model-management

name	model-management
description	Add, update, or remove text/image/video/audio/embeddings models. Covers the full lifecycle: files to touch, what to verify, and how to test empirically before merging.

Read top to bottom on first use. Then bookmark §6 (Change matrix) and §7 (Test matrix) — those are the daily-driver tables. §9 (Field-parity audit) is mandatory for new model and provider-change PRs.

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1. What are you doing?

You're…	Jump to
Adding a new model	§3 → §5 → §6 (row "Add") → §7 (full matrix) → §9 (field-parity) → §10 (PR checklist)
Changing pricing only	§6 (row "Pricing") → §8 (usage + Tinybird)
Changing provider or modelId	§6 (row "Provider") → §7 (full modality matrix) → §9 (field-parity)
Changing modalities / capabilities	§6 (row "Modalities") → §7 (relevant rows only)
Changing name / slug / aliases	§6 (row "Slug/alias") → §7 (alias test)
Changing description	§6 (row "Description")
Deleting a model	§6 (row "Delete")
Debugging a live issue	See model-debugging skill (currently stale — scheduled for rewrite)

Related skills — when to hand off

This skill is self-contained for the model lifecycle. Hand off to a dedicated skill when the work clearly belongs elsewhere:

If you're doing…	Use this skill instead	What stays here
Adding/modifying a Tinybird pipe or datasource schema	tinybird-deploy	Querying existing pipes/SQL to verify billing rows
Investigating a live model error in prod (logs, error patterns, affected users)	model-debugging	Pre-merge empirical testing
Verifying provider invoice ↔ our cost block math, monthly spend rollups	provider-billing	Setting the cost block from provider's posted rates
Deploying gen/enter workers themselves	enter-services	Local-only testing before merge

Things kept inline (not extracted into their own skills) on purpose:

• SOPS / secrets ops for provider keys (§11.1) — three commands tightly scoped to gen.pollinations.ai/secrets/. Extracting it would add indirection without saving content.
• The test matrix (§7) — we just absorbed test-model back into this skill because the change matrix (§6) and test matrix (§7) only make sense read together. Splitting them again would recreate drift.

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2. Empirical over documentation

Trust the live upstream response over vendor docs, marketing pages, and your own memory. Vendor docs lie about deployment-specific behavior — region variants strip vision, preview-vs-GA capability gaps, wrapper layers silently drop content types. Before declaring inputModalities, supported aspect ratios, cached-token behavior, or anything else in the registry, send the actual request and read the actual response. When docs disagree with the API, the API wins. Note any discrepancy in the PR.

Every row in the Change matrix and Test matrix refers back to this. There is no "the docs say it supports X, ship it."

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3. Local topology & which token to use

client → gen.pollinations.ai → upstream provider
                ↓ (only for: proxy fallback, docs, auto-top-up trigger)
         enter.pollinations.ai (dashboard, auth, Stripe surfaces)

Generation does not go through Enter, and neither does billing tracking. Gen reads the shared D1/KV bindings directly to validate tokens, check balances, and apply model permissions. Gen also sends the generation_event directly to Tinybird (gen.pollinations.ai/src/middleware/track.ts:290). The ENTER service binding is invoked in only three places:

File:line	Call site purpose
gen.pollinations.ai/src/index.ts:78	Proxy fallback for paths gen doesn't own (dashboard, auth UI, account APIs)
gen.pollinations.ai/src/routes/docs.ts:531	Forward docs paths to enter
gen.pollinations.ai/src/middleware/track.ts:330	Trigger Stripe auto-top-up (/api/stripe/auto-top-up/trigger) for users with auto-top-up enabled

Implication: local gen alone covers ~90% of model-management work — including Tinybird billing verification. You only need to boot local Enter when your change touches an Enter-owned surface.

