it tests the highest-priority active credential.

A provider can hold several credentials. They are tried in priority order, and the ▲/▼ buttons move a key earlier or later in that order. A key that starts failing can be Quarantined (and reactivated later) without deleting it.

Pick which model a call site uses

Open the Call Sites tab. Sites are grouped by layer — Research (dialogue and research sites), Planning (mission decomposition), Build (execution). Find the card you want — for example Dialogue, or Mission Decomposition — and expand it. Pick a preset from the — Select preset — dropdown to apply it to that site — attaching a preset is how you choose the model. The Site Overrides section below lists any overrides already in effect on the site; the ✕ button resets one back to its default.

Dialogue is the most conversation-heavy site; decomposition is where mission plans are written. Moving either up or down a model tier is the cheapest way to trade quality against cost.

Set up a fallback chain

Fallback chains live inside presets. Open the Presets tab and create or edit a preset: it is a list of Steps, where step 0 is the primary configuration and each additional step is tried in turn if the previous one fails. Attach the preset to the call sites you care about from the Call Sites tab.

A common chain: an Anthropic step first, a Synthetic step second. Day-to-day runs on your Anthropic quota; if it's exhausted, the Synthetic flat-rate step picks up and keeps things moving.

Separately, within one provider, multiple credentials fail over by priority order (see above) — no preset needed for that.

Apply a mode

The Modes tab holds named whole-configuration switches — cards like Economy Mode, Max Intelligence, Synthetic Only, Local (Ollama) or Reset All. Click Apply on a card to preview and apply it across all call sites at once. You can also capture your current setup as a new mode (Capture Current State as Mode), and an application history at the bottom records who applied what, when.

Switch to a Synthetic.new model

ARDS recognises Synthetic models by the hf: prefix (e.g. hf:deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3.2). Connect a Synthetic credential on an OpenAI / Synthetic provider, then pick an hf: model in a preset step.

Things to know

  • Changes apply immediately. The next call (dialogue turn, next task) uses the new config. In-flight calls finish on whatever config they started with.
  • Every call is snapshotted. The LLM Snapshots page is a per-call viewer — it records the resolved configuration and provenance of each LLM call. Query it by time range and call site to retrace "what setup produced this output". Captured request/response text is purged after 7 days; snapshot rows after 30.
  • Cost surprises are real. Moving everything up a model tier can multiply spend several times over. Watch the Costs page after big config changes.

When to leave it alone

For your first three or four missions, leave the defaults in place: dialogue sites default to Opus, and research and mission decomposition default to Sonnet 4.5. The LLM Config page is powerful but exposes a lot — don't tune it until you've felt the baseline behaviour.