Complete reference for integrating with Poe as an AI model provider. Use when: (1) Configuring Poe as a provider for coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Kimi), (2) Setting up Poe API authentication with API keys or OAuth, (3) Querying AI models via the Responses API or Chat Completions API, (4) Generating images, videos, or audio through Poe, (5) Managing API usage and compute points billing, (6) Configuring Poe's MCP server for model access, (7) Users mention Poe subscriptions, model access, or wanting to use Poe with their favorite AI tools. Triggers especially when users say 'use Poe', 'Poe API', 'poe-code', 'configure AI provider', or need to access models through Poe.
bermudi0 starsApr 10, 2026
Occupation
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Security
Skill Content
Poe provides unified access to hundreds of AI models from multiple providers through a single API. This skill covers authentication, API usage, content generation, and best practices for integrating with Poe.
⚠️ Critical Poe Gotchas (Read First!)
These are the mistakes agents make repeatedly without explicit guidance:
Gotcha
Wrong
Correct
Env var name
OPENAI_API_KEY
POE_API_KEY
API key prefix
sk-... or your-key
poe-xxxxx-...
Base URL
api.openai.com
api.poe.com/v1
Model names
gpt-4, claude-3
claude-3-5-sonnet, gpt-4o
Related Skills
Billing
Tokens
Compute points
Auth header
Varies by endpoint
See below
Quick Setup (3 Steps)
1. Get Your API Key
# Visit https://poe.com/api while logged in
# Click "Create API Key"
# Copy the key (it starts with poe-)
2. Set Environment Variable
export POE_API_KEY=poe-xxxxx-your-key-here
3. Verify It Works
poe-code auth status
Switching from OpenAI SDK
This is the fastest way to use Poe with existing code:
// ❌ Wrong - OpenAI
import OpenAI from 'openai';
const client = new OpenAI({ apiKey: process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY });
// ✅ Correct - Poe (just add baseURL!)
import OpenAI from 'openai';
const client = new OpenAI({
baseURL: 'https://api.poe.com/v1',
apiKey: process.env.POE_API_KEY
});
Python:
# Same pattern - just add base_url
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
base_url="https://api.poe.com/v1",
api_key=os.environ.get("POE_API_KEY")
)
Model Name Mapping
OpenAI
Poe Equivalent
gpt-4o
claude-3-5-sonnet or gpt-4o
gpt-4-turbo
claude-3-5-sonnet
gpt-3.5-turbo
claude-3-haiku
o1-preview
o1-preview
Poe Code CLI (Essential Tool)
Poe provides a powerful CLI for managing Poe integration:
Core Commands
# Install
npm install -g poe-code
# Check balance
poe-code usage
# View usage history
poe-code usage list --pages 5
# List available models
poe-code models
poe-code models --search claude
# Wrap Claude Code with Poe
poe-code wrap claude
# One-off prompt
poe-code spawn claude "Fix the bug in auth.ts"
# Spawn against GitHub repo
poe-code spawn codex "Review auth module" --cwd github://owner/repo
MCP Server Setup
# Configure Claude Code to use Poe MCP
npx poe-code@latest mcp configure claude-code
# Available MCP tools:
# - generate_text (query any Poe bot)
# - generate_image
# - generate_video
# - generate_audio