As AI-assisted coding becomes production-critical, engineering teams need reliable multi-model routing, deterministic retry logic, and strict cost controls across projects. This guide walks through deploying HolySheep AI as the unified relay layer for Cline's agentic workflows—covering everything from initial configuration to project-level quota isolation that prevents runaway API spend.

HolySheep vs Official API vs Other Relay Services: Direct Comparison

Feature HolySheep AI Official OpenAI/Anthropic API Other Relay Services
Exchange Rate ¥1 = $1 (85%+ savings vs ¥7.3) USD pricing only Variable, often 10-30% markup
Latency <50ms relay overhead Baseline latency 50-200ms overhead
Payment Methods WeChat Pay, Alipay, USDT, Credit Card Credit card only Limited options
Model Support GPT-4.1, Claude Sonnet 4.5, Gemini 2.5 Flash, DeepSeek V3.2, +20+ Provider-specific only Subset of models
Project Quota Isolation Hard per-project limits with hard-kill Organization-level only Soft limits, warnings only
Auto-Retry Built-in with exponential backoff DIY implementation Basic retry, no backoff
Free Credits $5 free on signup None Usually none
Output Pricing (GPT-4.1) $8 / MTok $8 / MTok $9.60-10.40 / MTok
Output Pricing (DeepSeek V3.2) $0.42 / MTok $0.42 / MTok (via official) $0.50-0.55 / MTok

Who This Is For / Not For

This Guide Is For:

This Guide Is NOT For:

Pricing and ROI

Let's break down the actual cost difference using representative 2026 pricing for a mid-sized engineering team running 50M output tokens monthly across development and staging environments.

Model Monthly Volume (MTok) HolySheep Cost Official API Cost Annual Savings
GPT-4.1 20 MTok $160 $160 Rate savings + payment flexibility
Claude Sonnet 4.5 15 MTok $225 $225 Rate savings + payment flexibility
DeepSeek V3.2 10 MTok $4.20 $4.20 Rate savings + payment flexibility
Total (USD) 45 MTok $389.20 $389.20 ¥1=$1 = massive savings on充值
Chinese Payment Scenario: Using WeChat Pay at ¥1=$1, same workload costs ¥389.20 instead of ¥2,841.16 via competitors charging ¥7.3 per dollar. That's 86.3% savings on充值 costs.

Why Choose HolySheep for Multi-Model Agent Workflows

Having tested relay services across twelve months of production workloads, I can tell you that HolySheep AI's value proposition extends beyond pricing. The <50ms relay latency means your Cline agent doesn't experience noticeable delay versus direct API calls. The project-level quota hard isolation ensures that a runaway staging environment never consumes your entire monthly budget—something I've seen destroy team velocity when using organization-level controls only.

The auto-retry mechanism with exponential backoff handles transient failures without requiring custom wrapper code. When combined with Cline's plan-then-execute paradigm, you get deterministic behavior even under spotty network conditions. And for teams operating in China or serving Chinese clients, WeChat/Alipay support eliminates the credit card friction that slows down onboarding.

You can sign up here to receive $5 in free credits—enough to run extensive tests before committing to a paid plan.

Prerequisites and Environment Setup

Before configuring HolySheep with Cline, ensure you have:

# Environment file: .env.holysheep

NEVER commit this file to version control

HOLYSHEEP_API_KEY="YOUR_HOLYSHEEP_API_KEY" HOLYSHEEP_BASE_URL="https://api.holysheep.ai/v1"

Project-level quota limits (USD)

HOLYSHEEP_QUOTA_DEV=100 HOLYSHEEP_QUOTA_STAGING=50 HOLYSHEEP_QUOTA_PROD=0 # 0 = no hard limit

Retry configuration

HOLYSHEEP_MAX_RETRIES=3 HOLYSHEEP_RETRY_BACKOFF_MS=1000 HOLYSHEEP_RETRY_BACKOFF_MULTIPLIER=2 HOLYSHEEP_RETRY_MAX_BACKOFF_MS=10000

Model preferences per task type

HOLYSHEEP_MODEL_PLAN="claude-sonnet-4-5" HOLYSHEEP_MODEL_CODE="gpt-4.1" HOLYSHEEP_MODEL_REVIEW="gemini-2.5-flash" HOLYSHEEP_MODEL_CHEAP="deepseek-v3.2"

Configuring Cline to Use HolySheep

Cline supports custom API endpoints through its settings panel. The critical configuration is pointing Cline's model provider to HolySheep's unified relay instead of direct OpenAI/Anthropic endpoints.

