Providers
Zurdo drives coding agents exclusively through their CLIs — it shells out to the binary on your PATH, using whatever authentication you’ve already set up. There are no SDKs, no API calls from zurdo itself, and no credentials to hand over.
| Provider | CLI binary | Docs | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | claude |
Claude Code | claude login or ANTHROPIC_API_KEY |
| OpenAI | codex |
Codex CLI | codex login or OPENAI_API_KEY |
| GitHub | copilot |
Copilot CLI | copilot auth login or GITHUB_TOKEN |
For flags, model availability, and CLI behavior beyond what’s here, the vendor docs above are authoritative — those CLIs evolve on their own schedules.
Selecting a provider
The executor provider is one line in .zurdo/config.toml:
[roles.executor]
provider = "anthropic" # or "codex" or "copilot"
zurdo init writes all three [providers.*] and [effort_map.*] blocks, so switching is just editing that line. The analyzer role (used by --analyze) is configured independently and may use a different provider than the executor.
Each [providers.<name>] block lets you rename the binary (if yours isn’t on PATH under the default name) and append extra arguments to every invocation:
[providers.anthropic]
cli = "claude"
extra_args = []
Models and the effort map
Zurdo never hardcodes a model. Each task’s **Effort** label is looked up in [effort_map.<provider>] to pick the model for that invocation — cheap models for trivial tasks, strong models for gnarly ones, in one PRD. See Configuration.
The model probe
Before a run, zurdo probes every mapped model against its provider CLI to catch typos and plan-gated models before any task starts. A rejected model fails pre-flight with exit 4.
zurdo check-models # probe the existing config, write nothing
zurdo init --check-models # probe as part of init
zurdo check-models prints a status table with a row per effort_map entry plus each configured analyzer model, and exits 0 when everything is available or 4 on any unknown/unsupported entry — same semantics as the run pre-flight. Bypass the probe with --skip-model-check (useful in CI against stubbed CLIs).
Copilot and auto
The default Copilot effort map uses auto, which lets the Copilot CLI pick the model. Concrete dotted ids (e.g. claude-sonnet-4.6) are plan-gated — whether they work depends on your Copilot subscription. Probe with zurdo check-models before relying on one.
Skill prefixes
Skills are invoked with different sigils per CLI: /skill-name for Anthropic and Copilot, $skill-name for Codex. List bare names in PRD **Skills** metadata — zurdo applies the right prefix at prompt-render time for whichever provider is executing. Never hand-prefix skill names in a PRD.
Bundled-skill installs also go to provider-specific discovery paths: .claude/skills/<name>/ for Anthropic, .agents/skills/<name>/ for Codex and Copilot. zurdo skills install <name> --provider <p> (repeatable) or --all-providers targets them explicitly.
Cost visibility
The run banner shows the active provider and its resolved effort map, and each iteration reports the model used, token counts, and an estimated cost — so a misconfigured map is visible before and during the run, not after the bill.
Next: Roadmap