AI Connections

AI Connections

TREK's AI features run on a language model from a provider you choose. The AI connection is that link: which provider answers, with which account or key, and which model. The AI Assistant runs on it, and AI Parsing can read your imported bookings with the same connection, so one setup serves both.

MCP works the other way round and needs no AI connection in TREK: there an AI app outside TREK brings its own model and talks to TREK.

Providers

Provider	How you connect	Notes
Anthropic	API key	Claude Max and Team include API credits.
OpenAI	API key	Create a key in your OpenAI dashboard.
Gemini	API key	AI Studio has a free tier with limits per minute and per day, on which Google may use what you send to improve its products. With billing turned on the limits are higher and that does not apply.
OpenRouter	API key, or Connect OpenRouter	Signing in with OpenRouter hands TREK a key, no copying needed. Offered only when TREK runs on an https:// address, because OpenRouter only sends the browser back to one.
ChatGPT	Sign in with ChatGPT	Uses your ChatGPT plan, no key needed. Marked Beta: an API key is the official way.
Own server	Server address, optional API key, model	Any OpenAI compatible server, for example Ollama. Only an administrator can set one up, for everyone.

Paste an API key recognises the provider from the key itself and says Detected: with its name. When a key does not give its provider away, TREK asks Which provider is this key from? The key is tested as soon as you connect. Get a key opens the provider's page for making one.

Sign in with ChatGPT works in two steps, because ChatGPT does not send you back to TREK by itself:

1. Open ChatGPT sign-in opens ChatGPT in a new tab. Sign in there.
2. Your browser then shows an error page. That is expected. Copy the address at the top, which starts with 127.0.0.1, come back and use Paste address.

If it takes too long, TREK asks you to sign in again. A ChatGPT account other than the one already connected is refused until you remove the connection first.

Choosing a model

Once connected, Model lists what the provider offers. Only models that can use tools are listed, because the assistant works through TREK's tools. Recommended marks a good default and Free a model without charge. A new connection starts on a model TREK picks; change it whenever you like.

Your settings

Your connection lives in Settings → Integrations, in the AI assistant section (named AI parsing when only AI Parsing is switched on). What the section offers depends on how the administrator set things up:

The administrator chose	What you see
I pay for everyone	Provided by your admin, and nothing to set up. Your admin sets this up.
I pay, own allowed	Provided by your admin, plus Connect your own provider if you prefer your own account. Your own connection then takes over for you.
Everyone uses their own account	What would you like to chat with? with Sign in with ChatGPT and Paste an API key.

A connected section shows Connected to the provider, its status and the model:

Status	Meaning
Connected	Working.
Sign-in expired	A ChatGPT sign-in ran out. Sign in again renews it.
Signed out	You signed out; the connection counts as none.
Not reachable	The provider did not answer or refused the key. Replace key fixes a key that stopped working.

When your own connection breaks, TREK does not quietly switch you to the administrator's: you see why yours does not work instead.

Disconnect (or Sign out for ChatGPT) removes your connection. Your chats stay. Open assistant opens the chat straight from here.

Two switches for the assistant sit in the same section:

• Map follows the assistant: the trip map moves to where the assistant searches and suggests places.
• Estimate costs: with a restaurant or a ticket, the assistant suggests an estimated expense for the budget, as a card you confirm.

While the administrator pays, the section also shows how many of today's messages you have used.

If you saved your own AI parsing model before the shared connection existed, that older section still shows below; see AI-Booking-Import.

For administrators

Admin: In Admin → Addons, the AI Assistant, AI Parsing and MCP addons share one AI tile: One connection for the assistant and booking import. MCP lets other AI apps use TREK. Switch the addons on there, then press Set up AI. See Admin-Addons.

Set up AI opens one dialog with a tab per part. A tab shows only while its addon is on, and every change is saved at once.

Connection

Who pays decides whose connection the assistant runs on:

Choice	Effect
I pay for everyone	Everyone uses the connection below and cannot add their own.
I pay, own allowed (the default)	Everyone uses the connection below unless they connect their own.
Everyone uses their own account	Everyone connects their own provider. Nothing is charged to you.

While you pay, Connection for everyone holds the instance's connection: an API key, a ChatGPT sign-in, or an Own server. An own server takes a Server address, an optional API key and a model; when AI Parsing already talks to a local model, the form is prefilled from it (Taken over from AI Parsing.). Change replaces the connection and Remove connection deletes it.

Signing in with your own ChatGPT plan for everyone shares that plan with everyone on the server: their chats count against your plan. Check that your plan and OpenAI's terms allow this.

TREK reaches an own server through the guard meant for services on your own network, so a model server on the same machine or your LAN works without ALLOW_INTERNAL_NETWORK. The cloud providers go through the strict guard. See Internal-Network-Access.

AI Assistant

• Messages per person per day: the daily limit, 50 by default. Only counts while you pay, so it never limits someone on their own connection. The day ends at midnight UTC.
• Keep chats: how long conversations are kept, 30 days, 90 days (the default), 365 days or Forever. Older chats are deleted every night.
• Web search: on by default. The assistant may look things up on the web through the search of the provider it talks to. Works with ChatGPT, Anthropic and OpenRouter; the searches go only to that provider.

AI Parsing

Reads bookings with chooses the model that reads imported booking files: the shared connection (marked Shared), or an Own connection used instead of it, such as a local Ollama. Under Everyone uses their own account, each person reads with their own connection, set up in their settings. For a local model the tab lists what is Installed on the server, with Refresh, and Pull a recommended model. Details are on AI-Booking-Import.

Where secrets are kept

API keys and ChatGPT sign-in tokens are stored encrypted with the server's encryption key and are never shown again. Rotating that key re-encrypts them; see Encryption-Key-Rotation. Saving and removing connections and changing the AI settings is recorded in the Audit-Log.

The demo account cannot connect a provider of its own.

See also

• AI-Assistant
• AI-Booking-Import
• MCP-Overview
• Admin-Addons
• User-Settings