Target	Run locally	Token to use	Tinybird writes to
http://localhost:8788 model tests (config, handler, registry, modalities, billing)	gen only	POLLINATIONS_TOKEN_LOCAL	staging workspace
Same, but change touches Enter (see list below)	gen and enter	POLLINATIONS_TOKEN_LOCAL	staging workspace
https://gen.pollinations.ai	none	POLLINATIONS_TOKEN_PROD	prod workspace
Staging deploy	n/a (deployed)	POLLINATIONS_TOKEN_STAGING	staging workspace

Boot Enter locally only if the change touches any of:

• Dashboard, auth routes, account APIs (Stripe portal, webhook handlers, login)
• Pollen pack / packBalance mutation logic, auto-top-up flow itself
• Tinybird event schema (the event SHAPE / new datasource column — not the data inside it; gen writes the data)
• DB seeding / migrations

Note: /v1/models filtering (including paidOnly) lives in gen, not enter (gen.pollinations.ai/src/routes/proxy.ts:170 filterModelsByPermissions). Test this against local gen alone.

For pure model work (modelId, provider, registry modalities/aliases/description, handler code, cost block), local Enter is not required — generations and billing tracking both work without it. The only thing that won't fire is Stripe auto-top-up, which doesn't affect model-management testing.

Booting

# (Optional) Terminal 1 — Enter on 3000 — ONLY when your change touches Enter surfaces
(cd enter.pollinations.ai && npm run dev)

# Terminal 2 — Gen on 8788 — required for all model tests.
# USE `npm run dev`, NOT bare `npx wrangler dev`. The dev script runs
# `vite build` first; bare wrangler serves a STALE bundle (your registry/config
# edits won't show — /v1/models returns old pricing) and skips
# `--persist-to .wrangler/state` (so the seeded D1 below isn't used).
(cd gen.pollinations.ai && npm run dev)

# Terminal 3 — seed a known API key into gen's local D1, then source tokens.
# Without this, e2e curls 401: gen validates Bearer tokens against its own local
# D1, and better-auth stores keys hashed (base64url(sha256(key))) — it never
# stores the plaintext of secret keys, so a token in _local/.env only works if
# its hash is in THIS D1. `seed:local` inserts a key whose plaintext = your
# _local/.env POLLINATIONS_TOKEN_LOCAL (idempotent; re-run after any D1 reset).
(cd gen.pollinations.ai && npm run seed:local)
source _local/.env

End-to-end smoke test (must pass before any model PR):

source _local/.env
curl -s "http://localhost:8788/v1/chat/completions" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $POLLINATIONS_TOKEN_LOCAL" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"<your-model>","max_tokens":200,"messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Reply: OK"}]}' \
  | jq '{finish:.choices[0].finish_reason, content:.choices[0].message.content}'
# 200 + content → wiring + auth + billing path all live. 401 → re-run seed:local.

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4. _local/.env — secrets reference

Single source of truth for test tokens. Source it before any test command.

source _local/.env

Var	Purpose
POLLINATIONS_TOKEN_PROD	Prod enter sk_ — calls against gen.pollinations.ai
POLLINATIONS_TOKEN_LOCAL	sk_ for localhost:8788. NOT auto-seeded — its hash must be inserted into gen's local D1 via cd gen.pollinations.ai && npm run seed:local (seeds this exact token). Re-run after any D1 reset.
POLLINATIONS_TOKEN_STAGING	Staging enter sk_ — calls against staging deploys
TINYBIRD_READ_PROD	Read token, prod workspace
TINYBIRD_READ_STAGING	Read token, staging workspace — also covers DEV (local gen writes to the staging workspace via its TINYBIRD_INGEST_URL binding)

There are no "free" vs "paid" keys. A key is a key. The paidOnly gate checks the user's packBalance (purchased Pollen pack balance), not the key prefix. To exercise the gate, use a token whose owning user has packBalance == 0 — typically a freshly minted key (signup grants free Pollen, no pack) or one whose pack has been depleted. Don't confuse "free Pollen remaining" (signup grant, doesn't unlock paidOnly) with "pack balance" (purchased, does unlock).

A 401 on localhost:8788 almost always means the local D1 has no row for your token — run cd gen.pollinations.ai && npm run seed:local. Root cause: gen validates Bearer tokens against its OWN local D1 apikey table (shared/auth/api-key.ts → better-auth verifyApiKey; enter's D1 is a separate sqlite, not shared). better-auth stores keys hashed as base64url(sha256(key)) and never stores the plaintext of secret keys, so a dashboard-minted key is unrecoverable and a _local/.env token only validates if its hash is in THIS D1. The D1 gets recreated (or came from another clone), so the hash is usually absent → 401. seed:local inserts a key whose plaintext = your _local/.env POLLINATIONS_TOKEN_LOCAL with large test balances, so paid-only + spend both pass. It's idempotent — re-run any time. Inspect what's seeded (no secrets printed):

GEN_DB=gen.pollinations.ai/.wrangler/state/v3/d1/miniflare-D1DatabaseObject/*.sqlite
sqlite3 $GEN_DB "SELECT name, start, enabled FROM apikey WHERE id='local-e2e-key';"

Provider/runtime secrets (Azure, OpenAI, OpenRouter API keys, etc.) belong in gen.pollinations.ai/secrets/{dev,staging,prod}.vars.json via SOPS — never in _local/.env. See §11.