# Cline settings JSON (~/.cline/settings.json)
{
  "apiSettings": {
    "customApiBaseUrl": "https://api.holysheep.ai/v1",
    "apiKey": "YOUR_HOLYSHEEP_API_KEY",
    "customModelId": "gpt-4.1"
  },
  "agentSettings": {
    "enableMultiModelRouting": true,
    "modelRoutingRules": {
      "PLAN": "claude-sonnet-4-5",
      "CODE": "gpt-4.1",
      "REVIEW": "gemini-2.5-flash",
      "TEST": "deepseek-v3.2"
    }
  }
}

Building the Plan-Then-Code Pipeline with Auto-Retry

The core pattern for reliable agentic workflows is separating planning from execution. The planner model (typically Claude Sonnet 4.5) generates an execution plan, then the coder model (GPT-4.1) implements it with bounded retry logic.

#!/usr/bin/env node
/**
 * HolySheep Multi-Model Agent with Auto-Retry and Quota Hard Isolation
 * Supports Plan-Then-Code workflow pattern
 */

const https = require('https');
const { HttpsAgent } = require('agentkeepalive');

class HolySheepAgent {
  constructor(apiKey, options = {}) {
    this.apiKey = apiKey;
    this.baseUrl = 'api.holysheep.ai';
    this.maxRetries = options.maxRetries || 3;
    this.backoffMs = options.backoffMs || 1000;
    this.backoffMultiplier = options.backoffMultiplier || 2;
    this.maxBackoffMs = options.maxBackoffMs || 10000;
    this.quotaLimit = options.quotaLimit || null; // USD, null = unlimited
    this.spentThisPeriod = 0;
    
    this.httpsAgent = new HttpsAgent({
      maxSockets: 100,
      maxFreeSockets: 10,
      timeout: 60000,
      keepAliveTimeout: 30000,
    });
  }

  // Exponential backoff sleep
  async sleep(ms) {
    return new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms));
  }

  // Check quota before making request
  checkQuota(estimatedCost) {
    if (this.quotaLimit === null) return true;
    if (this.spentThisPeriod + estimatedCost > this.quotaLimit) {
      throw new Error(
        QUOTA_EXCEEDED: Project quota of $${this.quotaLimit} exceeded.  +
        Current spend: $${this.spentThisPeriod.toFixed(2)},  +
        estimated cost: $${estimatedCost.toFixed(2)}
      );
    }
    return true;
  }

  // Unified API call with auto-retry
  async chat(model, messages, systemPrompt = '', temperature = 0.7) {
    const estimatedCost = this.estimateCost(model, messages);
    this.checkQuota(estimatedCost);

    let lastError;
    let currentBackoff = this.backoffMs;

    for (let attempt = 0; attempt <= this.maxRetries; attempt++) {
      try {
        const response = await this.makeRequest(model, messages, systemPrompt, temperature);
        
        // Track actual spend (estimated, real cost from response headers)
        const actualCost = this.parseCostFromResponse(response);
        this.spentThisPeriod += actualCost;

        console.log([HolySheep] ${model} | Attempt ${attempt + 1} |  +
          Latency: ${response.latencyMs}ms | Cost: $${actualCost.toFixed(4)} |  +
          Quota remaining: $${(this.quotaLimit - this.spentThisPeriod).toFixed(2)});

        return response;
      } catch (error) {
        lastError = error;

        // Don't retry on quota exceeded or auth errors
        if (error.code === 'QUOTA_EXCEEDED' || error.code === 'AUTH_FAILED') {
          throw error;
        }

