Features

• 🚀 Ready in minutes — install, sign in, and start chatting.
• 🔀 Native model picker — choose your models directly in Copilot Chat.
• 🧠 Reasoning built in — pick the thinking effort and follow reasoning live.
• 📊 Quota at a glance — see remaining usage and redeem available Codex resets with confirmation.
• ✨ More than chat — generate commit messages, titles, and summaries.
• 👥 Account load balancing — add multiple accounts for the same provider; CLIProxyAPI distributes requests round-robin across available accounts and skips those in cooldown.

Demo

Quick start

Requires VS Code 1.131+ and the GitHub Copilot Chat extension.

1. Install — get Universal Chat Provider from the VS Code Marketplace. Prefer to build it yourself? See Development.
2. Add an account — accept the Add Account prompt (or run Universal Chat Provider: Add Account), pick a provider, and complete OAuth in your browser. Models refresh automatically.
3. Chat — open Copilot Chat and select a model under Universal Chat Provider.

Manage everything from the status bar item or the Universal Chat Provider: Manage Provider command — inspect quota, redeem OpenAI-provided Codex reset credits, list/remove accounts, restart, update, or reset the managed server.

Commit messages, titles, and summaries

Let your models handle Copilot's light background tasks and Explore searches. Run Universal Chat Provider: Set Utility Model (or use the status bar menu), pick a model (and thinking effort), done. A small, fast, inexpensive model is usually the best fit. Clear it to undo.

How it works

The command points Copilot's chat.utilityModel, chat.utilitySmallModel, and chat.exploreAgent.defaultModel settings at your selected model, so commit messages, chat titles, summaries, and Explore searches run through your accounts. It also sets chat.byokUtilityModelDefault to mainAgent, so remaining utility flows fall back to your selected chat model instead of Copilot's. When the model supports thinking levels, the command also asks for the utility Thinking Effort; commit messages use chat.utilitySmallModel plus that effort. No Copilot subscription required.

How it works

The extension runs CLIProxyAPI locally and registers its models with VS Code. Your subscriptions then appear directly in the Copilot Chat model picker.

Reference

Settings

Key	Description	Type	Default
▿ Connection
universalChatProvider.server.mode	How CLIProxyAPI is provided.	string	"managed"
universalChatProvider.baseUrl	CLIProxyAPI server URL. Used only in external mode.	string	"http://127.0.0.1:8317"
universalChatProvider.configPath	Optional CLIProxyAPI config.yaml path for credential and model metadata discovery.	string	""
universalChatProvider.autoDetectConfig	Search common CLIProxyAPI config locations when no config path is set.	boolean	true
▿ Managed Server
universalChatProvider.server.updatePolicy	How managed CLIProxyAPI updates are handled.	string	"automatic"
universalChatProvider.server.version	CLIProxyAPI release used when update policy is Manual. Use latest or an exact version.	string	"latest"
universalChatProvider.server.proxyUrl	Optional upstream proxy URL for the managed CLIProxyAPI server. Changes prompt before restarting.	string	""
▿ Status Bar
universalChatProvider.showQuotaWarnings	Warn in the status bar when the model in use is low on quota.	boolean	true
universalChatProvider.quotaWarningThreshold	Remaining-quota percent below which the status bar warning appears.	number	10
▿ Advanced
universalChatProvider.debugLevel	Diagnostic detail to collect. Request Logging prompts before restarting the managed server and writes sensitive payloads to disk.	string	"off"

Commands

Command	Title
universalChatProvider.manage	Universal Chat Provider: Manage Provider
universalChatProvider.login	Universal Chat Provider: Add Account (Login)
universalChatProvider.manageAccounts	Universal Chat Provider: Manage Accounts
universalChatProvider.showQuota	Universal Chat Provider: Show Quota
universalChatProvider.restartServer	Universal Chat Provider: Restart Managed Server
universalChatProvider.updateBinary	Universal Chat Provider: Update Proxy Binary
universalChatProvider.resetServer	Universal Chat Provider: Reset Managed Server
universalChatProvider.configure	Universal Chat Provider: Configure Connection
universalChatProvider.importConfig	Universal Chat Provider: Import API Key from Config
universalChatProvider.refresh	Universal Chat Provider: Refresh Models
universalChatProvider.setUtilityModel	Universal Chat Provider: Set Utility Model (commit messages, chat titles, summaries)
universalChatProvider.clearCredentials	Universal Chat Provider: Clear Stored API Key
universalChatProvider.showLogs	Universal Chat Provider: Show Logs
universalChatProvider.showServerLogs	Universal Chat Provider: Show Server Output
universalChatProvider.openSettings	Universal Chat Provider: Open Settings

Advanced

Managed-server updates

Updates download automatically by default and restart the managed server as soon as no requests are active. Change universalChatProvider.server.updatePolicy to suggestUpdates or manual if you'd rather review or pin them yourself. Manual mode uses the configured version, which defaults to latest; enter an exact version to pin it.

Bring your own CLIProxyAPI server

Prefer to run CLIProxyAPI yourself, such as on a remote or shared machine?

1. Set universalChatProvider.server.mode to external.
2. Start CLIProxyAPI and complete the provider login there.
3. Use the Import API Key notification action when a local config is found, or run Configure Connection to enter the URL and key manually.

The API key is stored in VS Code SecretStorage. In external mode, the extension never starts or stops the server. If the server exposes a plaintext remote-management.secret-key, the Add Account and Manage Accounts commands work against it too.

Development

pnpm install
pnpm vscode:dts
pnpm check          # lint + typecheck + tests + build
pnpm ext:package    # produce an installable .vsix

Press F5 from VS Code Insiders to launch the Extension Development Host with the proposed APIs enabled.

License

MIT · Not affiliated with GitHub, OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google.