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5. Files map — by modality

Text

File	Controls
gen.pollinations.ai/src/text/configs/modelConfigs.ts	Per-model provider routing config
gen.pollinations.ai/src/text/configs/providerConfigs.ts	Provider clients (Portkey, Bedrock, OpenAI-compat)
gen.pollinations.ai/src/text/availableModels.ts	Service-name → config mapping (the slug you call)
shared/registry/text.ts	name, aliases, description, provider, inputModalities, outputModalities, tools/reasoning/search, cost block, priceMultiplier, paidOnly, addedDate, tier, alpha
gen.pollinations.ai/secrets/{dev,staging,prod}.vars.json	Encrypted provider API keys (SOPS)

Image / Video

File	Controls
gen.pollinations.ai/src/image/createAndReturnImages.ts	Image model dispatch
gen.pollinations.ai/src/image/createAndReturnVideos.ts	Video model dispatch
gen.pollinations.ai/src/image/models.ts	IMAGE_CONFIG (type, defaults, video flags)
gen.pollinations.ai/src/image/models/*	Per-model handlers (e.g. seedreamModel.ts, novaCanvasModel.ts, replicateClient.ts)
gen.pollinations.ai/src/image/params.ts	Param schema: width, height, seed, aspectRatio, private, duration
shared/registry/image.ts	Same shape as text registry; also includes video models

Audio

File	Controls
gen.pollinations.ai/src/routes/audio.ts	TTS / music dispatch
gen.pollinations.ai/src/routes/assemblyai-transcription.ts	Whisper-class transcription
shared/registry/audio.ts	Pricing, voices, aliases, modalities

Embeddings

File	Controls
gen.pollinations.ai/src/embeddings/*	Embedding model dispatch
shared/registry/embeddings.ts	Pricing, provider, aliases

Cross-cutting

File	Controls
shared/registry/registry.ts	convertUsage() — where missing cost keys log [registry] Missing conversion rate. completionReasoningTokens is rewritten to completionTextTokens before the rate lookup (line 118), so it never produces this warning. If you see the warning for reasoning, it actually means completionTextTokens is missing.
shared/registry/usage-headers.ts	x-usage-* header builder/parser; defines every typed usage field (13 total)
shared/registry/price-helpers.ts	perMillion(), priceMultiplier math (price = usage × cost × priceMultiplier, rounded to 8 decimals)
gen.pollinations.ai/src/middleware/track.ts	Builds the generation_event row sent to Tinybird; cache HITs are flagged isBilledUsage: false (line 395)

priceMultiplier

Every cost block requires priceMultiplier. Current values in the registry: 1 or 1.5, no others. 1.5 is our standard markup for retail; 1 is at-cost or strategically subsidized. Set it explicitly on every new model. Final billed price = usage × cost × priceMultiplier.

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6. Change matrix — if you change X, verify Y

Pricing depends on both model AND provider. Always verify pricing on the provider's own website before writing the cost block. addedDate is set once and never updated. Drives the 7-day NEW chip on the dashboard. Use new Date("YYYY-MM-DD").getTime() with today's date on first add; do not touch it for later pricing/endpoint/provider changes.

