Open-Source Model APIs
For sustained research, Praxist generally favors APIs serving capable open-source or open-weight models when a representative run demonstrates high cache reuse, sufficient research quality, and stable throughput. This is a selection policy, not a hidden runtime default: the operator still chooses the profile during setup.
Current Shortlist¶
| Priority | Option | Selection note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | DeepSeek V4 Pro | Praxist provides a maintained direct API profile. Evaluate it first where the service is available and appropriate for the project. |
| 2 | Open-source models through OpenRouter | Use the OpenRouter profile when routing flexibility matters. Select the exact model explicitly and verify that its route reports useful cache reuse. |
| 3 | Operator-managed open-source model endpoints | Add or select a compatible provider plugin when deployment policy requires a private or self-hosted endpoint. Validate the plugin contract before a long run. |
The order is a practical starting point, not a claim that one model is best for every task. Availability, pricing, model behavior, and provider-side caching can change independently.
Validate Before a Long Run¶
- Run a short, representative workload through the intended agent runtime and API route.
- Confirm output quality against the task's normal evaluator rather than a provider-specific proxy.
- Inspect cached and uncached input usage, latency, and failures in the run artifacts.
- Keep the selected route only when the total cost and research quality are acceptable together.
Praxist preserves stable prompt prefixes where the selected route supports them, but no model name alone guarantees a high cache-hit rate. See Cost Optimization for the cache contract and API Providers for supported provider shapes.