        // Don't retry on last attempt
        if (attempt === this.maxRetries) {
          break;
        }

        console.warn([HolySheep] Retry ${attempt + 1}/${this.maxRetries}  +
          after ${currentBackoff}ms: ${error.message});

        await this.sleep(currentBackoff);
        currentBackoff = Math.min(
          currentBackoff * this.backoffMultiplier,
          this.maxBackoffMs
        );
      }
    }

    throw new Error(HolySheep request failed after ${this.maxRetries + 1} attempts: ${lastError.message});
  }

  estimateCost(model, messages) {
    // Rough estimation based on model pricing (2026 rates)
    const pricing = {
      'gpt-4.1': 8,              // $8 / MTok output
      'claude-sonnet-4-5': 15,   // $15 / MTok output
      'gemini-2.5-flash': 2.50,  // $2.50 / MTok output
      'deepseek-v3.2': 0.42,     // $0.42 / MTok output
    };

    const rate = pricing[model] || 8;
    const inputTokens = messages.reduce((sum, m) => sum + (m.content?.length || 0) / 4, 0);
    const estimatedOutputTokens = 2000; // Conservative estimate
    
    return (inputTokens / 1_000_000 * rate * 0.1) + (estimatedOutputTokens / 1_000_000 * rate);
  }

  parseCostFromResponse(response) {
    // HolySheep returns cost in X-Holysheep-Cost header (cents)
    const costHeader = response.headers?.['x-holysheep-cost'] || '0';
    return parseFloat(costHeader) / 100;
  }

  async makeRequest(model, messages, systemPrompt, temperature) {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
      const startTime = Date.now();

      const body = JSON.stringify({
        model,
        messages: [
          ...(systemPrompt ? [{ role: 'system', content: systemPrompt }] : []),
          ...messages
        ],
        temperature,
        max_tokens: 4096,
      });

      const options = {
        hostname: this.baseUrl,
        path: '/chat/completions',
        method: 'POST',
        headers: {
          'Content-Type': 'application/json',
          'Authorization': Bearer ${this.apiKey},
          'Content-Length': Buffer.byteLength(body),
        },
        agent: this.httpsAgent,
      };

      const req = https.request(options, (res) => {
        let data = '';

        res.on('data', chunk => data += chunk);
        res.on('end', () => {
          const latencyMs = Date.now() - startTime;

          if (res.statusCode !== 200) {
            try {
              const errorBody = JSON.parse(data);
              reject(new Error(errorBody.error?.message || HTTP ${res.statusCode}));
            } catch {
              reject(new Error(HTTP ${res.statusCode}: ${data.substring(0, 200)}));
            }
            return;
          }

          try {
            const parsed = JSON.parse(data);
            resolve({
              content: parsed.choices?.[0]?.message?.content || '',
              usage: parsed.usage,
              latencyMs,
              headers: res.headers,
            });
          } catch (e) {
            reject(new Error(JSON parse error: ${e.message}));
          }
        });
      });

      req.on('error', reject);
      req.setTimeout(60000, () => {
        req.destroy();
        reject(new Error('Request timeout after 60s'));
      });

      req.write(body);
      req.end();
    });
  }

  // Plan-Then-Code workflow
  async planThenCode(task) {
    console.log([Agent] Starting Plan-Then-Code for: ${task.substring(0, 50)}...);

    // Phase 1: Planning with Claude Sonnet 4.5
    const planResponse = await this.chat(
      'claude-sonnet-4-5',
      [
        { role: 'user', content: Create a detailed execution plan for: ${task} }
      ],
      'You are a senior software architect. Break down tasks into concrete, ordered steps. ' +
      'Include file paths, specific actions, and acceptance criteria.',
      0.3 // Low temperature for deterministic planning
    );

    const plan = planResponse.content;
    console.log([Agent] Plan generated (${plan.length} chars), proceeding to execution...);

    // Phase 2: Code execution with GPT-4.1
    const codeResponse = await this.chat(
      'gpt-4.1',
      [
        { role: 'user', content: Execute this plan:\n\n${plan} }
      ],
      'You are a senior developer implementing the provided plan. ' +
      'Generate complete, production-ready code. Include error handling.',
      0.7
    );

    return {
      plan,
      code: codeResponse.content,
      totalCost: this.spentThisPeriod,
    };
  }
}

// Usage example
async function main() {
  const agent = new HolySheepAgent(process.env.HOLYSHEEP_API_KEY, {
    maxRetries: 3,
    backoffMs: 1000,
    backoffMultiplier: 2,
    quotaLimit: 100, // $100 hard limit for this project
  });

  try {
    const result = await agent.planThenCode(
      'Build a REST API endpoint for user authentication with JWT tokens'
    );
    
    console.log('\n=== RESULT ===');
    console.log(Plan length: ${result.plan.length} chars);
    console.log(Code length: ${result.code.length} chars);
    console.log(Total cost: $${result.totalCost.toFixed(4)});
    
  } catch (error) {
    console.error([Agent] Fatal error: ${error.message});
    process.exit(1);
  }
}

main();

Project-Level Quota Hard Isolation

One of the most critical features for team deployments is the ability to hard-kill requests when a project exceeds its quota—not just warn, but actually prevent further API calls. This protects your entire organization from runaway spending in a single misconfigured agent.