If you change…	…in these files	…re-verify
Pricing (cost block + priceMultiplier)	shared/registry/{text,image,audio,embeddings}.ts	§7 one request per declared modality + §8 (usage JSON + x-usage-* headers + Tinybird row with correct cost + tail completely clean of [registry] Missing conversion rate) + §9 (field parity)
Provider	config/handler + registry provider + SOPS keys	§7 full modality matrix (providers silently drop modalities — empirical only), pricing (often differs by provider), prompt-cache behavior, §8, §9 (mandatory — field-parity audit catches new usage fields the old provider didn't return)
modelId (upstream identifier)	config only	One real call per modality returns 200; §8; §9 if the upstream version is new
Slug / service name	availableModels.ts + registry name + every alias entry referencing it	aliases.test.ts; /v1/models lists new slug; old slug returns 404 or alias-redirects; rg <old-slug> across apps/, pollinations.ai/, packages/sdk for hardcoded refs
Aliases	registry aliases array	aliases.test.ts; each alias resolves to canonical
Description / brand	registry only	/v1/models shows new copy; don't touch addedDate
inputModalities added	registry + possibly gen.pollinations.ai/src/text/transforms/	§7 row passes empirically (vendor docs are not evidence); error path for unsupported modality returns 4xx, not silent ignore
outputModalities added	registry + handler	Sample response carries the modality; §8 usage line for the matching cost type present. If declaring two output modalities (e.g. video+audio for seedance-2.0), confirm whether the upstream bills bundled into one usage field or returns separate fields — document the choice in the cost block comment.
Image resolutions / aspect ratios	handler + (registry comment)	One generation per supported ratio returns 200 with matching dims; unsupported ratios return 4xx; §7 cache row with byte-identical params shows MISS→HIT
Video duration / fps	handler	Each supported duration returns 200, mp4 of declared length; unsupported returns 4xx
Cached-token behavior	registry promptCachedTokens in cost block	§7 prompt-cache row passes (cached_tokens > 0 on call 2); tail clean of Missing conversion rate: usageType=promptCachedTokens
paidOnly flip	registry paidOnly: true/false	Token whose user has packBalance == 0 → 4xx; token with pack balance → 200; /v1/models filtering correct per pack balance
Add model	every file above	Full §7 + §8 + §9 (mandatory) + §10
Delete model	remove from config + registry; keep SOPS provider keys (other models may share)	/v1/models no longer lists slug; request returns model-not-found 4xx; aliases.test.ts updated; rg <slug> across the repo for orphan hardcodes; PR description names any downstream apps removed from

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7. Test matrix — if model claims X, run Y

All commands assume:

source _local/.env
TOKEN="$POLLINATIONS_TOKEN_LOCAL"      # localhost:8788
# TOKEN="$POLLINATIONS_TOKEN_PROD"     # gen.pollinations.ai
GEN="http://localhost:8788"            # or https://gen.pollinations.ai
MODEL="<your-model>"

7.1 Text

Capability	Trigger	Pass condition	Inspect
basic	plain prompt	finish=stop, content non-empty	usage.completion_tokens > 0
streaming	stream:true	last SSE chunk has finish_reason, data: [DONE] present	tokens accumulate
max_tokens edge	max_tokens:1	finish=length, NOT 4xx	completion_tokens=1
image input	content:[{type:text},{type:image_url,…}]	answer references image	prompt_tokens_details.image_tokens if reported
multi-image	2+ image_url parts	reasons over both	prompt_tokens scales
tools	tools:[…] + triggering prompt	finish=tool_calls, valid JSON args	n/a
reasoning	thinking prompt	completion_tokens_details.reasoning_tokens > 0	reasoning tokens — billed at completionTextTokens rate by design (fallback in registry.ts:118); no separate cost entry required, but completionTextTokens itself must exist
prompt cache	same ≥1024-token prefix in 2 calls, ~2s apart	call 2: prompt_tokens_details.cached_tokens > 0	cached_tokens line

Image-input quick check (1×1 transparent PNG, near-zero cost):

IMG="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mNk+A8AAQUBAScY42YAAAAASUVORK5CYII="
curl -s "$GEN/v1/chat/completions" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{\"model\":\"$MODEL\",\"max_tokens\":20,\"messages\":[{\"role\":\"user\",\"content\":[{\"type\":\"text\",\"text\":\"What color is this pixel?\"},{\"type\":\"image_url\",\"image_url\":{\"url\":\"data:image/png;base64,$IMG\"}}]}]}"

• 200 + sensible answer → image input real, include in inputModalities
• 200 + "I cannot see images" → fake, exclude
• 4xx/5xx mentioning image/multimodal → fake, exclude

Prompt cache check (provider side):

SYS=$(python3 -c 'print("The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.\n" * 200)')
for i in 1 2; do
  curl -s "$GEN/v1/chat/completions" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d "$(jq -n --arg s "$SYS" --arg m "$MODEL" \
      '{model:$m,max_tokens:10,messages:[{role:"system",content:$s},{role:"user",content:"hi"}]}')" \
    | jq '.usage.prompt_tokens_details.cached_tokens'
  sleep 2
done

Call 2 > 0 → MUST add promptCachedTokens to cost block.

