Your agents have expensive taste.

Connect your agents to Phantom AI. Route models, control spending and pay from your terminal.

pai by Phantom AI · Docs · npm

Use Phantom AI's router to send requests to cheaper models when your rules allow it, or choose a model yourself. Connect the coding agents you already use, fund their inference and pay per request—all from your terminal.

Install the agent skill

Teach your agent how to use pai:

npx skills add connortessaro/pai --skill phantom-ai

Choose your agent when prompted. The skill covers workspace setup, funding, spending controls and model routing. Install the pai CLI separately using the quickstart below. Skill docs · Vercel Skills

Let your agent set it up

Copy this into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or another agent with terminal access:

Help me set up pai for AI inference through Phantom AI.

Read https://raw.githubusercontent.com/connortessaro/pai/main/skills/phantom-ai/SKILL.md first.
Check that I have Node 24 or newer, then install @connortessaro/pai if needed.
Check for an existing workspace and saved keys before changing anything.
If I need to connect, start pai login and let me complete the device approval.
Check the workspace balance. Ask which coding agent I use and what budget I want,
then create a named workspace key with that cap, or help me choose MPP payments.
Ask whether I want to connect my existing agent for future runs or use a temporary
connection for one run. For saved setup, preview the changes with pai setup --dry-run
and show them to me before applying the setup I approve. Make sure any spending cap
is on the key my agent will actually use. Ask before adding funds or starting paid
inference. Keep keys and recovery credentials out of chat. Finish with the command
to launch my agent, and explain how to undo any saved setup.

For agents that can fetch instructions directly:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/connortessaro/pai/main/skills/phantom-ai/SKILL.md

This reads the same instructions pai installs as its agent skill. It does not install software or make a payment.

Connect your existing agents

Keep using your coding agent, with Phantom AI handling its inference and model routing. Connect it using your saved key:

npm i -g @connortessaro/pai
pai login
pai setup

Pai detects supported agents, previews the configuration changes, then asks before applying them. It connects their model calls to Phantom AI and wires up the saved key. Restart your agent, or open a new terminal, to use the connection.

Codex, Claude Code, opencode, Continue, Goose, Aider, GitHub Copilot CLI and Cline support saved setup. Cursor gets instructions for its settings screen; pi gets the agent skill. Agent-specific setup.

Preview without changing files with pai setup --dry-run. Pai keeps backups; undo the changes with pai setup --restore.

Connect for one run

npm i -g @connortessaro/pai
pai login
pai workspace fund --amount 10 --card
pai workspace status
pai codex

Both setup options require Node 24+ and your coding agent installed. Connect, fund your workspace, then launch Codex (pai codex), Claude Code (pai claude), pi (pai pi), or any other compatible agent. Set up other agents.

Login opens a device approval page and saves a key privately. Funding opens checkout; check your workspace balance after payment. Agent runs use temporary configuration and print spending afterward. Your existing agent configuration stays in place.

Already have a Phantom key? Use pai login --paste to save it locally.

Pay for inference

Pay from your wallet

Use MPP to pay for inference from a Tempo wallet as your agent runs:

pai codex --mpp --limit 10

Pai asks for wallet approval when needed. --limit 10 sets the maximum session deposit; it does not cap the cost of the whole run. For a fixed spending cap, use a workspace key below. How wallet limits work.

Fund a workspace

Add credit first, then let your agents spend from the shared balance. With a configured pay.sh wallet, add $10 of Solana USDC using x402:

pai workspace fund --amount 10 --pay --x402
pai workspace payment --id <payment-id>

Credit is available after the payment is verified. If a payment is pending, check the payment ID pai printed before sending another payment. x402 funding must be enabled on the Phantom server.

You can also fund a workspace by card or Solana crypto. Workspace funding is separate from paying directly through Tempo MPP sessions. Funding and payment details.

Give each agent a budget

Create a key with its own cap, sharing your workspace balance:

pai keys create --save coding --limit 5
pai claude --key coding
pai keys list
pai keys set --id <key-id> --limit 10

Workspace key controls include total limits, periodic budgets and spending rates. Use the full key ID from pai keys list when changing or revoking a key. Revoking a workspace key preserves workspace funds.

Choose what answers

Let the router choose a model for auto requests. Your policy can prefer cheaper models and change the choice for tool use, reasoning or spending limits:

PHANTOM_KEY_NAME=coding pai route set --models <model-a>,<model-b>
PHANTOM_KEY_NAME=coding pai route test --table

Prefer a specific model? Select it in your agent. Policies that apply only to auto leave explicit model choices alone. Routing covers conditions, fallback and conversation affinity.

Commands

Task	Commands
Connect	pai login, pai logout
Connect existing agents	pai setup, pai setup --dry-run, pai setup --restore
Run inference	pai claude, pai codex, pai pi
Fund and check spending	pai workspace fund, pai workspace status, pai balance
Manage workspace keys	pai keys create, pai keys set, pai keys rotate, pai keys revoke
Manage local copies	pai keys saved, pai keys save, pai keys rm
Route models	pai route

Put pai flags before agent arguments; use -- to separate them:

pai codex --key coding -- exec "explain this repository"

Commands print JSON; --table renders supported results for people. Agent commands inherit the terminal and print a spending summary on stderr. Exit codes: 0 success, 1 error, 2 rejected key; agent runs return the agent's exit code.

Advanced tools, integrations and legacy commands

pai --help shows the main workflows. pai --help --all and the interface reference cover every command.

• Signed receipts: check which model answered with pai verify.
• MCP tools: pai mcp for clients that need a stdio server.
• Direct-key purchases: existing pai buy and pai payment workflows remain supported.
• Saved secrets: macOS Keychain or private files; guest recovery uses pai workspace export and pai workspace import.
• Key selection and API address: environment overrides and shell integration.

The historical pai key commands and phantom-key executable still work. pai keys list reads the workspace; pai keys saved lists local copies. pai keys show prints a secret for shell integration; keep it out of chat and logs.

Development and contributing

npm ci
npm run typecheck
npm run build
npm run coverage
npm run docs
node scripts/gen-docs.mjs --check

See CONTRIBUTING.md and SECURITY.md.

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The CLI is MIT licensed; Phantom AI is the hosted API it calls.