#!/usr/bin/env node
/**
 * HolySheep Project Quota Manager
 * Implements hard isolation with automatic circuit breakers
 */

const EventEmitter = require('events');

class ProjectQuotaManager extends EventEmitter {
  constructor(projects) {
    super();
    // projects: Map of projectId -> { limit: USD, spent: USD, status: 'active'|'blocked' }
    this.projects = new Map(
      Object.entries(projects).map(([id, config]) => [
        id,
        { limit: config.limit, spent: 0, status: 'active', blockedAt: null }
      ])
    );
    this.globalSpent = 0;
  }

  // Check if project can make a request
  canRequest(projectId, estimatedCost) {
    const project = this.projects.get(projectId);
    
    if (!project) {
      throw new Error(UNKNOWN_PROJECT: Project ${projectId} not found in quota manager);
    }

    if (project.status === 'blocked') {
      return {
        allowed: false,
        reason: 'QUOTA_BLOCKED',
        message: Project ${projectId} is blocked. Exceeded $${project.limit} limit  +
          at ${project.blockedAt}. Contact admin to reset.,
        quotaInfo: this.getQuotaInfo(projectId),
      };
    }

    const projectedSpend = project.spent + estimatedCost;
    
    if (projectedSpend > project.limit) {
      // Hard block: don't even attempt the request
      project.status = 'blocked';
      project.blockedAt = new Date().toISOString();
      this.emit('quota_exceeded', { projectId, limit: project.limit, spent: project.spent });
      
      return {
        allowed: false,
        reason: 'QUOTA_EXCEEDED',
        message: Request would exceed project quota.  +
          Limit: $${project.limit}, Current: $${project.spent.toFixed(2)},  +
          Estimated: $${estimatedCost.toFixed(2)},
        quotaInfo: this.getQuotaInfo(projectId),
      };
    }

    return { allowed: true, quotaInfo: this.getQuotaInfo(projectId) };
  }

  // Record actual cost after API call
  recordSpend(projectId, actualCost, responseLatencyMs) {
    const project = this.projects.get(projectId);
    if (!project) return;

    const previousSpend = project.spent;
    project.spent = Math.min(project.spent + actualCost, project.limit * 1.01); // 1% buffer
    this.globalSpent += (project.spent - previousSpend);

    this.emit('spend_recorded', {
      projectId,
      previousSpend,
      currentSpend: project.spent,
      actualCost,
      responseLatencyMs,
    });

    // Check if approaching limit (80% threshold for warning)
    const utilizationRatio = project.spent / project.limit;
    if (utilizationRatio >= 0.8 && utilizationRatio < 1.0) {
      this.emit('quota_warning', {
        projectId,
        utilization: ${(utilizationRatio * 100).toFixed(1)}%,
        remaining: project.limit - project.spent,
      });
    }
  }

  // Reset project quota (admin function)
  resetProject(projectId, newLimit = null) {
    const project = this.projects.get(projectId);
    if (!project) {
      throw new Error(UNKNOWN_PROJECT: ${projectId});
    }

    const previousLimit = project.limit;
    if (newLimit !== null) {
      project.limit = newLimit;
    }
    project.spent = 0;
    project.status = 'active';
    project.blockedAt = null;

    this.emit('quota_reset', {
      projectId,
      previousLimit,
      newLimit: project.limit,
    });

    return { previousLimit, newLimit: project.limit };
  }

  getQuotaInfo(projectId) {
    const project = this.projects.get(projectId);
    if (!project) return null;

    return {
      projectId,
      limit: project.limit,
      spent: project.spent.toFixed(2),
      remaining: (project.limit - project.spent).toFixed(2),
      utilization: ${((project.spent / project.limit) * 100).toFixed(1)}%,
      status: project.status,
      blockedAt: project.blockedAt,
    };
  }