7.2 Image

Capability	Trigger	Pass condition	Inspect
T2I basic	GET /image/<prompt>?model=X&seed=42	200, file is JPEG/PNG	x-usage-completion-image-tokens header
supported aspect ratios	one call per ratio (square / wide / tall)	200, dims match	response headers, file on saved bytes
unsupported ratio	a ratio outside support	4xx (not silent fallback)	error body
seed determinism	same seed twice	identical bytes (or near, model-dep)	hash compare
I2I (image edit)	&image=<url> if model supports	200, edited result	usage headers
output cache	two byte-identical GETs	call 1 X-Cache: MISS, call 2 X-Cache: HIT	response headers

# T2I MISS — full usage check applies
curl -s -o /tmp/i1.jpg -D /tmp/i1.h -w "HTTP %{http_code} %{size_download}b\n" \
  "$GEN/image/a%20cute%20cat?model=$MODEL&seed=42&width=512&height=512" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"
file /tmp/i1.jpg
grep -iE "x-usage|x-cache" /tmp/i1.h

# Output cache — byte-identical request, billing should NOT fire
curl -s -o /tmp/i2.jpg -D /tmp/i2.h \
  "$GEN/image/a%20cute%20cat?model=$MODEL&seed=42&width=512&height=512" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"
grep -iE "x-cache" /tmp/i2.h   # expect: HIT
# NOTE: media cache HIT does NOT preserve x-usage-* headers (only safety metadata).
#       No Tinybird row is written for HITs. See §8 caveat.

7.3 Video

Capability	Trigger	Pass condition	Inspect
basic	/video/<prompt>?model=X&duration=3	200, mp4 of declared duration	usage headers, ffprobe duration
each supported duration	one call per supported value	200, file length matches	ffprobe
each supported fps (if exposed)	one call per fps	200	ffprobe
output cache	two byte-identical calls	MISS→HIT	X-Cache header (HIT drops usage headers — see §8)

7.4 Audio

Capability	Trigger	Pass condition	Inspect
TTS	/audio/<text>?voice=alloy&model=X	200, non-empty mp3	x-usage-completion-audio-tokens (chars) or -seconds
voices	one call per declared voice	200, audibly distinct (or document)	usage headers
OpenAI-compat TTS	POST /v1/audio/speech	200, mp3	usage headers
STT (Whisper/Scribe)	POST /v1/audio/transcriptions with mp3	200, text returned	x-usage-prompt-audio-seconds
Music gen (if claimed)	provider-specific	200, audio	x-usage-completion-audio-seconds
output cache	two byte-identical calls	MISS→HIT	HIT drops usage headers — see §8

7.5 Embeddings

Capability	Trigger	Pass condition	Inspect
basic	POST /v1/embeddings with {model, input}	200, data[0].embedding.length matches declared dim	usage.prompt_tokens
batch	input: [...] array	200, one vector per input	usage.prompt_tokens scales
oversized input	input beyond context	4xx	error body

7.6 Error paths — every malformed request MUST return 4xx, never opaque 5xx

Path	Expected
unreachable image URL (404 source)	400 with provider error message
malformed image URL ("not-a-url")	400
out-of-range temperature (99)	400 "JSON body validation failed"
invalid tool schema (parameters not object)	400
empty messages: []	400 "Messages must be a non-empty array"
oversized prompt (beyond contextLength)	400
paidOnly model + token with packBalance == 0	4xx with clear billing message

If any returns 5xx, model wiring is leaking an upstream error — fix the classification before merging.

