From 2647b2d4992f28f6553a35732c35693856762d25 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Daniel Nguyen <danielnguyenh07@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2026 00:29:55 +0800
Subject: [PATCH] feat(config): accept GROQ_API_KEY for Groq-hosted models

Add GROQ_API_KEY as an accepted alias for the LLM key alongside
LLM_API_KEY / OPENAI_API_KEY, so STRIX_LLM="groq/<model>" works with a
provider-native key. Groq models already route through LiteLLM (which
mirrors the configured key to GROQ_API_KEY), so this wires up the alias
plus docs and tests.

Signed-off-by: Daniel Nguyen <danielnguyenh07@gmail.com>
---
 README.md                   |  9 +++++++++
 strix/config/settings.py    |  2 +-
 tests/test_config_loader.py | 17 +++++++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 27 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b2882f6e4..a5c9d3005 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -235,6 +235,15 @@ export PERPLEXITY_API_KEY="your-api-key"  # for search capabilities
 export STRIX_REASONING_EFFORT="high"  # control thinking effort (default: high, quick scan: medium)
 ```
 
+Provider-native keys are also picked up automatically. For example, to use
+[Groq's](https://console.groq.com/) fast inference you can set `GROQ_API_KEY`
+directly instead of `LLM_API_KEY`:
+
+```bash
+export STRIX_LLM="groq/llama-3.3-70b-versatile"
+export GROQ_API_KEY="your-api-key"
+```
+
 > [!NOTE]
 > Strix automatically saves your configuration to `~/.strix/cli-config.json`, so you don't have to re-enter it on every run.
 
diff --git a/strix/config/settings.py b/strix/config/settings.py
index 91fbdef14..04651d877 100644
--- a/strix/config/settings.py
+++ b/strix/config/settings.py
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ class LlmSettings(BaseSettings):
     model: str | None = Field(default=None, alias="STRIX_LLM")
     api_key: str | None = Field(
         default=None,
-        validation_alias=AliasChoices("LLM_API_KEY", "OPENAI_API_KEY"),
+        validation_alias=AliasChoices("LLM_API_KEY", "OPENAI_API_KEY", "GROQ_API_KEY"),
     )
     api_base: str | None = Field(
         default=None,
diff --git a/tests/test_config_loader.py b/tests/test_config_loader.py
index 247c41ffe..f6b48e1f4 100644
--- a/tests/test_config_loader.py
+++ b/tests/test_config_loader.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ _LLM_ENV_KEYS = [
     "STRIX_LLM",
     "LLM_API_KEY",
     "OPENAI_API_KEY",
+    "GROQ_API_KEY",
     "LLM_API_BASE",
     "OPENAI_API_BASE",
     "OPENAI_BASE_URL",
@@ -150,6 +151,22 @@ def test_apply_config_override_invalidates_cache(tmp_path: Path) -> None:
     assert loader.load_settings().llm.model == "second-model"
 
 
+# --------------------------------------------------------------------------- #
+# LLM key aliases
+# --------------------------------------------------------------------------- #
+
+
+def test_groq_api_key_alias_populates_llm_key(monkeypatch: pytest.MonkeyPatch) -> None:
+    monkeypatch.setenv("GROQ_API_KEY", "gsk-test")
+    assert loader.load_settings().llm.api_key == "gsk-test"
+
+
+def test_llm_api_key_takes_precedence_over_groq(monkeypatch: pytest.MonkeyPatch) -> None:
+    monkeypatch.setenv("LLM_API_KEY", "primary")
+    monkeypatch.setenv("GROQ_API_KEY", "gsk-test")
+    assert loader.load_settings().llm.api_key == "primary"
+
+
 # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- #
 # persist_current
 # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- #