Backend Profiles let you swap the LLM provider behind your AI coding sessions. Instead of using the default Anthropic/OpenAI/Google APIs, you can connect to alternative providers like DeepSeek, Z.AI, or your own Azure OpenAI deployment.

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Built-in presets

Happy includes 6 presets:
ProfileAgentProviderModel
Anthropic (default)ClaudeAnthropicClaude Sonnet/Opus/Haiku
DeepSeekClaudeDeepSeekdeepseek-reasoner
Z.AIClaudeZhipu AIGLM-5.0
OpenAICodexOpenAIgpt-5.3-codex
Azure OpenAICodexAzuregpt-5.3-codex
Google AIGeminiGooglegemini-3-pro-preview
Each preset is read-only but can be duplicated as a custom profile.

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Switching profiles

  1. In the Happy app, go to Settings > Profiles
  2. Tap a profile to activate it
  3. New sessions will use the selected profile’s provider

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Setting up a provider

Most alternative providers require an API key. The key is set as an environment variable on the machine running the daemon, then referenced by the profile using template syntax.

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Example: DeepSeek

  1. Start the daemon with your DeepSeek key:
DEEPSEEK_AUTH_TOKEN=sk-your-key happy daemon restart
  1. In the app, go to Settings > Profiles and activate the DeepSeek preset
  2. Create a new Claude session — it now routes through DeepSeek’s API
The profile maps DEEPSEEK_AUTH_TOKEN → ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN automatically, so Claude Code connects to DeepSeek’s API-compatible endpoint instead of Anthropic.

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Example: Z.AI

Z_AI_AUTH_TOKEN=your-key happy daemon restart
Then activate the Z.AI preset. Sessions will use GLM-5.0 via Zhipu AI’s Anthropic-compatible API.

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Example: Azure OpenAI

AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY=your-key AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT=https://your-resource.openai.azure.com happy daemon restart
Then activate the Azure OpenAI preset for Codex sessions.

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Creating custom profiles

  1. Go to Settings > Profiles
  2. Tap + Add Profile (or duplicate a built-in preset)
  3. Configure:
    • Name — A descriptive name
    • Agent compatibility — Which agents this profile works with (Claude, Codex, Gemini)
    • Environment variables — Key-value pairs passed to the AI agent process
    • Default permission mode — Session permission mode
    • Tmux — Optional: run sessions inside tmux
    • Startup script — Optional: bash script executed before each session

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Template syntax

Environment variable values support bash-style parameter expansion:
SyntaxMeaning
${VAR}Use the value of VAR from the daemon’s environment
${VAR:-default}Use VAR if set, otherwise use default
literal-valueUse the value as-is
This lets you keep secrets in the daemon environment and reference them from profiles, rather than storing them in the app.

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How it works

1. You set API keys as env vars on your machine
2. Profile defines template mappings (e.g., ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN=${DEEPSEEK_AUTH_TOKEN})
3. Daemon expands templates when spawning a session
4. AI agent (Claude Code) sees the expanded values and connects to the alternative provider
Profiles are synced between the app and CLI automatically. The daemon reads the active profile from ~/.happy/settings.json when spawning new sessions.