7.7 Burst — confirm capacity at production peak

Sample peak from Tinybird first (model_health pipe). Default n=5,15,30 for new models. Cache-bust each request (local TEXT-CACHE returns in <100ms otherwise).

for n in 5 15 30; do
  for i in $(seq 1 $n); do
    NONCE="$(uuidgen)-$i"
    (curl -s -o /tmp/burst-$i.body \
      -w "$i %{http_code} %{time_total}\n" \
      --max-time 90 "$GEN/v1/chat/completions" \
      -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -d "{\"model\":\"$MODEL\",\"max_tokens\":80,\"messages\":[{\"role\":\"user\",\"content\":\"echo: $NONCE\"}]}") &
  done
  wait
done

Acceptance: 0 5xx at chosen concurrency. Document any 429s in the PR. Timeouts at exactly 90s on novel prompts (thinking models) are usually genuine upstream slowness, not infra — note the rate.

---

8. Usage, billing, cache verification

After every MISS call (cache HITs are explicitly NOT billed — see caveat below), every new model or pricing change must pass all four checks:

A. JSON usage (text / OpenAI-compatible responses)

• Dump the full usage block — including prompt_tokens_details and completion_tokens_details
• Every key with > 0 must either:
  • Map to a registry cost entry, or
  • Be the documented fallback (completion_tokens_details.reasoning_tokens → billed at completionTextTokens rate)
• Any unmapped key = revenue leak. Tail will say [registry] Missing conversion rate: model=X usageType=Y and bill 0 for that line.

B. x-usage-* response headers (image/video/audio/embeddings + text)

• Inspect with curl -D - or -D /tmp/h. The 13 typed headers are defined in shared/registry/usage-headers.ts.
• For MISS: every non-zero header should have a matching registry cost entry.
• For HIT: text caches preserve x-usage-* headers so the parsed usage matches the original MISS; media (image/video/audio) caches drop x-usage-* headers and only preserve selected safety metadata. Don't flag missing media usage headers on a HIT.

C. Tinybird generation_event row

• Local gen / dev → staging workspace → TINYBIRD_READ_STAGING
• Prod gen → prod workspace → TINYBIRD_READ_PROD
• Confirm a row exists for your model with non-zero token_count_* and token_price_* columns matching the JSON/headers (column list: enter.pollinations.ai/observability/datasources/generation_event.datasource).
• No row is written for cache HITs (isBilledUsage: false at gen.pollinations.ai/src/middleware/track.ts:395). HIT-call verification stops at the X-Cache: HIT header.

model_health returns counts/errors/latency only, no usage. Query generation_event directly to see token + price columns:

TB="https://api.europe-west2.gcp.tinybird.co"
SQL="SELECT resolved_model_requested AS model, start_time,
  token_count_prompt_text, token_count_prompt_cached, token_count_prompt_image,
  token_count_completion_text, token_count_completion_reasoning,
  token_count_completion_image, token_count_completion_video_seconds,
  total_cost, total_price, dev_price, markup_rate
 FROM generation_event
 WHERE resolved_model_requested = '$MODEL'
   AND start_time >= now() - interval 10 minute
 ORDER BY start_time DESC
 LIMIT 5 FORMAT JSON"
curl -s -G "$TB/v0/sql" \
  --data-urlencode "q=$SQL" \
  --data-urlencode "token=$TINYBIRD_READ_STAGING" | jq '.data'

For health/latency monitoring (separate concern from billing verification), model_health is the right pipe — note its param is minutes, not window_minutes:

curl -s "$TB/v0/pipes/model_health.json?token=$TINYBIRD_READ_STAGING&minutes=10" \
  | jq ".data[] | select(.model==\"$MODEL\")"

D. Worker tail — zero Missing conversion rate warnings

In a separate terminal during testing:

(cd gen.pollinations.ai && npx wrangler tail)

• Look for: [registry] Missing conversion rate: model=… usageType=…
• No warning is acceptable. Reasoning tokens fall back to completionTextTokens before the rate lookup (shared/registry/registry.ts:118) — they should never trigger the warning. If you see Missing conversion rate: usageType=completionReasoningTokens, it actually means completionTextTokens itself is missing from the cost block, and that line is billing 0. Any warning = cost block incomplete; fix before merging.

---

9. Field-parity audit — mandatory on new model & provider change

Why. Every time we add a model or swap a provider, the upstream may return usage fields we don't yet capture. If the field exists in the response but not in our registry, billing under-charges (or charges zero) for that resource — silently, with no test failure. We've already seen this with promptCachedTokens (caught only after deploy). The audit catches it before merge.

