---
title: "Models"
description: "The unit people create, share, call, and pay for."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.noket.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Models

A **model** is the thing Noket manages. It has a public id, an owner, a source, limits, and an audience.
Everything else in Noket exists to feed a model, serve it, or account for it.

## What a model contains

| Field | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| Name | What people see in their model list. |
| Slug | The owner-chosen part of the public id. Unique within the owner's account. |
| Public id | `owner-username/slug`, for example `alice/llama-3.1-8b`. |
| Source | An external API, or one upstream model id on one tunnel node. |
| State | Draft, active, or paused. |
| Price and limits | What a call is charged and how much may be spent. |
| Members | Accounts that can call it, with their roles and limits. |

## The public id

People call the public id, not the provider's model name. The id is resolved at request time to the
model's source and then to the internal provider model id. That indirection is what lets a model move
between sources, or hide which provider and account serve it, without changing what callers send.

The owner may call the bare slug when it is unambiguous. Everyone else, and every shared model, uses
the qualified `owner/slug` form.

## Sources

A model has exactly one source at a time:

- **External API** — Noket calls an OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible endpoint with credentials stored
  for that model. This is how you share a provider account you already have.
- **Tunnel node** — Noket reaches the model through the connector on a machine you run. The connector holds the
  upstream configuration and key; Noket never sees them in plaintext and the browser never receives
  them.

The console shows which source a model uses on its card and under **Overview**. A tunnel model is
available only while the connector that hosts it is connected.

## One model, one upstream model id

A model binds one public id to one upstream model id. Two models may point at the same server or
provider account; each has its own limits, usage, members, and price, and spending on one does not
count against the other.

## State

- **Draft** — created but not callable, even by its owner. Use it to review configuration and test the
  connection before anyone can call it.
- **Active** — callable by everyone with access.
- **Paused** — new requests are refused; access and usage are kept. The owner can resume it.

An expired or exhausted limit is not a state; the model stays active and requests fail until the limit
resets or is raised.

## Sharing

A model is the only thing shared. Members get access to a model, not to its upstream, its node, or its
credentials. They call it with their own Noket API key, which also keeps working for their other
models.

See [Sharing and limits](https://docs.noket.dev/concepts/sharing-and-limits/) and
[Share a model](https://docs.noket.dev/console/models/sharing/).

## Next

- [Upstreams](https://docs.noket.dev/concepts/upstreams/)
- [How the tunnel works](https://docs.noket.dev/concepts/how-the-tunnel-works/)
- [Add a model](https://docs.noket.dev/console/models/add-model/)

Source: https://docs.noket.dev/concepts/models/index.mdx