  // Get all projects status
  getAllStatus() {
    return {
      projects: Array.from(this.projects.keys()).map(id => this.getQuotaInfo(id)),
      globalSpent: this.globalSpent.toFixed(2),
    };
  }
}

// Integration with HolySheepAgent
class QuotaProtectedAgent {
  constructor(agent, quotaManager, projectId) {
    this.agent = agent;
    this.quotaManager = quotaManager;
    this.projectId = projectId;
  }

  async chat(model, messages, systemPrompt, temperature) {
    const estimatedCost = this.agent.estimateCost(model, messages);
    const check = this.quotaManager.canRequest(this.projectId, estimatedCost);

    if (!check.allowed) {
      throw new Error([${check.reason}] ${check.message});
    }

    try {
      const response = await this.agent.chat(model, messages, systemPrompt, temperature);
      
      // Record actual spend
      const actualCost = this.agent.parseCostFromResponse(response);
      this.quotaManager.recordSpend(this.projectId, actualCost, response.latencyMs);

      return response;
    } catch (error) {
      if (error.message.includes('QUOTA')) {
        this.quotaManager.emit('quota_error', {
          projectId: this.projectId,
          error: error.message,
        });
      }
      throw error;
    }
  }

  async planThenCode(task) {
    return this.agent.planThenCode(task);
  }
}

// Usage example
async function quotaDemo() {
  const quotaManager = new ProjectQuotaManager({
    'dev-team': { limit: 100 },
    'staging': { limit: 50 },
    'ml-pipeline': { limit: 200 },
  });

  // Listen to quota events
  quotaManager.on('quota_exceeded', (data) => {
    console.error(🚨 QUOTA EXCEEDED: Project ${data.projectId} hit $${data.limit} limit);
    // Here you would: notify Slack, create PagerDuty incident, etc.
  });

  quotaManager.on('quota_warning', (data) => {
    console.warn(⚠️ QUOTA WARNING: Project ${data.projectId} at ${data.utilization});
  });

  const agent = new HolySheepAgent(process.env.HOLYSHEEP_API_KEY);
  const devAgent = new QuotaProtectedAgent(agent, quotaManager, 'dev-team');

  console.log('Initial quota status:', quotaManager.getQuotaInfo('dev-team'));

  try {
    const result = await devAgent.planThenCode('Create a user authentication module');
    console.log('Task completed:', result.code.length, 'chars generated');
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Task failed:', error.message);
  }

  console.log('Final quota status:', quotaManager.getQuotaInfo('dev-team'));
}

quotaDemo();

Common Errors and Fixes

Error 1: "Authentication Failed - Invalid API Key"

Symptom: All requests return 401 with message "Invalid API key" despite having a valid key in your environment.

Cause: The HolySheep API key format requires the full key including any prefixes. Keys may also be cached from a previous session or misconfigured in Cline settings.

# Fix: Verify your API key format and source

1. Check your actual key from HolySheep dashboard

Keys look like: "hs_live_xxxxxxxxxxxx" or "hs_test_xxxxxxxxxxxx"

2. Verify environment variable is set

echo $HOLYSHEEP_API_KEY

Should output: hs_live_xxxxxxxxxxxx (not masked)

3. For Node.js, check you're loading .env correctly

require('dotenv').config(); // Must be at top of entry file console.log('API Key prefix:', process.env.HOLYSHEEP_API_KEY?.substring(0, 7));

4. In Cline settings, ensure no extra whitespace or quotes

CORRECT:

"apiKey": "hs_live_xxxxxxxxxxxx"

INCORRECT:

"apiKey": " hs_live_xxxxxxxxxxxx " (trailing space)

"apiKey": "Bearer hs_live_xxxxxxxxxxxx" (don't add Bearer prefix manually)

Error 2: "Quota Exceeded" After Successful Requests

Symptom: Project quota shows as exceeded even when you haven't made many requests, or quota resets aren't reflected immediately.

Cause: Quota tracking has eventual consistency (up to 5 seconds delay). The quota manager's estimate may differ from actual billing. Stale quota data in memory after reset.

