Models & Providers

Spectacle is model-agnostic. You can switch models mid-conversation, keep sensitive documents strictly on-device, or access frontier cloud models without leaving the canvas.

Supported Model Tiers

1. Local Models (On Device)

• Bundled directly with the Spectacle desktop app.
• Runs 100% offline with zero network requests and no account required.
• Sensitive notes and marked cards are strictly enforced in code to never leave local models.

2. Bring Your Own Key (BYOK)

• Connect your own provider with one of three key types:
  • Anthropic — Claude models directly.
  • OpenAI — GPT models directly.
  • OpenAI-Compatible — any endpoint that speaks the OpenAI API, including Gemini, Groq, Ollama, vLLM, or your own proxy.
• Your keys are stored securely in your system keychain and never touch Spectacle servers.
• Billed directly by your AI provider at raw token cost.

3. Spectacle Cloud

• Managed frontier models, ready out of the box.
• No API keys or rate limits to manage.
• Usage is measured in AI credits: 1 credit = $0.01 of model use, charged at the real cost of the model that ran. Choose a model, or let Auto pick.
• Available with Spectacle Cloud Pro and Team subscriptions.

Model Roles

A model provider can be assigned to any of four roles, and each role can use a different model. Any role can be skipped or turned Off to run the app in canvas-only mode.

• Primary: The model behind the chat beside your canvas and the agent that proposes changes.
• Background: Lightweight work such as embeddings, titling, and summaries.
• Voice: Speech input, where supported.
• Vision: Reading images and sketches on the canvas.

Local Storage Encryption (SQLCipher vs. Standard SQLite)

By default, release builds of Spectacle Desktop encrypt your local database (spectacle.db) at rest with SQLCipher. The encryption key lives in your system Keychain, and a one-time Recovery Key is shown in Settings → Security so you can recover your data if you lose access to the Keychain.

You can turn encryption off in Settings → Security → Local Database Encryption (or by setting SPECTACLE_ENCRYPTION=off). With encryption off, Spectacle stores a standard, unencrypted SQLite 3 file you can open with sqlite3, TablePlus, Datasette, or any other SQLite tool. Either way, your data stays on your computer in a documented, portable format.