Models & tokens.

THE ROOT CHOICE

Which model writes the show.

Every word the DJ speaks and every track it picks comes from one language model, chosen under Admin → LLM. The default is Ollama on your own hardware — no API key, no per-token bill — but you can point the station at a hosted provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and others) instead. Switching reroutes every call immediately, with no redeploy.

Big hosted models are more capable but cost money per token; small local models are free to run but need a lighter workload to stay coherent. The settings below let you match the station to the model — run it lean for a small or metered model, or rich for a large capable one.

RUNNING LEAN

For small models & saving tokens.

If you're on a modest local model, or paying per token and want the bill low, these are the dials to turn down. None of them take the DJ off the air — they just make it do less work per moment.

With these settings in place, a small model runs the whole station comfortably — a 9B-class local model such as Qwen3.5 9B is plenty for picking tracks and writing the DJ's lines. The lean profile keeps each request short and well-shaped, which is exactly what a smaller model needs to stay reliable.

• Reasoning off (Admin → LLM) — stops “thinking” models from writing a long internal monologue before they answer. The DJ writes short scripts that don't need it, and an unbounded thinking step makes every call balloon on a small model. Off is the safe default.
• Picker agent off (Admin → LLM) — swaps the conversational track-picking agent for the simpler pool picker. The agent holds a running chat history and works through tools step by step; the pool picker instead hands the model one short, pre-built shortlist and asks for a single choice. Far fewer tokens, and a much easier task for a small model to get right.
• Pause when empty on (Admin → LLM) — when nobody is listening, the DJ stops picking, talking and writing IDs entirely; the stream coasts on the fallback playlist and the DJ wakes up the moment someone tunes in. This one is a pure saving — there's no quality cost, since there's no one there to hear it.
• Concise scripts (Admin → Personas) — each persona's script length can be concise or extended. Concise keeps spoken breaks to a line or two; extended roughly doubles them. Concise means fewer tokens out on every segment.
• Quiet frequency (Admin → Personas) — a persona's frequency sets how often it talks, IDs the station and reads the time and weather. Quiet makes all of that rarer, so there are simply fewer AI calls per hour.
• Sound FX off (Admin → Sound FX) — with the effects library disabled, the DJ is no longer shown the catalogue of stingers when it plans a segment, which trims that prompt.

RUNNING RICH

For large, capable models.

On a large hosted model the same dials go the other way — spend the capability on a station with more personality and a smarter DJ.

• Reasoning on (Admin → LLM) — let a thinking model work through its choice before answering. Worth it only on a model built for it, and on a generous token budget.
• Picker agent on (Admin → LLM) — the full conversational DJ: it remembers the session, reasons about what it has already played, and uses tools to dig through the library. Richer and more coherent, but it leans on the model being capable.
• Extended scripts (Admin → Personas) — a storytelling DJ that lingers, with longer links between tracks.
• Aggressive frequency (Admin → Personas) — a busy station: frequent IDs, time checks and weather updates.

WHERE TO SET THEM

All of this lives in the console.

Every setting here is in the admin console and takes effect without a redeploy — most apply to the next thing the DJ does. The full tour of the console is in Admin & Settings; how the DJ actually picks and talks is in How the DJ Works.