# Qianfan Provider Guide
Qianfan is Baidu's MaaS platform, provides a unified API that routes requests to many models behind a single endpoint and API key. It is OpenAI-compatible, so most OpenAI SDKs work by switching the base URL.
# Prerequisites
- A Baidu Cloud account with Qianfan API access
- An API key from the Qianfan console
- OpenSoul installed on your system
# Getting Your API Key
- Visit the Qianfan Console
- Create a new application or select an existing one
- Generate an API key (format:
bce-v3/ALTAK-...) - Copy the API key for use with OpenSoul
# CLI setup
bash
opensoul onboard --auth-choice qianfan-api-key