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Set up your models.

Choose the model Ape thinks with, keep your keys in the vault, and connect the models Create uses for images, video, music, sound and voice. None of it is tied to one provider.

Give Ape a model

You can type to Ape before it has a model. When you send the message, Set up Ape opens in the Models page of Settings and keeps your message waiting. Each row there is one way to give Ape a model. It shows what Grapple found on your computer and the one thing left to do.

  1. Open the Ape tab and send your first request, or open Settings (Ctrl+,) and go to Models.
  2. Pick the row that suits you: Claude Code or Codex, an API key, or a model on this computer. The sections below walk through each.
  3. Finish the one step the row asks for. Ape then answers the message you left waiting.

Later, the model and effort chips in Ape's composer change the model and how much it thinks, for the chat you're in.

Use Claude Code or Codex

If you already pay for Claude Code or Codex, Ape can think with it on your own sign-in.

  1. On the row for Claude Code or Codex, let Grapple install the program if it isn't on your computer yet.
  2. Sign in through the terminal Grapple opens for it.
  3. Press the button to turn on its model. A Claude Code you already use is found as it is.

Both need a paid plan with their provider.

Use an API key

  1. On the API key row, choose the provider: Anthropic, DeepSeek, Google Gemini, OpenAI, OpenRouter or xAI.
  2. Paste the key from your account with that provider. Grapple keeps it in the vault and sends it only to that provider.
  3. Choose the model Ape should use.

The provider bills you as you go, under your own account with them.

Use a model on your computer

  1. Start Ollama or LM Studio and load a model. Any OpenAI-compatible server at another address works too.
  2. On the row for a model on this computer, enter the server's address if Grapple hasn't found it.
  3. Choose the model, named as the server lists it.

Ape edits through tools, so pick a model that handles tool use well. The row warns when a small model may struggle with them.

Keep keys in the vault

The Vault page in Settings stores secrets encrypted and never shows them again. Each secret goes only to the hosts you list for it, and the vault shows where it goes and what uses it.

Connect models for Create

Each page in Create uses a model that declares that kind of work, and the page is built from what the model declares: its inputs, outputs, actions and progress. Connect a different model and the page changes to match it.

Google Gemini
Images, video and speech.
OpenAI
Images.
Google Vertex AI
Images, video and extending a video.

Grapple comes with these connections. The Music and Sound effects pages use the model you connect for them. More providers can be added as provider packages, or you can ask Ape to add one: tell it the provider and the model, and add the key in the vault when it asks.

Ape can use any connected model through its tools, so "make a whoosh for the transition" uses the same sound model you would.

Let other agents use Grapple

Claude Code, Codex and your other AI agents can use Grapple through MCP, with the same tools, checks and History as Ape.

  1. In Settings, open Other agents and turn on Let other agents use Grapple.
  2. Copy the command for your client and run it there. Each one has a Copy button.
  3. The agent's first tool call opens a prompt. Choose Allow, Always allow or Deny.

The connection listens only on your computer, behind a token only your account can read. History credits each agent by name, and the Stage, Timeline and History refresh as it works.

Charges and data

Models you connect are billed by their provider under your own account or plan, so check their pricing, especially for video.

A Create run sends the provider the prompt, settings and references you gave it. Ape's model receives what Ape reads while it works, including project details, transcripts and the frames it renders.