ChatAuto

ChatAuto(
    provider_model=None,
    *,
    system_prompt=None,
    provider=DEPRECATED,
    model=DEPRECATED,
    **kwargs,
)

Chat with any provider.

This is a generic interface to all the other Chat*() functions, allowing you to pick the provider (and model) with a simple string.

Prerequisites

API key

Follow the instructions for the specific provider to obtain an API key.

Python requirements

Follow the instructions for the specific provider to install the required Python packages.

Examples

ChatAuto() makes it easy to switch between different chat providers and models.

import pandas as pd
from chatlas import ChatAuto

# Default provider (OpenAI) & model
chat = ChatAuto()
print(chat.provider.name)
print(chat.provider.model)

# Different provider (Anthropic) & default model
chat = ChatAuto("anthropic")

# List models available through the provider
models = chat.list_models()
print(pd.DataFrame(models))

# Choose specific provider/model (Claude Sonnet 4)
chat = ChatAuto("anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-0")

The default provider/model can also be controlled through an environment variable:

export CHATLAS_CHAT_PROVIDER_MODEL="anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-0"

from chatlas import ChatAuto

chat = ChatAuto()
print(chat.provider.name)   # anthropic
print(chat.provider.model)  # claude-sonnet-4-0

For application-specific configurations, consider defining your own environment variables:

export MYAPP_PROVIDER_MODEL="google/gemini-2.5-flash"

And passing them to ChatAuto() as an alternative way to configure the provider/model:

import os
from chatlas import ChatAuto

chat = ChatAuto(os.getenv("MYAPP_PROVIDER_MODEL"))
print(chat.provider.name)   # google
print(chat.provider.model)  # gemini-2.5-flash

Parameters

Name	Type	Description	Default
provider_model	Optional[str]	The name of the provider and model to use in the format "{provider}/{model}". Providers are strings formatted in kebab-case, e.g. to use ChatBedrockAnthropic set provider="bedrock-anthropic", and models are the provider-specific model names, e.g. "claude-3-7-sonnet-20250219". The /{model} portion may also be omitted, in which case, the default model for that provider will be used. If no value is provided, the CHATLAS_CHAT_PROVIDER_MODEL environment variable will be consulted for a fallback value. If this variable is also not set, a default value of "openai" is used.	None
system_prompt	Optional[str]	A system prompt to set the behavior of the assistant.	None
provider	AutoProviders | DEPRECATED_TYPE	Deprecated; use provider_model instead.	DEPRECATED
model	str | DEPRECATED_TYPE	Deprecated; use provider_model instead.	DEPRECATED
**kwargs		Additional keyword arguments to pass to the Chat constructor. See the documentation for each provider for more details on the available options. These arguments can also be provided via the CHATLAS_CHAT_ARGS environment variable as a JSON string. When any additional arguments are provided to ChatAuto(), the env var is ignored. Note that system_prompt and turns can’t be set via environment variables. They must be provided/set directly to/on ChatAuto().	{}

Note

If you want to work with a specific provider, but don’t know what models are available (or the exact model name), use ChatAuto('provider_name').list_models() to list available models. Another option is to use the provider more directly (e.g., ChatAnthropic()). There, the model parameter may have type hints for available models.

Returns

Name	Type	Description
	Chat	A chat instance using the specified provider.

Raises

Name	Type	Description
	ValueError	If no valid provider is specified either through parameters or environment variables.