AI models

SignalScout asks an AI model to do five different jobs. Each job can use its own model, because the jobs have different shapes: one runs on every post, one runs once per monitor, and one writes text with your name on it.

The five jobs

Job	What it does	Which model
Writing the search plan	Turns your four answers into the phrases and channels a monitor searches.	Your strongest model. It runs once per monitor, and it decides every post the monitor will ever collect.
Similarity	Compares a post with your monitor before any model is paid to read it.	An embedding model. Optional.
Triage	Asks one question about each post: could this author be a person to reach?	A model that is cheaper than scoring and reliable at this question, or none: turn it off.
Scoring posts	Reads a post and scores it.	A good model. This is the most expensive call.
Drafting a reply	Writes the reply you see when you press Draft reply.	A model that writes well. It never posts anything.

Set the model

The simplest setup is one provider and one model for everything, in .env:

AI_PROVIDER=anthropic   # openai | anthropic | google | deepseek | openrouter | ollama
AI_MODEL=claude-haiku-4-5
AI_API_KEY=

With AI_PROVIDER=ollama, you need no key: SignalScout talks to a model on your own machine at http://localhost:11434/v1.

To give one job its own model, open Models in the sidebar. Each job opens its own settings, and the screen suggests a model for your provider. Or set the job's variables in .env: AI_TRIAGE_*, AI_DRAFT_*, AI_PLAN_* and AI_EMBEDDING_*. The configuration reference lists them all.

Two rules that save money

Triage needs a model that is cheap and reliable, or none at all.

• Cheap, because triage reads every post the free filters keep, and scoring then reads the ones triage keeps. The saving is only the price difference between the two models. With the same model on both, triage makes the bill larger, not smaller.
• Reliable, because a post triage drops never reaches scoring and never reaches your inbox. A cheap model that drops real leads saves money by losing the leads you run SignalScout for, and nothing shows it.

If you have no model that is both, set AI_TRIAGE=off. Every post then goes to scoring: it costs more, and it hides nothing. If you do run triage, watch the monitor page for a while: it counts the posts triage kept back. Many drops and a quiet inbox is the sign to turn it off and compare.

Similarity needs a provider that has embeddings. Anthropic and DeepSeek do not offer embeddings. On those, name another provider in AI_EMBEDDING_PROVIDER, or the similarity stage stays off. Off drops nothing; it only means more posts reach triage.

Prices

SignalScout knows the prices of the common models, and shows an estimated cost for each call. For a model it does not know, the cost shows as unknown, never as a guess. Set the price yourself with the *_PRICE_MICROS settings, in millionths of a dollar per million tokens, or on the Models screen. What it costs you explains the estimates.