Skip to main content
Last updated on

Create and manage external model providers (model provider services)

Register an external model provider as a model provider service, grant access to it, configure Unity AI Gateway features, and delete it.

Requirements​

  • CREATE SERVICE on the schema where you create the model provider service, plus USE CATALOG and USE SCHEMA on its catalog and schema.
  • The credentials for the external provider you want to register (for example, an OpenAI API key or an AWS access key pair).

Create a model provider service​

Model provider services and model services share a single name namespace within a Unity Catalog schema. You can't use a name for a model provider service if a model service in the schema already uses it, and vice versa.

Use the UI​

  1. Do one of the following:
    • In the workspace sidebar, click AI Gateway, then open the Providers tab and click Provider.
    • In Catalog Explorer, go to the schema where you want to create the model provider service, click Create > Service, then select Model provider service in the Create a service dialog.
  2. Enter a name for the model provider service, and select the catalog and schema to create it in. If you start from Catalog Explorer, Catalog Explorer prefills the catalog and schema.
  3. Select the provider type, and enter the provider's connection details and credentials.
  4. Click Create. Databricks encrypts and stores the credentials. The UI does not display them after this point.

For the full list of providers and their authentication methods, see Govern external model providers (model provider services).

Send a custom provider API key in a header​

A custom provider sends its API key as a bearer token by default. When your endpoint expects the key in a specific header instead, use API key header authentication and name the header yourself. Databricks then sends the key on each outbound request as <header name>: <header value>.

Create the model provider service as described in Create a model provider service. Select Custom as the provider type, then set Auth method to API key header and supply the Header name your endpoint expects (such as X-API-Key or Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key) along with the Header value.

The two methods are mutually exclusive: a custom provider uses either a bearer token or a named header, not both. Header authentication takes exactly one header.

The header name must be a valid HTTP header name: letters, digits, and the characters !#$%&'*+-.^_`|~, up to 255 characters. Any other character is rejected, including spaces, colons, slashes, and line breaks.

Grant access​

To let others query a model provider service, grant them EXECUTE on the model provider service and USE CATALOG and USE SCHEMA on its catalog and schema. If the model provider service logs to an inference table, grant SELECT on the table to let them read the logged requests and responses.

To grant access in Catalog Explorer:

  1. In Catalog Explorer, open the model provider service.
  2. On the Permissions tab, click Grant.
  3. Select the users or groups to grant access to, select the EXECUTE privilege, and click Grant.

Make sure the same principals also have USE CATALOG and USE SCHEMA on the model provider service's catalog and schema. To let them read logged requests and responses, grant SELECT on the inference table from its Permissions tab.

For more about granting and discovering access, see Discover and govern access to external model providers (model provider services).

Configure features​

Because a model provider service routes through Unity AI Gateway, apply the same governance and observability features you use for other Unity AI Gateway traffic:

Delete a model provider service​

To delete a model provider service, you must have at least the MANAGE privilege on it. The owner has a superset of MANAGE.

To delete a model provider service, open it in Catalog Explorer and select Delete from the kebab menu. Deleting a model provider service removes its stored credentials.

Next steps​

On this page