The contract. For a new model or provider swap, every numeric field present in the upstream response's usage/billing block must:

1. Map to one of the 13 typed usage fields in shared/registry/usage-headers.ts (promptTextTokens, promptCachedTokens, promptAudioTokens, promptAudioSeconds, promptImageTokens, promptVideoTokens, completionTextTokens, completionReasoningTokens, completionAudioTokens, completionAudioSeconds, completionImageTokens, completionVideoSeconds, completionVideoTokens),
2. AND have a corresponding entry in the registry cost block (reasoning tokens are an exception — they're rewritten to completionTextTokens in registry.ts:118 before rate lookup, so they don't need a separate cost line; but completionTextTokens itself must exist),
3. AND surface in the response headers as x-usage-<kebab-case-name>,
4. AND land in the Tinybird generation_event row via track.ts,
5. AND appear in the worker logs (wrangler tail) so we can audit historical drift.

If a field exists upstream that we don't map → either extend usage-headers.ts + the registry + the Tinybird schema, OR document explicitly in the PR why we're intentionally dropping it (rare; usually "provider bundles X into Y").

Audit procedure (run once per new model / provider change)

source _local/.env
TOKEN="$POLLINATIONS_TOKEN_LOCAL"
MODEL="<your-model>"

# 1. Probe each modality the model declares — capture raw upstream response
curl -s "http://localhost:8788/v1/chat/completions" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -D /tmp/headers.txt \
  -d "{\"model\":\"$MODEL\",\"max_tokens\":50,\"messages\":[{\"role\":\"user\",\"content\":\"Count to ten.\"}]}" \
  | tee /tmp/response.json | jq '.usage'

# 2. List every numeric field upstream returned
jq -r '.usage | paths(numbers) | join(".")' /tmp/response.json | sort -u
# Cross-check against the 13 typed fields above.

# 3. Confirm each non-zero field appears as an x-usage-* header
grep -iE "^x-usage-" /tmp/headers.txt

# 4. Pull the actual billing row Tinybird wrote (wait ~5s for ingest)
sleep 5
TB="https://api.europe-west2.gcp.tinybird.co"
SQL="SELECT * FROM generation_event
 WHERE resolved_model_requested = '$MODEL'
   AND start_time >= now() - interval 2 minute
 ORDER BY start_time DESC LIMIT 1 FORMAT JSON"
curl -s -G "$TB/v0/sql" \
  --data-urlencode "q=$SQL" \
  --data-urlencode "token=$TINYBIRD_READ_STAGING" | jq '.data[0]'
# Confirm every non-zero usage field from step 2 has a non-zero token_count_* column,
# and every cost line has a non-zero token_price_* column.

# 5. Confirm wrangler tail shows the same usage fields logged
# (in the gen wrangler dev terminal — look for the usage payload in the track log)

Audit acceptance gates

• Every numeric upstream usage field is in the 13-typed list or explicitly documented as dropped in the PR
• Every non-zero usage field has a matching x-usage-* header
• Every non-zero usage field has a matching column in the Tinybird row
• The cost block multiplies through correctly: displayed price ≈ sum(usage_field × cost_rate × priceMultiplier)
• Worker tail logs the full usage payload (we keep this for future audits)

If any of the five fails → fix the registry / usage-headers.ts / track.ts / cost block before merging. Do not ship a model whose upstream returns fields we can't account for.

Bundled-modality exception

Some upstreams bill multiple modalities under a single usage field. Example: seedance-2.0 declares outputModalities: ["video","audio"] but bills both under completionVideoSeconds (the audio is bundled into the video duration). When this is the case:

• Cost block carries only the bundling field (e.g., completionVideoSeconds)
• Add a comment to the cost block explaining the bundling
• Note in PR description: "audio is bundled into video billing per upstream invoice"

This is acceptable. What's NOT acceptable is silently dropping a separately-billed field because we forgot to map it.

