# Choose models and capabilities

Choose a model by task and interface, not by name alone. First list models with the current credential, then check the model details and run a small request using the selected interface.

| Task | Capability to check | Interface |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Text chat | Text generation | Chat Completions, Responses, or Messages |
| Image and text input | Vision or multimodal support | The matching chat interface |
| Retrieval vectors | Embeddings | Embeddings |
| Candidate ordering | Reranking | Rerank |

Model and provider configuration can change between environments. Treat a successful minimal request as the confirmation that the selected endpoint, model, and capability work together.