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Get, set or clear the default chat

Source: R/chat-default.R
get_default_chat.Rd

get_default_chat() returns the ellmer Chat that dsprrr uses when neither the call nor the module names one. set_default_chat() sets it for the rest of the session; dsp_configure() does the same from a provider name. clear_default_chat() forgets a chat that was created from an API key, so the next call detects one again, for example after you change the key.

Usage

get_default_chat(create = TRUE)

set_default_chat(chat)

clear_default_chat()

Arguments

create

If TRUE (the default), create a chat from an API key when none is set (step 5), and error if that fails. If FALSE, return NULL instead of creating one.

chat

An ellmer Chat, or NULL to remove the default set earlier.

Value

get_default_chat() returns an ellmer Chat, or NULL when create = FALSE and none is set. set_default_chat() returns the previous default (or NULL) invisibly, and clear_default_chat() returns NULL invisibly.

Details

How dsprrr chooses a chat

Each model call uses the first of these that is available:

  1. The .llm argument of run(), run_dataset(), evaluate(), compile() and the other functions that call models.

  2. The chat stored on the module, from the chat argument of module() and the other constructors.

  3. A chat set for a block of code with with_lm() or local_lm().

  4. The default chat set with set_default_chat() or dsp_configure() (stored in options(dsprrr.default_chat)).

  5. A chat created from the first API key found in the environment: OPENAI_API_KEY gives ellmer::chat_openai(), ANTHROPIC_API_KEY gives ellmer::chat_anthropic() and GOOGLE_API_KEY gives ellmer::chat_google_gemini(), each with the provider's default model. It is created once, with a message naming the provider and model (set options(dsprrr.quiet = TRUE) to silence it), and reused until clear_default_chat().

If none is available, the call fails with an error that explains how to set one up. get_default_chat() returns the first of steps 3 to 5.

See also

Other configuration: cache_stats(), clear_cache(), configure_cache(), dsp_configure(), dsprrr_sitrep(), is_reasoning_model(), with_lm()

Examples

# Building a chat makes no request, so this runs without an API key
luna <- ellmer::chat_openai(model = "gpt-6-luna")
previous <- set_default_chat(luna)
get_default_chat()$get_model()
#> [1] "gpt-6-luna"

# Restore the previous default (here: none)
set_default_chat(previous)

# Forget a chat detected from an API key
clear_default_chat()