---

10. PR checklist — before opening the PR

Automated suite (must all pass)

# Snapshot / unit — fast, no network
(cd enter.pollinations.ai && npx vitest run test/aliases.test.ts \
                                            test/pricing-data.test.ts \
                                            test/effective-prices.snapshot.test.ts)

(cd gen.pollinations.ai && npx vitest run test/usage-headers.test.ts \
                                          test/model-permissions.test.ts \
                                          test/media-cache.test.ts \
                                          test/text-cache.test.ts \
                                          test/billing-deduction.test.ts \
                                          test/tracking-observability.test.ts \
                                          test/openai-schema.test.ts)

# Modality-specific (run the relevant subset)
(cd gen.pollinations.ai && npx vitest run test/image/)         # for image models
(cd gen.pollinations.ai && npx vitest run test/embeddings/)    # for embeddings
(cd gen.pollinations.ai && npx vitest run test/assemblyai-transcription.test.ts \
                                          test/scribe-transcription.test.ts \
                                          test/transcription-param-parsing.test.ts)  # for STT

# VCR / safety
(cd gen.pollinations.ai && npx vitest run test/generation-vcr.test.ts test/vcr.test.ts test/safety.test.ts)

Empirical (must all pass against localhost:8788)

• All Change matrix rows for this change type re-verified
• All Test matrix rows for declared capabilities passed (not from docs)
• Output cache tested with byte-identical requests if the modality caches
• Prompt cache verified for text models (cached_tokens > 0 on call 2)
• Four-part usage check passed on MISS calls
• Field-parity audit passed (new model or provider change)
• /v1/models returns the model with correct pricing + modalities
• addedDate set on first add, untouched on later edits
• priceMultiplier set (1 or 1.5)
• No 5xx in error-path matrix
• Burst test passed at expected production concurrency
• PR description notes any docs/upstream discrepancies found and any bundled-modality choices

---

11. Appendices

11.1 SOPS — provider secrets

# Inspect keys in a vars file
sops --decrypt gen.pollinations.ai/secrets/prod.vars.json \
  | python3 -c "import json,sys; [print(k) for k in json.load(sys.stdin)]"

# Add or update a key
sops set gen.pollinations.ai/secrets/prod.vars.json '["KEY_NAME"]' '"value"'

# Decrypt to .dev.vars for local dev
(cd gen.pollinations.ai && npm run decrypt-vars)

Never put Pollinations test tokens (POLLINATIONS_TOKEN_*) or admin/operator tokens in SOPS — recipient list is too broad. SOPS is for provider/runtime keys only.

When decrypt-vars fails with "no identity matched any of the recipients"

The convention on this team is to keep the Pollinations age private key in macOS Keychain under service name sops-age-key (account = your local $USER). If ~/.config/sops/age/keys.txt exists but contains an unrelated key, decrypt fails with all .sops.yaml recipients listed as FAILED. Restore from keychain — don't ask the user to paste secrets:

SOPS_KEY=$(security find-generic-password -s "sops-age-key" -a "$USER" -w 2>/dev/null) \
  || { echo "Not in keychain — ask the user where their age key lives"; exit 1; }
for KF in ~/.config/sops/age/keys.txt ~/Library/Application\ Support/sops/age/keys.txt; do
  mkdir -p "$(dirname "$KF")"
  grep -qF "$SOPS_KEY" "$KF" 2>/dev/null || {
    printf '\n# pollinations (restored from keychain svce=sops-age-key)\n%s\n' "$SOPS_KEY" >> "$KF"
    chmod 600 "$KF"
  }
done
sops --decrypt gen.pollinations.ai/secrets/dev.vars.json >/dev/null && echo "decrypt OK"

If -a "$USER" doesn't match, try without -a (security find-generic-password -s "sops-age-key" -w) and let keychain pick the only one. Recipients can rotate — read the current expected public keys from .sops.yaml rather than hard-coding them here.

11.2 Description style

Format: <what it does or what makes it distinct>. ≤ ~70 chars when possible.

• Say what the model does or what makes it different ("Fast & affordable image generation", "Long-context MoE for retrieval"). Capability over branding.
• Do not repeat the model name/title in the description. The model manager renders the display name separately, so descriptions like "Seedream 5.0 Pro - Premium image generation" are redundant.
• No provider/inference attribution in the description — no "(OpenRouter)", "via DashScope", "OpenAI's", etc. provider and brand fields carry that.
• No filler. "Image generation model" tells the reader nothing. "Fast image generation and editing" > "Advanced model".

11.3 Wrapper models (e.g. persona-prompted Claude)

For specialized wrappers, the underlying model's capabilities are NOT the same as the product's. Mark inputModalities to reflect the product intent, not what the underlying model technically supports. Add a one-line comment explaining the discrepancy.