# Fix: Implement quota sync and use confirmed spend tracking

class QuotaSyncedAgent {
  constructor(apiKey, projectId, quotaLimit) {
    this.baseAgent = new HolySheepAgent(apiKey);
    this.projectId = projectId;
    this.quotaLimit = quotaLimit;
    this.localSpent = 0;
    this.lastSyncTime = 0;
  }

  async syncQuota() {
    // Fetch real-time quota from HolySheep API (if available)
    // Otherwise trust local tracking
    const response = await fetch(https://api.holysheep.ai/v1/quota/${this.projectId}, {
      headers: { Authorization: Bearer ${this.baseAgent.apiKey} }
    });
    
    if (response.ok) {
      const data = await response.json();
      this.localSpent = data.used;
      this.lastSyncTime = Date.now();
      return data;
    }
    
    return { used: this.localSpent, synced: false };
  }

  async chat(model, messages, systemPrompt, temperature) {
    // Sync if stale (older than 30 seconds)
    if (Date.now() - this.lastSyncTime > 30000) {
      await this.syncQuota();
    }

    const estimatedCost = this.baseAgent.estimateCost(model, messages);
    const available = this.quotaLimit - this.localSpent;

    if (estimatedCost > available) {
      throw new Error(
        QUOTA_EXCEEDED: Need $${estimatedCost.toFixed(4)} but only $${available.toFixed(4)} available
      );
    }

    const response = await this.baseAgent.chat(model, messages, systemPrompt, temperature);
    this.localSpent += this.baseAgent.parseCostFromResponse(response);
    
    return response;
  }
}

Error 3: "Request Timeout After 60s" with Stable Network

Symptom: Requests consistently timeout at 60 seconds even though HolySheep reports <50ms latency. Works intermittently.

Cause: The Node.js HTTPS agent is dropping connections after idle timeout, or the request body is being sent before the connection is fully established. Large request bodies may also exceed default timeouts.

# Fix: Configure proper keep-alive and timeout handling

const { HttpsAgent } = require('agentkeepalive');
const { Agent: HttpsAgentFallback } = require('https');

// Improved HTTPS agent configuration
const httpsAgent = new HttpsAgent({
  // Connection pool settings
  maxSockets: 50,
  maxFreeSockets: 10,
  
  // Timeout settings (CRITICAL)
  timeout: 120000,        // Total socket lifetime (2 minutes)
  freeSocketTimeout: 30000, // Socket idle timeout (30 seconds)
  socketActiveTTL: 60000,   // Active socket TTL
  
  // Retry settings
  retries: 2,
  retryDelay: 100,
});

// For requests with large payloads
async function chatWithExtendedTimeout(agent, model, messages, timeout = 120000) {
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    const timer = setTimeout(() => {
      reject(new Error(Request timeout after ${timeout}ms));
    }, timeout);

    agent.chat(model, messages)
      .then(result => {
        clearTimeout(timer);
        resolve(result);
      })
      .catch(err => {
        clearTimeout(timer);
        reject(err);
      });
  });
}

// Usage
const agent = new HolySheepAgent(apiKey, { httpsAgent });
const result = await chatWithExtendedTimeout(agent, 'gpt-4.1', messages);

Error 4: Model Not Found or Unavailable

Symptom: "Model 'xxx' not found" errors for models that should be available, or inconsistent model availability across requests.

Cause: Model availability varies by account tier. Some models require specific plan upgrades. Model aliases may have changed in recent updates.

# Fix: Use model availability check before routing

const MODEL_AVAILABILITY = {
  'gpt-4.1': { minTier: 'pro', regions: ['us', 'eu'] },
  'claude-sonnet-4-5': { minTier: 'pro', regions: ['us', 'eu'] },
  'gemini-2.5-flash': { minTier: 'free', regions: ['us', 'eu', 'asia'] },
  'deepseek-v3.2': { minTier: 'free', regions: ['us', 'asia'] },
};

async function getAvailableModel(preferredModel, fallbackChain = []) {
  // Check if preferred model is available
  if (MODEL_AVAILABILITY[preferredModel]) {
    return preferredModel;
  }

  // Fall through chain
  for (const fallback of fallbackChain) {
    if (MODEL_AVAILABILITY[fallback]) {
      console.warn([HolySheep] Falling back from ${preferredModel} to ${fallback});
      return fallback;
    }
  }

  // Ultimate fallback
  console.warn([HolySheep] No preferred models available, using gemini-2.5-flash);
  return '